1. A database management system for a logical database comprised of data records organized into tables to be accessed from multiple transactional nodes that process transactions related to the logical data base, said system comprising: A) means for parsing the database into fragments wherein each fragment stores a portion of the metadata and/or data pertaining to the logical data base for transfer within the database management system as serialized messages and for storage as a de-serialized message, B) at least one archival node that stores all the fragments in a de-serialized form in permanent storage thereby to constitute a single store for the entire data base, wherein each transactional node comprises: i) means for responding to queries from users by establishing a sequence of low-level commands for identifying fragments that are relevant to the query, ii) means for responding to the low-level commands by obtaining only those copies of existing fragments that are relevant to the query being processed thereat whereby a given fragment might exist at some other node or only at an archival node, and iii) means for replicating any changed fragment to the at least one archival node and each transactional node in which a copy of that fragment resides whereby changes are made to fragments in other nodes on a peer-to-peer basis and whereby any transactional node only contains those fragments that pertain to the queries being made users accessing the data base through that transactional node.