Customizing Data Files Locations

Example - Moving Journals

A common practice is to store the journals on a very fast drive to achieve better write performance. The following command will point the Journals directory of the Northwind database to a path on a different drive.

# Windows:
C:\RavenDB\Server\RavenData\Databases\Northwind>mklink /J Journals E:\Journals\Northwind

# Linux:
ln -s /mnt/FastDrive/Databases/Northwind/Journals ~/RavenDB/Server/RavenData/Databases/Northwind/Journals

Example - Moving Indexes

To store the data of all indexes of the Northwind database in the custom location, you can use the following command to to point the Indexes directory to a new location:

# Windows:
C:\RavenDB\Server\RavenData\Databases\Northwind>mklink /J Indexes D:\Indexes\Northwind

# Linux:
ln -s /mnt/FastDrive/Databases/Northwind/Indexes ~/RavenDB/Server/RavenData/Databases/Northwind/Indexes

Script example - Basic usage

The following is a very simple PowerShell script example, here only to show basic usage.
The script is Not modifying any file location, it will only print out the value of the script params into a text file.

# script.ps1

param([string]$userArg ,[string]$type, [string]$name, [string]$dataPath, [string]$tempPath, [string]$journalPath)
Add-Content $userArg "$type $name $dataPath $tempPath $journalPath\r\n"
exit 0

The output file outFile.txt is supplied as a user argument.
Add the script path and its user arguments to the settings.json file as follows:

{
    "Setup.Mode": "None",
    "ServerUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:8080",
    "License.Eula.Accepted": true,
    "Storage.OnDirectoryInitialize.Exec" :"powershell",
    "Storage.OnDirectoryInitialize.Exec.Arguments" :"c:\\scripts\\script.ps1 c:\\scripts\\outFile.txt"
}

When launching the server and creating the Northwind database with the Northwind sample data, the script is invoked every time a directory is created.
Each line in outFile.txt shows the values passed to the script when it was called.

{
System System C:\RavenDB\Server\System C:\RavenDB\Server\System\Temp C:\RavenDB\Server\System\Journals\r\n
Configuration Northwind C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Configuration C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Configuration\Temp C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Configuration\Journals\r\n
Database Northwind C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Temp C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Journals\r\n
Index Northwind C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Indexes\Orders_ByCompany C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Indexes\Orders_ByCompany\Temp C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Indexes\Orders_ByCompany\Journals\r\n
Index Northwind C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Indexes\Product_Search C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Indexes\Product_Search\Temp C:\RavenDB\Server\Databases\Northwind\Indexes\Product_Search\Journals\r\n
// ... + more lines per index folder created
}

Script example - Point Indexes to different location

The following bash script example will point the Indexes data to a new location.

If the environment type is other than 'Database' the script will exit.
Else, the script will create a soft link for the Indexes directory.

After the script is run, the Indexes link will reside under the Database directory (See Directory Structure).
The link will point to the new location set by variable $INDEXES_TARGET_DIR_NAME where all indexes' data will be written.

#!/bin/bash
# bash ./your-script USER_ARGS Database DB_NAME BASE_PATH TEMP_PATH JOURNALS_PATH

# Use directory names as defined on your machine
RDB_DATA_DIR="/var/lib/ravendb/data"
INDEXES_TARGET_DIR="/mnt/ravendb-indexes"

DIR_TYPE="$1"
DB_NAME="$2"

if [ "$DIR_TYPE" != 'Database' ]; then
exit 0
fi

INDEXES_SOURCE_DIR_NAME="${RDB_DATA_DIR}/Databases/${DB_NAME}/Indexes"
INDEXES_TARGET_DIR_NAME="${INDEXES_TARGET_DIR}/${DB_NAME}/Indexes"


if [ -d "$INDEXES_SOURCE_DIR_NAME" ] && [ ! -L "$INDEXES_SOURCE_DIR_NAME" ]; then
# If Indexes directory exists then exit - need manual handling
echo "FATAL: Directory $INDEXES_SOURCE_DIR_NAME already exists."
exit 1
fi

if [ -L "$INDEXES_SOURCE_DIR_NAME" ]; then
exit 0
fi

mkdir -p "$INDEXES_TARGET_DIR_NAME"

ln -s "$INDEXES_TARGET_DIR_NAME" "$INDEXES_SOURCE_DIR_NAME"

Add the script to the settings.json file as follows:

{
"Setup.Mode": "None",
"ServerUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:8080",
"License.Eula.Accepted": true,
"Storage.OnDirectoryInitialize.Exec" :"bash",
"Storage.OnDirectoryInitialize.Exec.Arguments" :"/scripts/your-script.sh"
}