Run RavenDb as an external application

When you install Ucommerce we will include and run an embedded version of RavenDB to accomidate search and faceted search. In more advanced setups where you want to scale your application to run in multiple instances, the embedded version won't do. In that case, you need to seperate your ravenDB instance and your site. You can have RavenDB running as either an IIS application or a windows service that accepts incomming requests on urls.

Our recommendation is to have RavenDB running as a windows service. Fortunately deployment of RavenDB is the only thing we need to care about. From a techincal point of view we don't have to care if it is running embedded, as an IIS application or a windows service.

To seperate RavenDB from your website you need to:

Download the latest version of RavenDB version 2.x.

Deploy RavenDB as a windows service following this article.

How to deploy RavenDB as a windows service

Or if you prefer you can deploy it as an IIS application instead

How to deploy RavenDB as an IIS application

Last but not least you need to:

Configure Ucommerce to connect to an external RavenDB instance instead of the embedded version.

Configuring Ucommerce

Ucommerce comes with two providers for RavenDB, one for the embedded version, and one for connecting to an IIS version. Out of the box, the embedded one will be used. To change that, simply take the version of the component "SearchSessionProvider" and place it in custom.config The component is located in search.config under:

• "/sitecore modules/shell/ucommerce/configuration" for Sitecore
• "/umbraco/Ucommerce/configuration" for Umbraco

    
    
    	<component id="SearchSessionProvider"
    			service="UCommerce.Search.RavenDB.IRavenDbStoreProvider, UCommerce"
    			type="UCommerce.Search.RavenDB.RavenDbIisStoreProvider, UCommerce">
    		<parameters>
    			<DatabaseName>DatabaseName</DatabaseName>
    			<Url>Url</Url>
    		</parameters>
    	</component>
    
    

Now you need to provide a database name and a URL. The database name could be Ucommerce, but is a wild card and can basically be anything. RavenDB will automatically create the database if it doesn't exists. The url needs to point to the binding of the website or the hostname configured for the windowsservice as described in the articles above.

You're all set and should now be able to sconnect to an external RavenDB instead instead of the default embedded version as provided out of the box.

RavenDB License

To get the Ucommerce RavenDB license you will have to write us at [email protected].

After you receive the license file, all you need to do is place it in the root of folder where RavenDB is deployed.