Top 7 Free Open Source Database Server

Open Source Server based database management systems have become a common choice for organizations over the stand alone desktop databases. The server based databases or RDBMS such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server are designed to be used on servers and it can be easily shared by multiple users.

Most evidently, server-based DBMS are used in nonprofit sector for Web-based databases. Some of these organizations use server based DBMS for their interactive Websites, providing content and data to their sites. Server-based DBMS also hold a purpose to underlie large shared databases, such as financial packages and client management databases.

Now for those using Access in their organization may set up a Linux-based database and use an ODBC (Open Data Base Connectivity) connection between the desktop Access databases and the server database. This would imply that Access is used on the front end and make the back-end more robust and secure with server based database. After an extensive research we sorted out the top 7 Open Source Server based database management systems, have a look.

1. MySQL

For a web based use MySQL is the top choice, as it is the most often the only DBMS available in virtual hosting accounts. It runs on several platforms. It allows users to download the server and client software as well as a MySQL ODBC diver and a bunch of other MySQL tools from this page. MySQL is simpler and smaller, and therefore generally faster than other databases servers.

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2. PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an Open Source server-based database management system that runs well on UNIX based systems such as Linux. It is much more robust, scalable, and standards compliant than MySQL, and it can handle multiple transactions easily. However, the Postgres Plus Standard Server supports the most popular environments, including Linux 32, Linux 64, Windows, and Mac OS X.

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3. Firebird

This is an Open Source relational database offering many ANSI SQL-92 features that runs on Linux, Windows, and several Unix platforms. It features high SQL compliance, stored procedure and other advanceddatabase features.

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4. GNU SQL Server

SQL Server is a free portable multi-user relational database management system. GNU SQL Server supports the SQL89 dialect and some extensions from SQL92. It offers multiuser access and transaction based on predictive locks. Thedatabase system runs smoothly in UNIX OS and its working language is based on C. Moreover, it also uses RPC, shared memory and message queues.

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5. SAP MaxDB

It is one of the popular open source database management system developed and supported by SAP AG. It runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux and Unix, and for the other prominent hardware platforms. For those organizations undergoing SAP implementation MaxDB ensure that yourdatabase migration goes smoothly.

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6. ScimoreDB

It is a free distributed RDBMS designed for high load OLTP and Terabyte OLAP warehouses. The server is build to take advantage of parallelization over multipleservers. It helps to achieve a near linear scalability for OLTP applications. It can support up to 512 PC's in a single database cluster.

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7. DXstore database system

This is a database management system designed for Linux, FreeBSD, and other operating systems. The database system is distributed in embeddable C or C++ library and shares with them the model of a database as a collection of key/value pairs. It has an entirely new design and implementation. Moreover its functionality has been extended.

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Top 7 Free Open Source Database Server

MySQL 5.0 New Features: Data Dictionary

Whenever I want to show actual code, such as something that comes directly from the screen of my mysql client program, I switch to a Courier font, which looks different from the regular text font.

For example:

mysql> CREATE TABLE table1 (column1 INT);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

When the example is large and I want to draw attention to a particular line or phrase, I highlight it with a double underline and a small arrow on the right of the page.

For example:

mysql> CREATE VIEW v AS
    -> SELECT column1 AS c /* view col name is c */
    -> FROM table1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

Sometimes I will leave out the mysql> and -> prompts so that you can cut the examples and paste them into your copy of the mysql client program. (If you aren't reading the text of this book in a machine-readable form, try looking for the script on the mysql.com web site.)

All of the examples in this book were tested with the publicly-available alpha version of MySQL 5.0.3 on the SuSE Linux operating system (version 9.1). By the time you read this, the version number will be higher and the available operating systems will include Windows, Sparc, and HP-UX. So I'm confident that you'll be able to run every example on your own computer. But if not, well, as an experienced MySQL user you know that help and support is always available.

A Definition and an Example

Standard SQL (SQL:2003) provides a method of accessing database metadata through a schema called INFORMATION_SCHEMA. Until now, MySQL has provided metadata only through a series of SHOW commands. SHOW, however, has two disadvantages:

1. SHOW commands are non-standard; they are specific to MySQL.
2. SHOW commands require that you learn an entire set of commands to be able to access the metadata you need.

In contrast:

1. Use of INFORMATION_SCHEMA is standard SQL; thus alleviating some problems that may occur in porting applications from one DBMS to another. For example, Microsoft SQL Server also supports INFORMATION_SCHEMA, while IBM DB2 supports a similar structure, albeit with different names.
2. The tables in INFORMATION_SCHEMA can be queried via a SELECT statement, just as regular tables can be queried; thus there is no need to learn a new set of commands to be able to access the metadata you need.

So MySQL AB made the decision to implement support for the INFORMATION_SCHEMA. Effective with MySQL 5.0.2, your MySQL installation will automatically contain a schema (usually called a database in MySQL parlance) called INFORMATION_SCHEMA; it contains a set of views that allow you to look at (but not change) the description of your database objects just as if the descriptions are regular SQL data. Here is an example:

mysql> SELECT table_name, table_type, engine
    -> FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.tables
    -> WHERE table_schema = 'tp'
    -> ORDER BY table_type ASC, table_name DESC;
+------------+------------+--------+
| table_name | table_type | engine |
+------------+------------+--------+
| t2         | BASE TABLE | MyISAM |
| t1         | BASE TABLE | InnoDB |
| v1         | VIEW       | NULL   |
+------------+------------+--------+

Terminology Notes

Metadata refers to data about the data. For example, the name of a table and the data type of a column is metadata. There are two other terms that are often used as synonyms for metadata:

1. Data dictionary
2. System catalog

I won't be using those terms in this book.

Using INFORMATION_SCHEMA

MySQL now has a new "database" named INFORMATION_SCHEMA. It is a virtual database only; there will never be a need to create a file by that name, and the MySQL server itself creates and populates the tables therein. It is not possible to USE INFORMATION_SCHEMA; nor is it possible to UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE, or even REFERENCE the INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables. The only action possible is SELECT.

Privileges

Accessing the INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables does not require a special privilege: the SELECT privilege on each table is automatically granted to every user.

Thus, there is no difference between the current (SHOW) privilege requirement and the SELECT requirement. In either case, you have to have some privilege on an object in order to see the metadata information about that object.

MySQL 5.0 New Features: Data Dictionary