arangodb/Documentation/Books/Manual/GettingStarted

!CHAPTER Getting started

!SECTION Overview

This beginner's guide will make you familiar with ArangoDB.
We will cover how to

- install and run a local ArangoDB server
- use the web interface to interact with it
- store example data in the database
- query the database to retrieve the data again
- edit and remove existing data

!SUBSECTION Installation

Head to [arangodb.com/download](https://www.arangodb.com/download/),
select your operating system and download ArangoDB. You may also follow
the instructions on how to install with a package manager, if available.

Start up the server by running `arangod`.
 !TODO explain how to do that on all major platforms in the most simple way

For startup parameters, installation in a cluster and so on, see
[Installing](Installing/README.md).

!SUBSECTION Web interface

The server itself speaks REST and VelocyStream, but you can use the
graphical web interface to keep it simple. There's also
[arangosh](../Administration/Arangosh/README.md), a synchronous shell for
interaction with the server. If you're a developer, you might prefer the shell
over the GUI. It does not provide features like syntax highlighting however.

The web interface will become available shortly after you started `arangod`.
You can access it in your browser at http://localhost:8529 - if not, please
see [Troubleshooting](../Troubleshooting/README.md). It should look like this:

!SUBSECTION Databases, collections and documents

Databases are sets of collections. Collections store records, which are refered
to as documents. Collections are the equivalent of tables in RDBMS, and documents
can be thought of as rows in a table. The difference is that you don't define
what columns (or rather attribures) there will be in advance. Every document
in any collection can have arbitrary attribute keys and values. Documents in
a single collection will likely have a similar structure in practice however,
but the database system itself does not require it and will operate stable and
fast no matter how your data looks like.

Every server instance comes with a `_system` database.


!SECTION ArangoDB programs 

The ArangoDB package comes with the following programs:
<!-- TODO: the next link has gone away, bent it over. -->
- `arangod`: The [ArangoDB database daemon](../Administration/Configuration/Arangod.md).
  This server program is intended to run as a daemon process and to serve the
  various clients connection to the server via TCP / HTTP.
  
- `arangosh`: The [ArangoDB shell](../Administration/Arangosh/README.md).
  A client that implements a read-eval-print loop (REPL) and provides functions
  to access and administrate the ArangoDB server.
  
- `arangoimp`: A [bulk importer](../Administration/Arangoimp.md) for the
  ArangoDB server. It supports JSON and CSV.
  
- `arangodump`: A tool to [create backups](../Administration/Arangodump.md)
  of an ArangoDB database in JSON format.
   
- `arangorestore`: A tool to [load data of a backup](../Administration/Arangorestore.md)
  back into an ArangoDB database.
  
- `arango-dfdb`: A [datafile debugger](../Troubleshooting/DatafileDebugger.md) for
  ArangoDB. It is primarily intended to be used during development of ArangoDB.
  
- `arangobench`: A [benchmark and test tool](../Troubleshooting/Arangobench.md).
  It can be used for performance and server function testing.