Nintex Workflow installation involves creating Nintex content databases and mapping them to SharePoint content databases. Nintex content databases store workflow and task history.
For more information about database mapping for Nintex Workflow, see the following Nintex Connect article: Database Design Guide: Nintex Workflow.
During the planning phase, determine the optimal number of Nintex content databases for your workflow traffic. Ensuring a sufficient number of content databases can improve performance of the workflow engine across all site collections in the farm as well as facilitating backup, restore, and migration.
For site collections that use workflows, scale each SharePoint content database to one of the following levels of granularity, depending on the degree of traffic in your environment:
Multiple web applications per SharePoint content database
A single web application per SharePoint content database
Multiple site collections (in a single web application) per SharePoint content database
A single site collection (in a single web application) per SharePoint content database
For environments with high workflow traffic, we recommend using the most granular level: a single site collection in a single web application per SharePoint content database.
Following these guidelines optimizes performance by automatically distributing workflows to corresponding content databases, thereby helping to avoid workflow time-out issues.