# Perspective SCADA database **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** ignition83, perspective, database\ **Created:** [February 16, 2026, 11:12am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982 "2026-02-16T11:12:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ab992/32.png) [@Arr](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Arr)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 11:12am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/1 "2026-02-16T11:12:35Z")
Hi, I am developing a SCADA system for up to 4000 tags in total to show the trends of and about 400 parameters for recipes in total. My question is which type of database (e.g. Postgre, MSSQL) is the best? SCADA will not exchange any data with any ERP system. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 1:01pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/2 "2026-02-16T13:01:08Z")
> [@Arr](#): > > which type of database You describe what I would consider a very light load. Any of the major brands, free and not, should work fine. I happen to treat Microsoft products like the plague, but your mileage may vary. ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_Bingham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Chris\_Bingham](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Chris_Bingham)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:05pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/3 "2026-02-16T14:05:34Z")
Another option in 8.3 is the built-in Core Historian (QuestDB). I would choose this option only if you are planning to install the database on the same server as Ignition. If not using the Core Historian, plan to use separate resources. The 'which database' decision often involves many people, and those that will be maintaining the system often carry the largest vote. As in, if 'the company' has a team of (1 or more) DB admins which specialize in MSSQL, then MS is an obvious choice. As a personal preference, each time I have the option to work with Postgres, I look forward to it. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Stone](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/david_stone/32/79749_2.png) [@David\_Stone](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/David_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/4 "2026-02-16T19:16:46Z")
Core Historian is a waste of time here, he has non historical data to store, so he needs a normal DB ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_Bingham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Chris\_Bingham](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Chris_Bingham)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 7:39pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/5 "2026-02-16T19:39:58Z")
> [@David\_Stone](#): > > he has non historical data to store Good point. Though, the addition of a SQLite DB could be an option for recipe management. šŸ˜¶ā€šŸŒ«ļø ---
**Author:** ![Arr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ab992/32.png) [@Arr](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Arr)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 7:39am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/6 "2026-02-17T07:39:01Z")
Are there many resources that will help me work with Postgre (manuals, community)? ---
**Author:** ![andrew.budaiev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/andrew.budaiev/32/72921_2.png) [@andrew.budaiev](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/andrew.budaiev)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 8:47am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/7 "2026-02-17T08:47:48Z")
You can check Inductive University. It has basics on how to configure connection to the DB and videos on typical SQL operations in Ignition. ---
**Author:** ![Matrix\_Engineering](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/matrix_engineering/32/19781_2.png) [@Matrix\_Engineering](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Matrix_Engineering)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:27am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/8 "2026-02-17T10:27:55Z")
Disclaimer: Iā€™ve never tried PostGres in my life, but Iā€™ve heard feedback that itā€™s the nerdy nerds choice of database. Iā€™m a MariaDB man. Word on the street is, MariaDB is easier to get started with than PostGres. Depends on your background I guess, my degree is in Mechatronics not Comp Sci. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 1:35pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/9 "2026-02-17T13:35:18Z")
> [@Matrix\_Engineering](#): > > nerdy nerds choice of database. And their clued-in bosses. It isn't an accident that both Google BigData and Amazon RedShift are proprietary tweaks of PostgreSQL. ---
**Author:** ![pascal.fragnoud](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pascal.fragnoud/32/24728_2.png) [@pascal.fragnoud](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pascal.fragnoud)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 2:25pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/10 "2026-02-17T14:25:22Z")
Give it a shot, it's really not more complicated than mariaDB. But make sure to do some google-fu (or LLM-fu if that's your kink) to find what to do differently (ie: use `text` everywhere instead of `varchar`) ---
**Author:** ![JordanCClark](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jordancclark/32/83362_2.png) [@JordanCClark](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/JordanCClark)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 2:25pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/11 "2026-02-17T14:25:50Z")
> [@Matrix\_Engineering](#): > > nerdy nerds choice of database. \ ---
**Author:** ![Matrix\_Engineering](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/matrix_engineering/32/19781_2.png) [@Matrix\_Engineering](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Matrix_Engineering)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 2:29pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/12 "2026-02-17T14:29:36Z")
Iā€™ll spin it up in dockerā€¦somedayā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![michael.flagler](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/michael.flagler/32/26272_2.png) [@michael.flagler](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/michael.flagler)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 3:41pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/13 "2026-02-17T15:41:58Z")
PostgreSQL + TimescaleDB (TigerDB) = Amazing Historian Solution!! I'm in the process of starting up a gas plant, and so our historical data is increasing as things come online, but here I have data set to compress after a week, but you can see how much compression TimescaleDB gets on the data. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/5/d/5d89ca5646f55d895ae69beee74ac628ae88b2d3.png) ---
**Author:** ![Arr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ab992/32.png) [@Arr](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Arr)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 9:28am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/14 "2026-03-19T09:28:26Z")
But in general is Core Historian good? If it is good there would be no problem with having postgre for recipes and Core Historian for trends ---
**Author:** ![David\_Stone](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/david_stone/32/79749_2.png) [@David\_Stone](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/David_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 9:53am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/15 "2026-03-19T09:53:05Z")
All depends on scale, if you have a single gateway and site only owns a single server, use core historian. If you have multiple servers, use Postgres for all the database needs, core historian is just wasting money on license fees for a product that is inferior to the externally hosted products. ---
**Author:** ![diat150](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a587f6/32.png) [@diat150](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/diat150)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 4:22pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/16 "2026-03-19T16:22:25Z")
thats pretty impressive. when you use postgres timescale db can you also use postgres for normal database functions inside of the database? I guess I am wondering if you need to create a separate database specifically for timescale db or if you can select which tables to use for timescale db only. ---
**Author:** ![bkarabinchak.psi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bkarabinchak.psi/32/83567_2.png) [@bkarabinchak.psi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bkarabinchak.psi)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 5:21pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/17 "2026-03-19T17:21:06Z")
Timescales an extension on postgres. You turn postgres tables into `hypertables` to utilize the timescale functionality but you donā€™t need to do that to every single table. ---
**Author:** ![diat150](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a587f6/32.png) [@diat150](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/diat150)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/18 "2026-03-19T19:31:48Z")
awesome. I will demo it soon. ---
**Author:** ![Arr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ab992/32.png) [@Arr](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Arr)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 8:02am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/19 "2026-04-21T08:02:53Z")
Yes, but as I can see the Ignition Historian module has both SQL historian and Core historian so using Core historian does not require spending more money on it ---
**Author:** ![David\_Stone](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/david_stone/32/79749_2.png) [@David\_Stone](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/David_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 8:45am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/perspective-scada-database/113982/20 "2026-04-21T08:45:31Z")
When they started announcing the "Solution Suites" the core historian was not included with the sql historian module. Unfortunately they have removed the individual modules from sale and you have to pay for both.