Administrators may customize the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) settings for each Document Store. JDBC is a java standard that allows for java applications such as the Blackboard Content System to connect to databases. The Blackboard Content System reads information from, and writes to the database using groups connections, also referred to as “pools” of connections. An item, or connection in a pool, allows a java thread to use database resources. Each request for data from end users usually consumes one item from the pool. However, there is not a one-to-one relationship between user requests and number of required connections. When the request is completed, the connection is freed up for another user.
If there are more database requests than available connections, the requests wait in a queue until a database connection is available.
Heavy usage of the Blackboard Content System typically requires increasing the maximum connection pool size. This would allow the database to process more requests simultaneously. However, making the maximum pool size too large may degrade the performance of the database because of the additional CPU and memory requirements. Decreasing the maximum pool size reduces the load on the database, but if it is too small, user requests might take longer to process because they would wait longer in a queue until connections are freed.
Institution may have unique usage patterns for each Document Store. For example, if users heavily use Virtual Hard Drive but do not use the Courses area, consider increasing the maximum connections for the /users Document Store, and decreasing this setting for the /courses Document Store.
Follow these steps to open the JDBC Settings page.
Open the Administrator Panel.
Select Technical Settings under Content System. The Technical Settings page will appear.
Click Document Stores. The Manage Document Store page will open.
Select Manage next to one of the Document Stores.
Select JDBC Settings.
The following fields are available on the JDBC Settings page.
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Field |
Description |
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JDBC Settings |
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Connection Expiration |
Occasionally, a connection will remain open but unusable. This is sometimes referred to a “hung java connection”. Automatically expiring all open connections ensures that hung connections eventually close. Enter the number of minutes a database connection will remain open before the system automatically closes it. New connections are created when needed, up to the Maximum Connections setting (below). |
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Maximum Connections |
Enter the maximum number of connections that can exist in the connection pool. If this number is too high, performance may decrease because the database server consumes more resources. If it is too low, requests may take longer to process because they might wait in a queue until a connection becomes available. |
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Minimum Connections |
Enter a minimum for the size of the database connection pool. |
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Dead Connection Timeout Period |
Enter the number of seconds before a ‘dead’ connection will time out and be removed from the pool. A dead connection is one that is not sending any activity between the database and the Blackboard Content System. |