arangodb/Documentation/Books/Users/FirstSteps

What is ArangoDB?

For installation instructions, please refer to the Installation Manual.

As you know from the introduction ArangoDB is a multi-purpose open-source Database. Following you can see the Key features or look at the programs in the ArangoDB package.

Key features include:

• Schema-free schemata: Let you combine the space efficiency of MySQL with the performance power of NoSQL
• Application server: Use ArangoDB as an application server and fuse your application and database together for maximal throughput
• JavaScript for all: No language zoo, you can use one language from your browser to your back-end
• Flexible data modeling: Model your data as combination of key-value pairs, documents or graphs - perfect for social relations
• Free index choice: Use the correct index for your problem, may it be a skip list or a fulltext search
• Configurable durability: Let the application decide if it needs more durability or more performance
• No-nonsense storage: ArangoDB uses all of the power of modern storage hardware, like SSD and large caches
• Powerful query language (AQL) to retrieve data
• Transactions: Run queries on multiple documents or collections with optional transactional consistency and isolation
• Replication: Set up the database in a master-slave configuration
• It is open source (Apache Licence 2.0)

For more in-depth information:

• Read more on the Design Goals of ArangoDB
• Watch the video: Martin Schönert, architect of ArangoDB, gives an introduction of what the ArangoDB project is about
• Or give it a try

ArangoDB programs

The ArangoDB package comes with the following programs:

• arangod: The ArangoDB database daemon. This server program is intended to run as daemon process and to server the various clients connection to the server via TCP / HTTP. See Details about the ArangoDB Server
• arangosh: The ArangoDB shell. A client that implements a read-eval-print loop (REPL) and provides functions to access and administrate the ArangoDB server. See Details about the ArangoDB Shell.
• arangoimp: A bulk importer for the ArangoDB server See Details about Arangoimp.
• arangodump: A tool to create backups of an ArangoDB database. See Details about Arangodump.
• arangorestore: A tool to reload data from a backup into an ArangoDB database. See Details about Arangorestore.
• foxx-manager: A shell script to administer Foxx applications. See Foxx Manager
• arango-dfdb: A datafile debugger for ArangoDB. It is intended to be used primarily during development of ArangoDB. See @ref DbaManualDatafileDebugger