General features
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## General features

- RefDB uses a three-tier architecture (see Figure 1.1, “RefDB three-tier architecture”), consisting of clients on the workstation side, and an application server as well as the SQL database server on the server side.

  Figure 1.1. RefDB three-tier architecture

  Optionally you may use an internal database engine instead of the external SQL server, resulting in a simpler two-tier setup.

- The data storage proper is done by a SQL database engine. Currently MySQL and PostgreSQL are supported as external database engines. Additionally, an internal SQL engine based on SQLite is available, which allows data storage in a single, operating-system and architecture-independent file without any administration overhead.

- By default, incoming data are converted to UTF-8 and stored as such (see Figure 1.2, “RefDB character encoding support”). Outgoing data can be converted to other character encodings if needed. However, RefDB can be set up in a very flexible manner to accommodate other character encoding requirements as long as they are supported by your operating system.

  Figure 1.2. RefDB character encoding support

- The server can run as a daemon in a non-privileged account if security concerns require this. Besides, users can start it as a standalone application on demand. As just about everything is configurable, a thoughtful setup will allow to run several copies of the server on the same box in parallel.

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