Aspire requires that an application called the "CS Manager" (short for "Content Source Manager") be installed before you install any other Aspire applications. The CS Manager captures information about each of your content sources, and subsequently, each crawl that is performed over those sources.
The information gathered by the CS Manager is stored in a relational database. An internal, default database is supplied as part of Aspire, but for production systems, you will likely want to use your own external database (for more information, see Choosing the Relational Database for the CS Manager).
You will install the CS Manager and default RDBMS as part of the Tutorial for each data connector. This is fine for learning purposes.
Advanced Topics
Choosing the Relational Database for the CS Manager
Describes why you might choose an internal or external database, and how to set it up.
Available CSManager Servlet Commands
Programmer Notes
Content Source App Bundle
Detailed information on configuring the Content Source App Bundle