Mirroristas/bigchaindb
2
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb.git synced 2024-10-13 13:34:05 +00:00
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Merge pull request #651 from bigchaindb/update-introduction-in-docs

Browse Source 
Removed parts of the Introduction that were moved to BigchainDB project docs
This commit is contained in:
Troy McConaghy 2016-10-07 12:29:30 +02:00 committed by GitHub
commit a197d12a3c
1 changed files with 2 additions and 28 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

30
docs/source/introduction.md
View File

@ -2,35 +2,9 @@
This is the documentation for BigchainDB Server, the BigchainDB software that one runs on servers (but not on clients). This is the documentation for BigchainDB Server, the BigchainDB software that one runs on servers (but not on clients).
BigchainDB is a scalable blockchain database. That is, it's a "big data" database with some blockchain characteristics, including [decentralization](topic-guides/decentralized.html), [immutability](topic-guides/immutable.html) and [native support for assets](topic-guides/assets.html). If you want to use BigchainDB Server, then you should first understand what BigchainDB is, plus some of the specialized BigchaindB terminology. You can read about that in [the overall BigchainDB project documentation](https://bigchaindb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html).
You can read about the motivations, goals and high-level architecture in the [BigchainDB whitepaper](https://www.bigchaindb.com/whitepaper/). Note that there are a few kinds of nodes:
## Is BigchainDB Production-Ready?
No, BigchainDB is not production-ready. You can use it to build a prototype or proof-of-concept (POC); many people are already doing that.
BigchainDB is currently in version 0.X. ([The Releases page on GitHub](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/releases) has the exact version number.) Once we believe that BigchainDB is production-ready, we'll release version 1.0.
[The BigchainDB Roadmap](https://github.com/bigchaindb/org/blob/master/ROADMAP.md) will give you a sense of the things we intend to do with BigchainDB in the near term and the long term.
## Some Basic Vocabulary
There is some specialized vocabulary associated with BigchainDB. To get started, you should at least know what what we mean by a BigchainDB *node*, *cluster* and *federation*.
A **BigchainDB node** is a machine or set of closely-linked machines running RethinkDB Server, BigchainDB Server, and related software. (A "machine" might be a bare-metal server, a virtual machine or a container.) Each node is controlled by one person or organization.
A set of BigchainDB nodes can connect to each other to form a **cluster**. Each node in the cluster runs the same software. A cluster contains one logical RethinkDB datastore. A cluster may have additional machines to do things such as cluster monitoring.
The people and organizations that run the nodes in a cluster belong to a **federation** (i.e. another organization). A federation must have some sort of governance structure to make decisions. If a cluster is run by a single company, then the federation is just that company.
**What's the Difference Between a Cluster and a Federation?**
A cluster is just a bunch of connected nodes. A federation is an organization which has a cluster, and where each node in the cluster has a different operator. Confusingly, we sometimes call a federation's cluster its "federation." You can probably tell what we mean from context.
There are several kinds of nodes:
- A **dev/test node** is a node created by a developer working on BigchainDB Server, e.g. for testing new or changed code. A dev/test node is typically run on the developer's local machine. - A **dev/test node** is a node created by a developer working on BigchainDB Server, e.g. for testing new or changed code. A dev/test node is typically run on the developer's local machine.