0

I know about the claims that a Galera cluster should/might perform better in a lot of cases whenever a read-write-split is set up, so there are dedicated read and write hosts in the cluster.

This makes some sense to me in case a server is hardware bound, but I was wondering if in this modern age of cloud based servers this still makes sense if they could essentially end up using the same hardware in a (private) cloud environment?

Also, in extension, what impact might high iops SSD's (which seem to be a pretty common storage medium in cloud environments already) have on the validity of this kind of setup?

1 Answer 1

2

How big is the dataset? How big is the disk? How much RAM? How many queries per second? I am fishing for whether there is actually a problem you are trying to solve.

Meanwhile...

Having one "Primary" and two "read-only" "Replicas" is possible with Galera. It may simplify establishing the connections. Or it may make it more complex. It may also lead to the Primary having a different load than the Replicas.

Most of today's hardware (whether in the Cloud or private) has very few parameters:

  • SSD is much better than HDD, especially if I/O bound
  • The cloud may be able to provide higher bandwidth, but this is unlikely to be the limiting component.
  • RAM comes in many sizes. If it is practical to have twice as much as the dataset size, then most operations will need only a little I/O.
  • If the dataset is growing rapidly, the Cloud probably has a very easy way to add RAM. Doing it yourself is a hassle. Galera makes this "easy" by letting you take a node out of the cluster, add ram (or replace the machine) and put it back in. If private, you are left with old hardware; if Cloud they repurpose it for someone else.

With 3 "read-write" nodes, each has similar load. Access (read or write) needs to be redirected to some node; a "proxy" or something is useful here.

High I/O or high CPU often means "inefficient queries" -- this should be investigated before 'throwing hardware at the problem'.

For a very high number of read-only connections, you can hang regular Replicas off each Cluster node. This can be scaled "infinitely".

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.