Scaling and configuring the xConnect Collection service role

Version:

The xConnect Collection service may experience high load from Content Delivery, or other client applications in the system that submit contact and interaction data.

Installation

Use the Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF) or the Sitecore Azure Toolkit (SAT) to install the xConnect Collection service role. Refer to the installation guide for your version of the platform for more information.

Scaling the xConnect Collection service

The following table describes the ways you can scale the xConnect Collection service:

Scaling option	Supported	Notes
Combined instance	Yes	The xConnect Collection service role can be combined with any other Experience Platform Service role. Common combinations are the xConnect Collection service, the xConnect Collection Search service, and the xConnect Search Indexer role. Note In a developer environment, all XP service roles can be combined into a single instance. This setup is not recommended in production.
Standalone instance	Yes	You can deploy xConnect Collection service as a standalone role.
High availability and failover	Yes	You can fail over to a passive instance or set up multiple active instances behind a load balancer.
Horizontal scaling for load distribution	Yes	You can set up multiple instances behind a load balancer. All instances must read from a single centrally located xDB Collection database (database sharding by geography is not supported).

The following general recommendations apply to all scaling scenarios:

Deploy the xConnect Collection service as close as possible to the xDB Collection database. It is more important to reduce latency between the service and the database than between the service and clients such as Content Delivery.

Note

In a developer environment, you can combine all XP service roles into a single instance. We do not recommended this setup in a production environment.

Performance tuning tasks

Consider the following performance tuning options to reduce the xConnect Collection service response time:

If you are using the xDB Collection SQL provider, consider switching to the TVP (Table-Valued Parameters) execution strategy (used by default in 9.3). The TVP strategy significantly improves read/write performance.

Note
You cannot use TVP with Always Encrypted, but you can and should still use TDE (Transparent Data Encryption) and TLS (Transport Layer Security).
Increase the size of data chunks returned from the repository. Increasing the settings reduces the number of requests to the database.
Review throughput from client applications – for example, adjust batch sizes and the frequency and schedule of requests.

Note

We recommend that you monitor load and response times across the platform before choosing to scale a particular role. Performance issues might be the result of a bottleneck elsewhere in the system.

Security configuration tasks

Refer to the xConnect Collection Search section of the Security guide.

Default topologies and packages

The following tables list the topologies that include the xConnect Collection role and how the role is packaged by default.

Sitecore Installation Framework

The xConnect Collection service is available in the following default topologies for SIF:

Topology	Web Deploy Packages	Description
XP Single	`Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (OnPrem)_xp0xconnect.scwdp.zip`	xConnect Collection is bundled with all other XP service roles.
XP Scaled	`Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (OnPrem)_xp1collection.scwdp.zip`	Standalone instance of xConnect Collection.

Sitecore Azure Toolkit

The xConnect Collection service is available in the following default topologies for SAT:

Topology	Web Deploy Packages	Description
XP Single	`Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (Cloud)_xp0xconnect.scwdp.zip`	xConnect Collection is bundled with all other XP service roles.
xDB Single
XP Scaled	`Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (Cloud)_xp1collection.scwdp.zip`	Standalone instance of xConnect Collection.
xDB Scaled

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