started topic on setup

Still need to discuss zconfig

documentation/guide/install-and-run.rst

+===========================
+Installing and running ZODB
+===========================
+
+This topic discusses some boring nitty-gritty details needed to
+actually run ZODB.
+
+Installation
+============
+
+Installation of ZODB is pretty straightforward using Python's
+packaging system. For example, using pip::
+
+  pip install ZODB
+
+You may need additional optional packages, such as `ZEO
+<https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ZEO>`_ or `RelStorage
+<https://pypi.python.org/pypi/RelStorage>`_, depending your deployment
+choices.
+
+Configuration
+=============
+
+You can set up ZODB in your application using either Python, or
+ZODB's configuration language.  For simple database setup, and
+especially for exploration, the Python APIs are sufficient.
+
+For more complex configurations, you'll probably find ZODB's
+configuration language easier to use.
+
+To understand database setup, it's important to understand ZODB's
+architecture.  In particular, ZODB separates database functionality
+from low-level storage concerns. When you create a database object,
+you specify a storage object for it to use, as in::
+
+    import ZODB, ZODB.FileStorage
+
+    storage = ZODB.FileStorage.FileStorage('mydata.fs')
+    db = ZODB.DB(storage)
+
+So when you define a database, you'll also define a storage. In the
+example above, we define a :class:`file storage
+<ZODB.FileStorage.FileStorage.FileStorage>` and then use it to define
+a database.
+
+Sometimes, storages are created through composition.  For example, if
+we want to save space, we could layer a ``ZlibStorage``
+[#zlibstorage_]_ over the file storage::
+
+    import ZODB, ZODB.FileStorage, zc.zlibstorage
+
+    storage = ZODB.FileStorage.FileStorage('mydata.fs')
+    compressed_storage = zc.zlibstorage.ZlibStorage(storage)
+    db = ZODB.DB(compressed_storage)
+
+`ZlibStorage <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/zc.zlibstorage>`_
+compresses database records using the compression algorithm used by
+`gzip <http://www.gzip.org/>`_.
+
+Python configuration
+--------------------
+
+To set up a database with Python, you'll construct a storage using the
+ref:`storage APIs <included-storages-label>`, and then pass the
+storage to the class:`~ZODB.DB` class to create a database, as shown
+in the examples in the previous section.
+
+The class:`~ZODB.DB` class also accepts a string path name as it's
+storage argument to automatically create a file storage.  You can also
+pass ``None`` as the storage to automatically use a
+:class:`~ZODB.MappingStorage.MappingStorage`, which is convenient when
+exploring ZODB::
+
+  db = ZODB.DB(None) # Create an in-memory database.
+
+
+.. [#zlibstorage_] `zc.zlibstorage
+   <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/zc.zlibstorage>`_ is an optional
+   package that you need to install separately.