In the past weeks our team has often received requests about best practices with regards to database installations for SAP Sourcing/CLM. The main questions which have been posted via customer support as well as SCN is: "Is SAP Sourcing/CLM required to be on the same or a separate database from the Application Server NW Java?". The short answer would to this question would be: "It is technically feasible to install on the same database instance, but it is strongly recommended to install on a separate database"
When purchasing a license to deploy SAP Sourcing/CLM on-Premise, the recommendation from a technical perspective is to use one database for the application server (NetWeaver Java) and one database for the application itself. There are several reasons why this is a good idea:
- Potential performance improvements
- Less constraints in planning and execution of upgrade strategy
- Easier version control since NetWeaver and SAP Sourcing do not have to use the same DBMS version
- Higher flexibility in backup and restore strategy
- Pick a DBMS such as SQL Server or MAX DB for Netweaver but ONLY DB2 and Oracle are supported for Sourcing / CLM.
For further references on the installations procedures, please read the installations guides on the Service Marketplace (www.service.sap.com/eso). Our team has also contributed some more knowledge on best practices related to the database usage: