Choosing an SQL Server
======================

Since Evennia uses `Django <http://djangoproject.com>`_, most of our
notes are based off of what we know from the community and their
documentation. While the information below may be useful, you can always
find the most up-to-date and "correct" information at Django's `Notes
about supported
Databases <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/databases/#ref-databases>`_
page.

SQLite
------

This is the default database used, and for the vast majority of sites
out there, will probably be more than adequate. No server process is
needed, the administrative overhead is tiny (as is resource
consumption). The database will appear as a simple file
(``game/evennia.db`` by default). Purging your database is just a matter
of deleting this file and re-running the database creation commands in
GettingStarted.

It is not tested how well Evennia performs with SQLite under a heavier
load, but it should probably be fine given the relative simplicity of
our applications.

**Note:** If you run Windows and for some reason need to use a
third-party web server like Apache rather than Evennia's internal web
server, sqlite is probably not be the best choice. This is due to the
possibility of clashes with file-locking of the database file under
Windows.

Postgres
--------

This is Django's recommended DB engine, and the one that we recommend
for all sites aspiring to grow to a larger size. While not as fast as
SQLite for simple purposes, it will scale infinitely better than SQLite,
especially if your game has an extensive web presence.

MySQL
-----

While perfectly reasonable to deploy under, the MySQL driver for Django
has some very slight oddities (at the time of this document's writing)
that probably don't affect our usage case that much (if at all). Make
sure you look at the aforementioned `Notes about supported
Databases <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/databases/#ref-databases>`_
page for the latest on this.

MySQL **may** be slightly faster than Postgres depending on your setup
and software versions involved.

Others
------

No testing has been performed with Oracle, but it is also supported.
There are community maintained drivers for `MS
SQL <http://code.google.com/p/django-mssql/>`_ and possibly a few others
(found via our friend, Google).