control systems and relational databases

[Claude Saunders <saunders@aps.anl.gov>]

Hi All,
This is a general question to the community at large. The team(s) of 
people pulling together a vision for the ILC control system are curious 
about peoples opinions on running an accelerator control system that is 
dependent on an online relational database. Are there any (EPICS or 
otherwise) sites doing this? If so, how do you manage database service 
windows (both data servicing and OS/RDB patches) with regards to the 
machine run schedule?

If your site made a conscious choice not to do this, what were the 
primary arguments against it?

Any thoughts on this matter appreciated...

   regards,
     Claude Saunders