Core

Master

Web





Exm master





ExperienceForms

MarketingAutomation

Messaging

Processing.Pools

ProcessingEngineStorage

ProcessingEngineTasks

Processing.Tasks

ReferenceData

Reporting

Xdb.Collection.Shard0

Xdb.Collection.shardX

ShardMapManager





Recently a colleague of mine wanted to know what all the databases around a Sitecore installation are for. While there is some scattered info here and there, and you can find for each database appropriate documentation in the Sitecore docs, there was nowhere a complete (or near complete) overview. This post aims on providing some overview, which might still not be complete with regards to in depth information, but at least helps in getting a better picture.It represent an overview of Sitecore at version 9.2, so is subject to change in the future.Notice any discrepancy or missing database? Do give me a nudge and I'll add it.Contains all Sitecore's own item definitions that build up the content editor, and base templates, system items etc. If you want to extend Sitecore core functionality, this is where you go. Access through Sitecore admin desktop / content tree if switched to this database in desktop.All your implementation specific content items for content editing while in content editor or experience editor.All your published content items. This is what is served on your published url'sThe EXM database stores the email dispatch queue used by the EXM Dispatch roles to handle email generation and dispatching.Stores the email address of suppressed email recipients in the Suppressed table. Email addresses are removed when a contact executes the right to be forgotten.Contains all data collected by Sitecore forms used on your site. Where the data is linked to specific field id's of the form's definitions.Marketing automation. Contains all your marketing automation instance info. Which contact is enrolled to which plan, is in which state etc. including the pool of activities to process.The Message bus is a message transport mechanism which allows application roles to communicate across boundaries. Based on Rebus.This database stores the messages that are to be transportedContains references to contacts, interactions etc. that are queued for processing by one of the worker processes.Stores data related to Sitecore Cortex, like projection results and trained learning models.Stores tasks to be processed by Sitecore cortex processing engine.Stores processing tasks related to history aggregation and distributed processing.Reference Data is common data referenced by data used across the Sitecore Experience Platform, for example while collecting, processing, or reporting. Examples are marketing taxonomies such as Campaigns, Goals, and Outcomes, as well as IP Geolocation or device information.Contains aggregated results from xDB data that is used in dashboard/reports/diagrams in experience analytics.Contacts and their interactions and device profiles are stored here.Contacts and there interactions and device profiles are stored here. You can have as many shards as you want/configure for scalability.Shard manager keeps track of which parts of data are stored in which shard database, and informs your application layer to load which shard for which data.