Membrain

Benefits

• Delivers dramatic 10x server consolidation
• Delivers DRAM-like speeds from SSDs
• Slashes downtime by 90% through fast replication and automated failover between server pairs
• Serves as a transient cache or persistent data store
• Allows mixing of cache and persistent data store on the same server, for multiple use cases
• Simplifies administration
• Maintains 100% memcapable compatibility for easy adoption
• Cuts your total cost of ownership (TCO) by 70% or more

You’ll see substantial savings on servers and on the power, people and pipe to run them. And you’ll see vastly better performance and lower TCO than from any other memcached or NoSQL data store.

Try vanilla memcached and NoSQL offerings such as Couchbase and MongoDB to see the Membrain advantage when your data does not fit in DRAM:

The Membrain Flash Advantage

Key-value store queries per second on 1 TB data set on server with 64 GB of DRAM

Capabilities

Membrain is based on the standard memcached protocol and API, but was written by Schooner for maximum parallelism. This enables extreme multi-threading, to take full advantage of modern multi-core processors. Membrain was also written to fully exploit modern flash memory (SSDs), getting the full benefit of their IOPs.

The main capabilities of Membrain include:

• The highest performance available from any software cache or NoSQL data store, especially when the dataset exceeds the available system DRAM;
• Schooner Persistent Caching, which ensures that all cached data is immediately available even after a power outage. This is unlike traditional memcached, where cached data can be lost in an outage. Membrain eliminates performance-degrading cache warm-up periods.
• High speed synchronous replication between pairs of Membrain-powered servers, with immediate automated failover and recovery. Schooner offers Active / Active replication which fully utilizes all nodes and Synchronous Replication that ensures no data is lost on failover. These Membrain benefits add no application overhead.
• Schooner Backup & Restore: You can perform full and incremental backups to local HDDs on your server(s).
• Rolling Upgrade: Membrain-powered servers can be upgraded to new software releases without a disruption to service.
• Support for dynamic containers, which allow each Membrain-powered server to host multiple instances of memcached and persistent data stores;
• 100% memcapable compatibility, including ASCII and Binary Protocol. Binary Protocol provides a more efficient and extensible alternative to the original ASCII protocol. While Membrain is so efficient that using Binary Protocol doesn't have a significant performance impact, it is helpful on the client side and we recommend using it in new deployments. We also support SASL, which is not tested by memcapable.
• RAID: Where available depending on the SSDs, RAID protects against downtime from SSD failures and planned SSD maintenance. Some SAS/SATA SSDs can be hot-swapped for maintenance. RAID5 minimizes the capacity overhead required for redundancy.

All of this is from our out-of-the-box software product, written for your standard x86 Dell, HP, or IBM servers. You don't need to roll your own, or be stuck with the grossly inefficient server utilization of standard memcached or the NoSQL alternatives.

See For Yourself

Get a first-hand look at what Membrain and SchoonerSQL can do for your organization. Arrange a download and free 21-day trial.

Scale smart, with Schooner.

Supported Platforms

Membrain™ is the smart memcached, optimized for flash memory through extreme multi-threading to fully exploit multi-core processors.

Get the Most out of Your Servers

Membrain's innovative software architecture fully exploits the capabilities of modern commodity x86-based servers, flash memory (SSDs), and network bandwidth. Here are the main hardware considerations needed to get the full benefit of Membrain:

• Base Server: Use any HP, Dell, or IBM multi-core x86 server (Intel, not AMD) or blade running Red Hat Linux 6.2, 5.5, or 5.4, CentOS 6.2, 5.5, or 5.4.
• NO Virtual Machines: Do not run Membrain in a VM for evaluation or production; Membrain does not work in a VM.
• Multiple cores: Membrain is extensively multi-threaded to fully exploit multiple processor cores. Use a server with at least two 4-, 6-, or 8-core processors; performance scales linearly with number of cores.
• Data storage: Membrain is optimized for and requires flash memory. Up to 1 TB (1024 GB) of flash may be used on each Membrain-powered server. Membrain supports SAS / SATA and PCIe drives from all major vendors including Fusion-io, Intel, LSI, SanDisk, and Unigen. Schooner sales will help you weigh the tradeoffs in selecting the flash memory that gives you the best economics.
• DRAM: We recommend 64 GB of DRAM since Membrain caches between DRAM and flash to give you DRAM-type speeds from all of the flash. More DRAM never hurts, but you usually won't need it since we fully exploit the flash IOPS to deliver performance equivalent to what you'd get if you used much more DRAM.
• Ethernet: You can use 1 GB Ethernet among servers but we recommend 10 GB Ethernet when using Membrain replication between server pairs.

See What Membrain Can Do For You

Download Membrain for a free 21-day trial.

We're experts in helping you choose the hardware to maximize performance and operational savings. Check out the Tuning Guide that comes with Membrain. Or contact Schooner sales, which is happy to help.

Pricing and Licensing

Affordable Datacenter Transformation

Membrain™ is a breakthrough high-performance high-efficiency software cache and persistent key-value store that uniquely exploits the full power of commodity multi-core processors and flash memory. Membrain is 100% memcapable (100% compatible with the widely-used memcached protocol). Membrain greatly improves datacenter productivity, enabling you to get a lot more useful work from your standard x86 servers so you need a lot fewer of them.

Annual Subscriptions

Membrain is licensed on an Annual Subscription basis on a wide range of supported x86 servers with flash memory (SSDs). The quantity-one fee for an Annual Subscription is $US 8,500 on any server of up to 32 cores and up to 512 GB of flash memory. Membrain licenses for servers with more than 32 cores or more than 512 GB of SSDs cost more because your annual TCO savings are larger. Please contact Schooner sales for a quote on your specific configurations.

The Annual Subscription fee is paid up front, with a discount for pre-payment for multiple years. Substantial volume discounts apply as well as discounts for large project-, site-, and enterprise-wide licenses. Run the numbers and see how Membrain saves you money compared to Memcached and all other NoSQL data stores.

What You Get with an Annual Subscription

Each Membrain license includes Schooner Customer Support Service during the subscription term, providing:

• All upgrades (including new functionality)
• All patches and bug fixes
• Unlimited web and telephone support

During your license term you may freely transfer Schooner licenses among supported server families (e.g., move from HP to Dell).

Try Before You Buy

See how Membrain can deliver high availability with high performance, and transform the economics of your datacenter. Start your free trial of Membrain today.