Skip to content

Getting Started

Get up and running with FoundationDB in minutes.

  • Installation

    Install FoundationDB on Linux, macOS, or Windows.

    Install now

  • Quick Start

    Connect to FoundationDB and run your first transaction.

    Get started

  • First Application

    Build a complete application with FoundationDB.

    Build an app

What is FoundationDB?

FoundationDB is a distributed database designed to handle large volumes of structured data across clusters of commodity servers. It organizes data as an ordered key-value store and employs ACID transactions for all operations.

Key features:

  • ✅ ACID transactions across the entire cluster
  • ✅ Horizontal scaling to hundreds of nodes
  • ✅ High availability with automatic failover
  • ✅ Low latency for both reads and writes

Version Highlights

Highlights in 7.3

  • Redwood Storage Engine — Now production-ready as ssd-redwood-1 (renamed from ssd-redwood-1-experimental)
  • Gray Failure Detection — Improved detection of partial failures and degraded nodes
  • Physical Shard Support — Better control over data placement and movement

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

  • A supported operating system (Linux, macOS, or Windows)
  • At least 1GB of RAM available
  • Network connectivity (for cluster deployments)

Next Steps

After completing this section, continue to Core Concepts to understand how FoundationDB works under the hood.