FoundationDB

FoundationDB is a multi-model NoSQL database with a shared nothing architecture.^[1] The product is designed around a "core" database, with additional features supplied in "layers."^[2] The core database exposes an ordered key-value store with transactions.^[3] The transactions are able to read or write multiple keys stored on any machine in the cluster while fully supporting ACID properties.^[4] Transactions are used to implement a variety of data models via layers.

The FoundationDB Alpha program began in January 2012 and concluded on March 4, 2013 with their public Beta release.^[5] Their 1.0 version was released for general availability on August 20, 2013. The latest stable version, 3.0.2, was released on December 10, 2014.

On March 25, 2015 it was reported that Apple has acquired the company.^[6] A notice on the FoundationDB web site indicated that the company has "evolved" its mission and would no longer offer downloads of the software.^[7]

Main features

The main features of FoundationDB include the following:

Ordered key-value store

In addition to supporting standard key-based reads and writes, the ordering property enables range reads that can efficiently scan large swaths of data.^[3]

Transactions

Transaction processing employs multiversion concurrency control for reads and optimistic concurrency for writes. Transactions can span multiple keys stored on multiple machines.

ACID properties

FoundationDB guarantees serializable isolation and strong durability via redundant storage on disk before transactions are considered committed.

Layers

Layers map new data models, APIs, and query languages to the FoundationDB core. They employ FoundationDB's ability to update multiple data elements in a single transaction, ensuring consistency.^[2] An example is their SQL layer.^[8]

Commodity clusters

FoundationDB is designed for deployment on distributed clusters of commodity hardware running Linux.^[9]

Replication

FoundationDB stores each piece of data on multiple machines according to a configurable replication factor. Triple replication is the recommended mode for clusters of 5 or more machines.

Scalability

FoundationDB is designed to support horizontal scaling though the addition of machines to a cluster while automatically handling data replication and partitioning.

Systems supported

FoundationDB supports packages for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. The Linux version supports production clusters, while the Windows and Mac OS X versions support local operation for development purposes. Configurations on Amazon EC2 are also supported.^[10]

Programming language bindings

FoundationDB supports language bindings for Python, Go, Ruby, Node.js, Java, PHP, and C, all of which are made available with the product.^[10]

Design limitations

The design of FoundationDB results in several limitations:

Long transactions

FoundationDB does not support transactions running over five seconds.

Large transactions

Transaction size cannot exceed 10 MB of total written keys and values.

Large keys and values

Keys cannot exceed 10 kB in size. Values cannot exceed 100 kB in size.

History

FoundationDB, headquartered in Vienna, VA,^[10] was started in 2009 by Nick Lavezzo, Dave Rosenthal, and Dave Scherer, drawing on their experience in executive and technology roles at their previous company, Visual Sciences.^[11]

In March 2015 the FoundationDB Community site was updated to state that the company had changed directions and would no longer be offering downloads of its product. TechCrunch has reported that the company has been acquired by Apple Inc., which Apple confirmed March 25, 2015.^[12]<ref name "techcrunch">Apple Acquires Durable Database Company FoundationDB</ref>

See also

• ACID
• NoSQL
• Database transaction
• Distributed database
• Distributed transaction

References

External links

• Official website
• FoundationDB on Twitter
• FoundationDB blog
• FoundationDB sample layers