What Is the Multi-Database System?

The Multi-Database System (MDBS) is an umbrella term for the components that support interaction between Lawson and the data, both customer application and Lawson metadata, that is stored in an RDBMS. These components include the database driver and the client APIs, both of which are discussed in this section.

In addition to being the mechanism for persistent storage for Infor Lawson Core Technology and the 4GL/RPG applications, the MDBS provides the following features to the Lawson system:

• Functionally isolates applications from databases. Lawson business applications do not need to have knowledge of a particular relational database management system (RDBMS). This, in turn, lets Lawson customers choose the RDBMS they prefer to use (from among the supported platforms, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle).

• Leverages RDBMS-specific functionality. The MDBS takes advantage of features specific to each supported RDBMS to optimize performance.

• Caches database records to reduce retrieval time. The MDBS performs an analysis of an application's use of data to cache sufficient data in the client API at runtime.

The MDBS is involved in every transaction or request for data that occurs in the system. The interaction between the MDBS and other components that support data retrieval appear in other sections of this document, in particular the chapter that covers transaction process. Batch and Online Transaction Processing