Installation of Pega Platform creates a single Database data instance, identifying the PegaRULES database. You can create additional database data instances to hold Pega Platform objects, or to allow Pega Platform to access external databases.
After you complete a database data instance, you can create Database Table data instances to associate the relational tables and views in that database with Pega Platform classes.
Use the Databases form to identify databases or to change database connection properties such as the name, location, or password.
You can use the Modify a Database Schema wizard to examine the table structure of a database identified by a database data instance. (In addition, if the database account identified in the Database data instance has the appropriate privileges, you can modify the database schema to expose properties using this wizard.)
Your Pega Platform server requires a vendor-specific JDBC driver library to connect to an external database. If the database you are to define requires a library not yet installed, follow these steps before attempting to connect to the database:
Consult database vendor installation instructions for more details.
Use Connect SQL rules (Rule-Connect-SQL rule type) to access relational databases other than the PegaRULES database.
Your Pega Platform server can use a JNDI datasource to access the PegaRULES database, using the database/databases/pegarules/dataSource element in the prconfig.xml file. See the Installation Guide for your platform for instructions.
Vendor-supplied tools can help debug JDBC connections. For suggestions and a list of links to tools, see PDN article Troubleshooting JDBC problems with tools from Pegasystems and others.