Introduction

This topic covers the purpose, benefits, and common questions & answers for using a database with PrizmDoc.

Database Recommendations & Requirements

The purpose of this section is to provide you with an overview of the database recommendations and requirements for both PrizmDoc Server and PAS based on release versions:

PrizmDoc Release v14.0 (and previous versions) - A database is required for the PrizmDoc Server and PAS functions as noted in the Release v14.0 & Previous Versions section below.
PrizmDoc Release v14.1-v14.3 - This includes the database requirements from v14.0 (and previous versions), plus the new requirements listed below.
PrizmDoc Release v14.4 (and later versions) - A database is recommended, but not required to start PrizmDoc. If you are using PAS for viewing sessions, then a database is still required for storing file metadata.

Release v14.0 & Previous Versions

For release v14.0 and previous versions, a database is required for the PrizmDoc Server and PAS functions noted below:

PrizmDoc Server
- Workfile sharing requires a database for storing file metadata and requires S3 storage for storing files. Shared workfile storage, if enabled by workFiles.sharedStorage.type, may use up to 1 KB per work file. The number of work files kept by PrizmDoc can be roughly estimated as the number of documents uploaded by users per day, multiplied by workFiles.lifetime days.
- Online and Offline Metered licensing for MySQL only (this may use up to 100 KB of storage).
PAS
- V2 viewing packages require a database for storing file metadata (MySQL or SQL Server). File content can be either stored on the disk, S3, or Azure blob storage.
- Shared document and markup cache file metadata can be stored either locally or in the database (MySQL or SQL Server). File content can be either stored on the disk, S3, or Azure blob storage.
- Online and Offline Metered licensing (MySQL or SQL Server).

Release Versions v14.1-v14.3 Only

This section provides FAQs to explain in detail why a database is now required by default. Note that releases v14.1-v14.3 still require all the database requirements from v14.0 (and previous). These new requirements do not replace the previous requirements.

New Requirements

What is the new requirement for versions v14.1-v14.3? Starting with v14.1, we require using a database with PrizmDoc.
Why was the database requirement introduced with v14.1 and not v14.0? With v14.0, we focused on delivering improved Microsoft Office rendering, modular licensing, and security improvements. We wanted to announce future breaking changes in the v14.0 release to allow our customers ample time to prepare for a smooth transition.
Are there plans to support other SQL Servers in the future? PAS supports Microsoft’s SQL Server. Currently, PrizmDoc Server does not, but that may change in a future release.
Do you foresee any issue with the MySQL database existing in the AWS Aurora service? No, there shouldn’t be any issue using Aurora since it was designed to support MySQL.

Release Version v14.4 (and later)

This section provides details of the benefits, size & storage, and usage of a database and why we recommend you use one with this version of PrizmDoc.

Benefits

What are the benefits of the new database recommendation? Currently, you can use Hybrid Viewing to view documents faster and with less storage space. For more details, refer to Get Started with Hybrid Viewing. For the future, we want to increase reliability, security, performance, scalability, and ease of use:
- Eliminate server affinity by default. Removing the need for server affinity simplifies the API and allows PrizmDoc to more effectively balance the load between servers in a cluster. Currently, if a server in a cluster does some work on a file, only that server has access to that work. Anything else involving that file has to be sent to that specific server. If we can store that work in the shared database instead, then any server in the cluster can do more work on that file, and the API user doesn't need to pass that affinity token everywhere to say "only this server can work on this file".
- Make viewing packages a default part of all viewing activities, to allow a seamless upgrade to new product versions that introduce significant rendering improvements that otherwise would cause annotation misalignment issues (v14 - Office and HTML).
- Make it easier to add other enterprise solutions that may require database use.
What are the security benefits for moving to v14.x that will not exist in future releases of v13.28? The v14.0 release contains a substantial update to LibreOffice which addresses a number of security issues which will not be addressed in v13.28 as those updates would result in breaking changes to fidelity. Similarly, updates to HTML rendering have been made in v14.1 which will not be addressed in v13.28 due to breaking changes.

Size & Storage

How many databases are recommended? Only a single database is recommended in most cases, although it is possible to run different databases for PrizmDoc Server and PAS. If you have a hybrid cluster (for example, multiple instances of PrizmDoc on both Windows and Linux), we recommend the Windows and non-Windows instances use different databases.
What size database do I need and how much storage is needed? For both PrizmDoc Server and PAS, a MySQL database running on a system of 2-4 cores, with 8-16GB of RAM will meet most customer's needs. Storage will depend on licensing type, the use of the shared work file storage, and the complexity of documents when creating Viewing Packages. For example, assuming an average of 20 pages per document, expect roughly 200 KBs of database storage to be used per legacy viewing package, and roughly 5 KBs of database storage per PDF-only viewing package. Note that the PDF-only Viewing Packages will consume much less storage than the traditional Viewing Packages. We recommend testing storage usage with a representative set of customer documents to assess the usage needed.
What is stored in the database?
- PrizmDoc Server - Temporarily stores information on shared work files and metered licensing usage information:
  - Workfile sharing requires a database for storing file metadata and requires S3 storage for storing files. Shared workfile storage, if enabled by workFiles.sharedStorage.type, may use up to 1 KB per work file. The number of work files kept by PrizmDoc can be roughly estimated as the number of documents uploaded by users per day, multiplied by workFiles.lifetime days.
  - Online and Offline Metered licensing for MySQL only (this may use up to 100 KB of storage).
- PAS - Metered licensing usage information, Annotations, and Viewing Package metadata if viewing packages are used:
  - V2 viewing packages require a database for storing file metadata (MySQL or SQL Server). File content can be either stored on the disk, S3, or Azure blob storage.
  - Shared documents and markup are only stored as a file on either a filesystem, S3, or Azure blob storage. Refer to Storage Entities & Storage Providers for more information.
  - Online and Offline Metered licensing (MySQL or SQL Server).

Usage

Do we need to create the database in MySQL by ourselves or will it be created while installing Prizm Server or PAS? No, you do not need to create the database in MySQL by yourself. You will need an empty database, a user with permissions for that empty database, and the database server must be running (no setup scripts need to be run). PrizmDoc Server and PAS will automatically set up the database. For more information on the permissions required, refer to Configure the Central Database for PrizmDoc Server and Database Admin & Maintenance for PAS.
Where do we specify the connection string for the MySQL database? The connection string needs to be in the PrizmDoc Server and PAS's central configuration files: prizm-services-config.yml for PrizmDoc Server and pas\pcc.win.yml for PAS.
- If you're installing on Windows, the PrizmDoc Server and PAS wizards will prompt you for the connection string, so you don't need to modify the configuration manually.
- If you are installing on Linux, we recommend you use a separate Docker container with the database (PrizmDoc Server - Docker image and PAS - Docker image). You will need to create a user with the necessary permissions so that PrizmDoc can use it to access the database over the network. You will also need to modify the PrizmDoc Server and PAS central configuration files. For Kubernetes, our hello-prizmdoc-viewer-with-kubernetes sample provides an example manifest for the database. Note that you can also use a database service provided by a cloud provider, such as AWS Aurora.
Do we need to consume or update anything in the database while using PrizmDoc Server? No, you don’t need to manually update or use anything in the database. It's for internal PrizmDoc use only.
Will there be any changes on the API side or will it be the same as how we used them in the previous versions? The API has not changed due to the database recommendation. The API may change in the future for improvements like removing affinity tokens.
Are there any viewer side changes needed to support MySQL in PrizmDoc v14.1+? PAS also now requires a database, but apart from that there are no client or viewer changes due to requiring a database.
For the PAS database setup, a script is provided and reviewed by advanced users to better understand the use case. Is there a similar script our database administrator could review for the Central Database? PAS requires setting up database tables in advance, so we are shipping those scripts for customers to run. PrizmDoc Server sets up all database tables automatically, so we are not shipping database setup scripts for it. Once PrizmDoc Server starts up, a database administrator can inspect the tables it created.