Tenable Security Center Database Journaling Modes

By default, Tenable Security Center databases that can significantly impact performance use write-ahead logging (WAL) journaling mode. All other databases use DELETE mode. Tenable Security Center also supports converting WAL journaling mode databases to DELETE mode.

For Tenable Security Center installations where WAL is not enabled, enabling WAL may resolve issues with excessive database locks. If your Tenable Security Center does not experience database locking issues, Tenable recommends leaving your Tenable Security Center databases in the default journaling mode.

Tenable strongly recommends performing a backup before converting database journaling modes and performing regular backups after converting database journaling modes. For more information, see Backup and Restore.

For general information about SQLite3 database journaling modes, see the SQLite3 documentation.

For more information, see:

Note: If you previously converted one or more Tenable Security Center databases to WAL journaling mode without using the convertDatabaseMode.php script, you must use the convertDatabaseMode.php script to ensure your Tenable Security Center databases are fully converted to WAL journaling mode.

WAL Requirements

Note: Write-ahead logging mode typically uses more disk space than DELETE mode. Consider your disk space availability before enabling write-ahead logging. Tenable recommends the same amount of disk space that is occupied by the database.

In addition to the requirements to run Tenable Security Center, your Tenable Security Center installation must be running Tenable Security Center 5.19.x or later.

Databases Affected

Enabling or disabling WAL converts the database journaling mode for the following Tenable Security Center databases:

  • /opt/sc/application.db

  • /opt/sc/hosts.db

  • /opt/sc/jobqueue.db

  • /opt/sc/plugins.db

  • /opt/sc/remediationHierarchy.db

  • /opt/sc/orgs/<orgID>/organization.db (for each organization in your Tenable Security Center)

  • /opt/sc/orgs/<orgID>/assets.db (for each organization in your Tenable Security Center)

The convertDatabaseMode.php script only converts the database journaling mode for Tenable Security Center databases that can significantly impact performance.