Help to understand the need for multiple CD databases for Discovery, XPM and normal Broker with SDL Web 8

Question

I am trying to work may way through a new install of SDL Web 8 for the first time. I have successfully installed the CM side, and I am now looking at the CD side. I am following the instructions here: http://docs.sdl.com/LiveContent/content/en-US/SDL%20Web-v1/GUID-A1A8D2A1-7B2E-4FD0-8A81-908CAC1D133F

I noticed that the documentation says that I need to run 'Install Content Data Store.ps1' three times to create three databases (for Broker, Discovery Service and XPM).

I understand why we need separate DBs for Broker and XPM (this was the case with Tridion 2013 also), but why does the Discovery Service need it's own database with the same table design?

Can I reuse the Broker database for the Discovery Service?

Answer 1

Yes you can re-use the Broker database for the discovery-service. The reason why we provide it separately is so in the future we can have different options. You can imagine you can register different capabilities in the discovery-service that perhaps do not require a broker db in the future.

Also putting this in a different database offers different maintenance models for backup, restore etc. If you put it all in one database you need to always combine your maintenance windows.