ApsaraDB for POLARDB

ApsaraDB for POLARDB is a cloud-native relational database compatible with MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle. POLARDB provides the performance and availability of traditional enterprise databases and the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of open source databases.

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POLARDB is designed for business-critical database applications that require fast performance, high concurrency, and automatic scaling. You can scale up to millions of queries per second and 100TB per database cluster with 15 low latency read replicas. POLARDB is six times faster than standard MySQL database, and delivers the security, reliability, and availability of traditional commercial databases at 1/10 the cost. POLARDB embodies the proven database technology and best practices honed over the last decade that supported hyper-scale events such as the Alibaba Double 11 Global Shopping Festival. On November 11, 2018, POLARDB successfully supported 1 billion orders in 24 hours, including sudden order spikes of 122 times in a second.

Benefits

Large storage capacity
ApsaraDB for POLARDB supports up to 100 TB of data. You can scale out an ApsaraDB for POLARDB instance up to 16 nodes. Each node supports up to 88 vCPUs. POLARDB also automatically adjusts the storage space based on your requirements. Fees are charged based on the storage that you use. After traditional databases reach terabytes of data, you must periodically migrate data and partition tables. ApsaraDB for POLARDB lowers development costs and increases the resource utilization rate.
Top performance and quick response to a sudden load
With compute and storage decoupled, CPUs, memory, and disks no longer depend on each other. The compute and storage nodes are optimized to increase the resource utilization rate. In scenarios that require high concurrency, the performance of ApsaraDB for POLARDB is six times higher compared with traditional MySQL databases. A single node can handle up to one million QPS. It takes less than five minutes to add a compute node. This assists ApsaraDB for POLARDB to quickly and flexibly balance a sudden business load.
High stability and data security
ApsaraDB for POLARDB uses the "one primary node, multiple replicas" architecture. All read/write and read-only nodes of the same instance access the same replica, which greatly reduces your storage costs. ApsaraDB for POLARDB also supports active/standby switchovers to prevent data loss. This avoids data inconsistency caused by asynchronous replication. Read-only replicas can be created within minutes. You can use the replicas to back up and restore data.
High compatibility
ApsaraDB for POLARDB is fully compatible with MySQL. You can migrate data to Alibaba Cloud without modifying the code. ApsaraDB for POLARDB will soon be fully compatible with the PostgreSQL and Oracle engines.

Features

Compute and Storage Decoupling

POLARDB has optimized the performance of CPUs and memory, and reduces the costs of storage.

Dedicated compute and storage features

Compute nodes (DB servers): execute SQL statements, read data, and write data. Storage nodes (data chunk servers): store data and database snapshots. Storage nodes are grouped into clusters.

Improves resource usage and computing performance

ApsaraDB for POLARDB is up to six times faster than traditional MySQL database in handling large amounts of concurrent queries. Each node can handle more than one million queries per second. It takes less than five minutes to scale out the number of compute nodes.

On-demand storage capacity

When you purchase an ApsaraDB for POLARDB cluster, you do not need to specify the storage space.

Shared storage

For ApsaraDB for POLARDB, all nodes in a cluster share the same replica stored on storage nodes.

Large storage capacity

Each ApsaraDB for POLARDB cluster supports to scale up to 100 TB and can be scaled out to up to 16 nodes. Each node can have up to 88 vCPUs.

Quick scale-out of read-only instances

You do not need to replicate data when adding read-only nodes. A read-only instance can be created in a few minutes.

Free storage for read-only instances

To add a read-only instance, you only need to pay for the compute nodes. There are no storage fees for the read-only instance.

RDMA-capable network and optimized backup feature

ApsaraDB for POLARDB supports RDMA-capable networks and the latest PAXOS block storage technology.

Quick data backup and recovery

ApsaraDB for POLARDB enables you to back up data in a few seconds. When a node fails, you can simply restart the process to resume the service.

A full backup within minutes

ApsaraDB for POLARDB features the copy-on-write technology that create a snapshot in a few seconds, or create a full copy of the data in a few minutes.

Zero data loss during primary and secondary switchovers

This resolves the issue of data inconsistency between read-only and read/write nodes caused by asynchronous replication.

Quick data migration

ApsaraDB for POLARDB supports easily migrating RDS for MySQL 5.6 databases to ApsaraDB for POLARDB.

For more information, see the ApsaraDB for POLARDB documentation.

Scenario

Typical scenarios

Typical scenarios

ApsaraDB for POLARDB is widely adopted by users in New Retail, Gaming, Internet Finance, and Live-streaming.

ApsaraDB for POLARDB supports scenarios that challenged by high concurrency and sudden traffic volume increase, such as in promotions and flash sales. ApsaraDB for POLARDB instances can be scaled out within seconds, it perfectly meets the read/write requirements for enterprises to perform large-scale data analysis. The costs of mass storage are lowered. Scale-out events can be quickly implemented. The availability of database clusters is enhanced.

Problems solved

  • Size Limitations

    Due to the limitations of traditional MySQL databases, such as the use of physical disks and traditional data backup technology, a MySQL database is typically no more than 3 TB, beyond which it becomes challenging to maintain. To resolve this, you have to scale-out clusters, migrate data, and shard databases to keep pace with the fast growth of data. This not only increases the development costs but also causes service interruption.

  • Scalability Limitations

    In the traditional storage architecture, read/write and read-only nodes have their data replicas. If you want to add a read-only node, you have to replicate all of the existing data. Typically, the full replication process can be time-consuming making this scaling option inefficient.

  • Data Consistency and Availability Limitations

    Traditional MySQL read/write nodes and read-only nodes use incremental synchronization to synchronize data. You have to synchronize the changes from a read/write node to a read-only node, which can take time to reach read consistency on both nodes. If an application retrieves data from the read-only node, the consistency of the data read cannot be guaranteed. In addition, the synchronization delay may also adversely affect node switchover and cluster availability.

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More Information

ApsaraDB for POLARDB Documentation > ApsaraDB for POLARDB Console >