The global configuration database contains definitions
of the common set of attributes that control functional characteristics
of the collection of resources and services for the FileNet® P8 domain it represents.
The global configuration database provides hierarchical object
storage and contains bootstrap data and global configuration information
for the FileNet P8 domain.
The global configuration database defines domain resources such as
object store databases, full-text index areas, fixed content storage
areas, content cache areas and marking sets. The global configuration
database can contain sensitive information.
Only specified users or groups, typically administrators, have
read and write access to the data contained within the global configuration
database.
The information that is stored in the global configuration database
is essential to
Content Platform Engine.
When a
Content Platform Engine server
is started, the global configuration data is read, and the data is
cached in memory. If the global configuration database becomes unavailable,
the
Content Platform Engine system
can continue processing in a limited mode as long as the information
is available in memory. The global configuration data is managed as
follows:
- When the global configuration database is available, configuration
data is read from it and stored in memory. Content Platform Engine is fully functional
in this mode. The in-memory copy is refreshed from the global configuration
database every few minutes. A file-based copy is written on the local Content Platform Engine server when the server
first starts and whenever the data is refreshed after a global configuration
database update.
- When the global configuration database is not available, an already
active Content Platform Engine server
can continue processing requests by using in-memory data, if the requests
do not require an update to the global configuration database. Operations
that require an update to the global configuration database cannot
be completed and an error (E_GCD_NOT_AVAILABLE) is written to the
system log. In this limited mode, most administrative and configuration
changes are prohibited. After the global configuration database becomes
available again, the Content Platform Engine server
will automatically reconnect and resume processing in a fully functional
mode.
- If the global configuration database is not available upon startup, Content Platform Engine can start by using
the local file-based copy and can process requests in the limited
mode until the global configuration database becomes available again.
- If both the global configuration database and a local file-based
copy are unavailable, Content Platform Engine fails
to start. In this case, access to the global configuration database
must be restored.