Database best practices

Guidewire recommends the following best practices for the PolicyCenter application database.

Database tables

For Oracle databases, keep the Oracle default settings as much as possible. For example, do not set a 4K block size. Consult with Guidewire if you want to change the default Oracle settings.

Do not insert data directly into tables managed by PolicyCenter. This can cause the data distribution tool to fail and cause other problems.

Do not add large numbers of mediumtext and CLOB columns to a table.

Do not add an index outside of PolicyCenter and not declare it in an extension file.

Database maintenance

If you need to perform any database maintenance tasks, such as applying a patch, shut down all PolicyCenter servers that connect to the database. Restart the servers after the database maintenance is complete.

Run consistency checks on the database, especially after importing data.

Back up the database periodically to support disaster recovery options.

Monitor storage performance. If I/O (input/output) times are slower than 10ms, it indicates that there is most likely an issue.

Monitor tablespace size allocations and disk space to ensure that PolicyCenter does not run out of space.

Update database statistics periodically so that the query optimizer selects an efficient plan for executing application queries.