Database considerations during WebSphere Commerce instance creation

Three aspects need to be considered for setting up the database portion of a WebSphere Commerce instance.

Setting up the database and in some cases, the table spaces. You can have the instance creation process skip the setup step if your organization chooses to customize the database.
Creating the basic schema (the tables, indexes, and so on, that are used by WebSphere Commerce). This step can be customized. You can have the instance creation process skip this step if your organization chooses to customize the schema.
Creating triggers and populating the objects inside the schema. This step cannot be skipped.

As a part of the WebSphere Commerce instance creation process, the Configuration Manager

Creates the WebSphere Commerce instance database.
Creates the WebSphere Commerce schema.
Automatically populates the objects in the database for you.

You can choose to create a new database or use an existing database. You can also choose to create a new schema or use an existing schema. You cannot choose to skip the creation of the triggers or the loading of the data.

If you want to use an Oracle database, create and configure the Oracle database for use with WebSphere Commerce before you install WebSphere Commerce.

Note: You cannot use a pre-populated database from a previous or existing WebSphere Commerce instance. Even if you skip the database and schema creation steps (by selecting use existing database and use existing schema in the Instance Creation wizard), the instance creation process always attempts to create database triggers and load all bootstrap data. If the triggers exist, then the instance creation fails. Any existing data in the database would be overwritten.

If you are using an existing database, the database user ID must be the same as the schema name. Do not use a database user ID that is different from the schema name.

The option to skip database and schema creation exists so that your database administrator can have more control over the creation of the database and the schema. The option is not meant to allow an existing WebSphere Commerce database to be used with a new WebSphere Commerce instance.

To use an existing database, you must customize it so that it can be used with the WebSphere Commerce instance. To manually create a WebSphere Commerce database, use the information that is contained in the following topics as a reference.