Configuring Relationship Service

In the Relationship Service tab, you configure settings for the SBM Relationship Service, which enables you to view and analyze relationships between items in separate applications.

Note: This topic only applies to Serena Release Control or Serena Service Manager installations. To enable Relationship Service functionality, you must install Serena Release Control or Serena Service Manager 5.0 or later.

The Relationship Service graph database is a set of files that are stored on the file system in a special format that is not human readable. The location of these files is specified in the Database location (described below). When the Relationship Service database is initially created, no tables are added to the Application Engine database—they are two separate databases. Data from the Application Engine database is copied to the graph database; however, the databases remain distinct and do not share any files.

The Relationship Service and database are installed on the server that hosts SBM Common Services. Therefore, there is only one active Relationship Service instance per SBM instance.

For multi-environment installations (composed of development, staging, and production servers), each environment should have its own dedicated Relationship Service instance because each environment can only run one instance of SBM Common Services. Use the Manage Services tab in SBM Configurator to stop and start the SBM Relationship Service.

Important: Serena recommends that you wait to start the SBM Relationship Service on the Manage Services tab until after you have finished promoting all of the Serena Release Control process apps. This service does not start automatically when you click Apply to finish the configuration process.

The Status section displays the current status and activity of the Relationship Service. For example, if you have never started the SBM Relationship Service on the Manage Services tab, the Relationship Service database is empty and not in use. That information is reported in the status section. After you start the service and the initial loading of data begins, the status is updated.

In the Database Server Settings section, enter the HTTP port that will be used to connect to the Relationship Service database. The default port value is 7474.

In the Database Settings section, configure the following settings:

Confirm or change the Database location that hosts the Relationship Service database. The default location is:
```
installDirectory\Serena\SBM\Common\RelationshipService\data\graph.db
```
This database stores the relationships that exist between items in separate applications. Click Change to specify a different directory. The Change database location dialog box contains the following options:
- Copy existing database to this location – After the initial load is finished, and the database has been successfully created, you can select this option to copy the database to another location (for example, if the size of the database requires that you specify a different directory). You must click Apply to begin the actual copy process.
- Start new initial load in this location – Select this option to initialize a new loading process in another location. You must click Apply to begin the actual loading process.
- Use existing database in this location – Select this option to enter the location of an existing Relationship Service database. In this scenario, the initial load is not performed again; instead, after the Relationship service is started the existing database is used.
Important: Serena recommends that you maintain a one-to-one relationship between the Relationship Service database and the Application Engine database. This means that if you connect to a different Application Engine database, you should also change the Database location for the Relationship Service database. This ensures that the same Relationship Service database is not used with multiple Application Engine databases, and that each Application Engine database has its own corresponding Relationship Service database.
Enter a Backup Location for the Relationship Service database.
Tip: Once the backup database file has been created, consider saving it to another server or separate partition in order to safely preserve your data.
Click Backup Now to create a backup copy of the database immediately in the directory that you specify.
Tip: Use this option if you need to create a backup of the database folder and move it to a new machine. For example, if you decide to create a cluster for SBM Common Services and as a result, you need to migrate the Relationship Service database to a new server, use the Backup Now option to create a backup of the directory that you need to move.
Click Schedule to open the Scheduler window and configure the backup frequency.

Configuring Relationship Service in a Tomcat Cluster

You can improve Relationship Service performance by clustering the SBM Common Services component on multiple servers. When you create a cluster for SBM Common Services, the Cluster Settings group box appears in the Relationship Service sub-tab.

Each node in the cluster is capable of running Relationship Service; however, only one node in the cluster can run the service. You will enter the database settings on this node. All other nodes in the cluster must know the location of the node that will run the Relationship Service. No other Relationship Service configuration is required on these nodes.

To configure Relationship Service in a Tomcat cluster:

Define the nodes in your SBM Common Services cluster according to the steps described in Clustering Tomcat Server Components.
On the node that will run the Relationship Service, select the local host name in the drop-down list that appears.
On each node that will not run the service, select the host name of the node that will run the service.
Click Apply to save your changes.

Configuring Relationship Service

Configuring Relationship Service in a Tomcat Cluster

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