[rules-users] architectural question: accessing large dataset from rdbms?

[Scott Finnie]

Hi,

As a drools newbie, I'm grappling with the above question; any help much 
appreciated.  To elaborate:

  - We have a largish dataset (~50GB+) stored in an rdbms (oracle).
  - we're considering using drools to implement business rules (e.g. for 
data validation constraints and derivations).
  - the issue is how to give the rulebase efficient & scalable access to 
the db.  It would potentially need to access the whole dataset, since 
business rules can potentially affect all tables.

We've done an artificial pilot with a much smaller dataset, simply by 
syncing the entire db into the rulebase.  Users like it because they can 
read the rules directly (using a DSL).  Before we go any further however 
we need to find a scaling strategy before we go any further.

We were thinking about some kind of caching strategy: conceptually the 
rulebase would have a cache hit failure causing data to be loaded from 
the db.  However we've no idea if that's a practical option, or if 
there's something better.

Hope that makes sense; any help much appreciated.  Oh, and btw, thanks 
for a great piece of software!

  - Scoot.