Huawei GaussDB

GaussDB is a DBMS developed by Huawei, which can be spread over multiple computers, thereby eliminating the storage and performance bottlenecks inherent in a single computer. GaussDB is based on PostgreSQL. Huawei started working on the GaussDB project in 2011, which was named after German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Huawei describe GaussDB as an "AI-Native" DBMS. By this, they are referring to the DBMS' ability to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to self-tune, diagnose faults automatically, and self-heal.

GaussDB is cross-platform and runs on machines with diverse architectures: Arm- and x86- based processors as well as GPUs (graphics processing units) and NPUs (neural processing units, which are hardware accelerators designed to boost artificial intelligence applications).

GaussDB is available as a standalone software package, as part of a private cloud, or as a managed service on Huawei's public cloud.

The public cloud form of GaussDB is called Data Warehouse Service (DWS). Huawei provide graphical and non-graphical client applications that enable users to work with DWS data. To access DWS data from other applications, you need to use either ODBC or JDBC.

ODBC provides a uniform, cross-DBMS interface and insulates applications from the database by using middleware known as an ODBC driver to translate the application's requests into something that the database understands. Huawei provide an ODBC driver for DWS, which is available for both Windows and Linux platforms.

Because GaussDB is based on PostgreSQL, it can also be accessed by using the open source PostgreSQL ODBC driver.

Easysoft also provide a PostgreSQL ODBC driver for Windows, Linux and AIX platforms (other platforms available on request). The Easysoft PostgreSQL ODBC driver is supported, which means that we will assist you with any initial installation or configuration issues as well as ongoing support to keep you up and running, should the hardware you're running Easysoft drivers on fail or change. We can also change the driver, should this be a viable way to meet your data access requirements.

If you need to access GaussDB from a platform that you cannot obtain a Huawei or PostgreSQL ODBC driver for, you can try using the Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge. The ODBC-ODBC Bridge is a client/server product. You install the server component on the machine where the Huawei or PostgreSQL ODBC driver is installed. You install the client component on the machine where your application is running. The client then passes the ODBC requests via the server to the ODBC driver. Data returned to the ODBC driver is passed to the client application from the Bridge server via the client.

If you want to connect to DWS from a Java application, you need to use JDBC. JDBC is the Java equivalent of ODBC, and enables access by using a JDBC driver rather than an ODBC driver.

You can use either the Huawei JDBC driver or the PostgreSQL JDBC driver to access DWS from a Java application. You need Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.6 or later on the client machine where the Java application is located.

If you are using GaussDB in an embedded environment where you can only use the Huawei JDBC driver for client access, Easysoft provide another connectivity option, if you're using an application that only supports ODBC. You can use the Easysoft ODBC-JDBC Gateway. The gateway provides an ODBC driver for the client application and a Java application for the JDBC driver. The gateway translates ODBC requests to JDBC requests, assuming the target JDBC driver is capable of supporting the requested functionality.