A Notification Services application generates and distributes notifications from subscriptions and events. The event and subscription data, and the resulting notification data, are stored in a database. Notification Services also stores application metadata in this database.

You can use an existing database for the application database, or you can have Notification Services create a new database. If you use an existing database, you only need to define the database name and schema name. (If you specify other database properties, such as file names and file sizes, Notification Services ignores them.)

If you have Notification Services create a new database, you should fully define the database properties, such as file names, sizes, and locations. If you do not define the application database, Notification Services creates a new database for the application using the model database as a template. Unless you have customized the model database, these database settings might not provide the best performance for your application.

For recommendations on how to define an application database, see Database Considerations.

In SQL Server 2005, you can use any user database, including the instance database, for application data.

To use a specific database, you must specify the name of the database and a unique schema for all application objects. When you create the application (by creating the hosting instance), Notification Services creates the schema and all application tables, views, stored procedures, and other objects in that schema.

Because you can place more than one application in the same database, using a unique schema for each application separates objects of each application and avoids potential name conflicts with other database objects.

If the specified database does not exist when you create the instance of Notification Services, Notification Services creates a new database.

If you want Notification Services to create a new database for application data, you can do any of the following:

• Fully define the application database. You can specify the database name, schema name, filegroups, log files, default filegroup, and collation. If the database does not exist, Notification Services creates a new database using the specified properties and creates all application objects in the specified schema.
  
• Define the application database, specifying only a database name and schema name. If the database does not exist, Notification Services creates a new database with the specified name, creates the specified schema, and creates all application objects in the specified schema.
  
• Leave the application database undefined, specifying no database properties. Notification Services creates a new application database with the name <instanceName><applicationName> and creates all application objects in the dbo schema.
  

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