what is the proper way to separate data in couchbase

Question

I am thinking of working with couchbase for my next web application, and I am wondering how my data should be structured, specifically the use of buckets. For example, assuming each user is going to have a lot of unique data, should a separate bucket be created for each user (maybe even for different categories of data)? Also I am wondering if there is any real advantage/disadvantage to separating data using buckets (aside from the obvious organizational benefit) instead of simply storing everything in one bucket.

Answer 1

You will not get any performance gain from using more or less buckets. The reason that Couchbase has buckets is so that it can be multi-tenant. The best use case I can think of for using multiple buckets is if you are a hosting provider and you want to have different users using the same database server. Buckets can be password protected and would prevent one user from accessing another users data.

Some people create multiple buckets for organizational purposes. Maybe you are running two different applications and you want the data to be separate or as you mentioned maybe you want to split data by category.

In terms of management though it is probably best to create as few buckets as possible for your application since it will simplify your client logic by reducing the amount of connections you need to Couchbase from you web-tier (client). For each bucket you have you must create a separate client connection.