FAQs#

Q: How can I help improve RelStorage?

A: The best way to help is to test and to provide database-specific expertise. Ask questions about RelStorage on the zodb-dev mailing list.

Q: Which relational database should I use?

A: If your organization already has a standard database server, use that one. It’ll work fine, and the advantages of a known quantity and in-house expertise can’t be overstated.

Otherwise, if you’re making a choice, the RelStorage maintainers would suggest PostgreSQL 11+, PostgreSQL 9.6+, MySQL 8.0+, MySQL 5.7.19+ or Oracle, in that order. (Consider SQLite for smaller deployments or testing.)

Oracle is not used in production by the RelStorage maintainers and tends to lag behind in feature development; it also does not fully support parallel commit. If possible, choose PostgreSQL. Oracle support may be deprecated and eventually removed.

Q: Can I perform SQL queries on the data in the database?

A: No. Like FileStorage and DirectoryStorage, RelStorage stores the data as pickles, making it hard for anything but ZODB to interpret the data. An earlier project called Ape attempted to store data in a truly relational way, but it turned out that Ape worked too much against ZODB principles and therefore could not be made reliable enough for production use. RelStorage, on the other hand, is much closer to an ordinary ZODB storage, and is therefore more appropriate for production use.

Q: How does RelStorage performance compare with FileStorage?

A: According to benchmarks, RelStorage with PostgreSQL is often faster than FileStorage, especially under high concurrency. See Performance for more.

Q: Why should I choose RelStorage?

A: Because RelStorage is a fairly small layer that builds on world-class databases. These databases have proven reliability and scalability, along with numerous support options.

Q: Can RelStorage replace ZRS (Zope Replication Services)?

A: Yes, RelStorage inherits the replication capabilities of PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Oracle.

Q: How do I set up an environment to run the RelStorage tests?

A: See Developing RelStorage.

Q: Why do I get DatabaseError: ORA-03115: unsupported network datatype or representation when using Oracle?

A: See the “driver” section of Oracle Adapter Options for more information.

Q: Is there anything I need to know about transactions?

A: Yes, see The Importance of Managing Transaction Lifetimes

Q: Is it important to close() the DB object?

A: Yes! Both FileStorage and RelStorage perform maintenance tasks when the database is closed. For more information, see The Importance of Closing The Database.