Configuring remote SQL Server database storage

You can deploy i2® Analyze with SQL Server database storage that is remote from the i2 Analyze server. When i2 Analyze is configured to deploy to a remote instance of SQL Server, the Information Store database can be created and updated remotely without the i2 Analyze deployment toolkit present on the server that hosts the SQL Server instance.

To deploy an i2 Analyze server that uses remote SQL Server database storage for the Information Store, you must install SQL Server on your database server, and the SQL Server client tools on your application server. SQL Server and the client tools must be installed according to the specifications defined in the i2 Analyze software prerequisites. For more information about installing the prerequisites, see Software prerequisites.

To deploy with remote storage, the deployment toolkit must contain certain information about your SQL Server installation. After you update the configuration, the specified database can be created and updated on the remote server by the deployment toolkit.

Edit the configuration\environment\topology.xml file to specify the details of your remote database:
1. Update the host-name, and either the port-number or instance-name, attribute values of the <database> element for the Information Store to match the values for SQL Server on your database server.
  If you are using SQL Server on Linux, you must use the port-number attribute.
2. Add the os-type attribute to the <database> element for the Information Store database. The value of the os-type is used to support the search functions for the Information Store.
  For example:
```
<database database-type="InfoStore" dialect="sqlserver" 
  instance-name="remote.instance.name"
  database-name="ISTORE" xa="false" id="infostore"
  host-name="remote.hostname" os-type="WIN" />
```
  Where the value for os-type is the operating system of the remote database server. The value of the os-type attribute must be one of the following values: UNIX or WIN.
For more information about the <database> element attributes, see Databases.
Edit the configuration\environment\opal-server\environment.properties file to specify the details of your remote and local installations of SQL Server:
1. Ensure that the value of the db.installation.dir property is set for the local installation of SQL Server or the Microsoft™ Command Line Utilities for SQL Server on the Liberty server.
2. Set the value of the db.database.location.dir property for the remote installation of SQL Server on the database server.
Ensure that the user that is specified for your database in the configuration\environment\credentials.properties file is valid for your remote installation of SQL Server on the database server.

When i2 Analyze is deployed, the Information Store database is created or updated on the remote database management system.

If the connection details for the remote database management system change, you can update the topology.xml file and redeploy the system.