Patent ID: 7752164

Claim:
A database appliance, comprising: a database server; a special purpose operating system having a set of components that include some, but not all, components of a general purpose operating system, whose configuration is dictated based on a set of services required by the database server; and a self-configuration module that is capable of performing the steps of: detecting an environment in which the database appliance is being used; and configuring the database appliance based upon the detected environment; wherein the database server is a special purpose database server; wherein features and configuration of the special purpose operating system are dictated by the special purpose database server and supporting components; wherein the special purpose database server is specially adapted based upon the services required by a specific type of database usage; wherein said type of database usage is one of an online transaction processing application or an online analytical processing application; wherein said database appliance is configured with an amount of resources dedicated to I/O services that is based on whether said specific type of database usage is an online transaction processing application or an online analytical processing application; and wherein said database appliance is configured with an amount of resources dedicated to computational services that is based upon whether said specific type of database usage is an online transaction processing application or an online analytical processing application.