Prerequisites to installing PolicyCenter on SQL Server

Create a separate SQL Server database for each Guidewire application. Sharing a database can result in naming conflicts for primary key constraints and indexes.

PolicyCenter requires that the collation of the SQL Server database specifies CI, or case-insensitive. The case-sensitivity setting affects table and column names, and PolicyCenter requires these names to be case-insensitive. During startup, PolicyCenter checks that the SQL Server database is case-insensitive.

PolicyCenter does not support non-ASCII characters in table names, column names, or other schema object names and qualifiers. Restrict SQL Server database schema object names and qualifiers to ASCII characters.

Decide whether to store other character data in single-byte format in varchar columns, or Unicode multi-byte format stored in nvarchar columns. If using Unicode, such as for Japanese, set the unicodecolumns attribute to true on the <sqlserver-settings> subelement of the <database> element in database-config.xml. Then, during the creation of database tables while starting the application server for the first time, PolicyCenter creates all character columns with the nvarchar datatype.

The collation setting specifies sorting and comparison rules, and also the code page to use for single-byte data. Microsoft still supports SQL Server collations (those that start with SQL_) in addition to Windows collations, but recommends using a Windows collation. Guidewire also recommends that you use a Windows collation. Choose the collation setting carefully. Refer to Collation and International Terminology at the following location for a full discussion:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143726.aspx

The version of Windows being used for the database and application server is a factor. Some newer collations, such as Japanese_Bushu_Kakusu_100, are only available on Windows 2007 or later and not on Windows 2003.

Creating a SQL Server database with files of sufficient size and parameters is important to future performance and maintenance. A basic discussion can be found online in a Microsoft SQL Server topic “Designing Databases” at the following location:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187099.aspx?ppud=4

For production systems, Guidewire strongly recommends that you pre-allocate disk space rather than using the SQL Server autogrowth feature. As a general guideline, estimate how big your database might grow in one year and add 20%. Then, allocate enough total file space for this size. Monitor the size of the database and add space during scheduled periods of lower activity. Set the maximum file size to be less than the size of the disk, so that the disk does not fill up.

For your production database, work with your SAN (Storage Area Network) engineers early in implementation to deliver production-realistic performance.

Guidewire recommends that you not share the SQL Server instance on which you are running PolicyCenter with other data or applications.