Technical Differences Between Server and Workgroup

Technical Differences Between Server and Workgroup

The Server engine and Workgroup engine have a few significant differences that this section explains.

The Server engine offers a 64-bit edition for Windows, Linux, and OS X. The Workgroup engine has only a 32-bit Windows edition. Although the Workgroup engine can be run on a 64-bit Windows operating system, it is restricted to an addressing space of only 4 GB and cannot take advantage of the larger amounts of memory typically installed on such systems. When the Workgroup engine is installed on a 32-bit operating system, it has an addressing space limit of 2 GB.

The Server engine for Windows is installed to run as a Windows service. The Workgroup engine can be installed to run as an application or as a service. By default, it is installed to run as a service for a fresh install. See Configuring the Workgroup Engine in Getting Started with PSQL. If installed to rsun as an application, the Workgroup engine uses a tray icon for an interface.

Authentication and Btrieve Security Policies

The Server engine enforces file permissions set up in the operating system. The Workgroup engine does not authenticate users on its own. If the Workgroup engine can access the computer on the network, it can get to the data. This relaxed security is intended for small offices where security is less of an issue and ease of use is more important.

The lack of operating system authentication with the Workgroup engine means that the Mixed security policy for Btrieve is the same as the Classic security policy. See Security Models and Concepts in Advanced Operations Guide. This difference in security policy is a behavior difference between the Server and Workgroup engines.

Gateway Support

The Workgroup engine creates locator files everywhere it opens files, both locally and remotely, allowing the engine to dynamically adjust gateway ownership daily. By default, the Workgroup engine also runs under a user ID, which can be authenticated on other computers and network devices. This makes the Workgroup engine ideal for use in a gateway environment. See Setting Up a Gateway Configuration in Getting Started with PSQL.

The Server engine does not always create or honor gateway locator files. As such, it is not designed or tested for use in a gateway environment. Therefore, replacing a Workgroup engine with a Server engine as a gateway in a workgroup environment is not supported.

Asynchronous I/O

The Server engine for Windows makes use of Asynchronous I/O. Furthermore, coalescing of database page writes is done only by the Server engine. These features can provide a significant performance advantage for the Server engine over the Workgroup engine during heavy I/O usage.

Default Configurations

The default values for some database settings (such as cache size and system cache) are different between Server engine and Workgroup engine. The default values for Workgroup engine settings are set to consume less system resources. See Configuration Reference in Advanced Operations Guide.

PSQL Server and PSQL Workgroup use a user count license model. PSQL Vx Server uses a capacity-based license model. See License Models in PSQL User's Guide.