About this interactive
The lesson compares the two:
- A file server shares files and folders: documents, spreadsheets, images, PDFs, installers. People open the files.
- A database server holds data, not files to open. Machines and apps connect to it to get the data, to query it and compile reports, and to relate data from different tables, such as customers and what they bought. Its data is structured: tables of records, one record per row. Commands such as SQL put data in and pull it out.
- In the lesson's web example, several web servers all use the same database server on the back end, so it does not matter which web server a client reaches.
A spreadsheet saved as a file and opened from a folder is a file server's job, even when it holds a list. Data stored as records for apps and queries to use is a database server's.
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