What's New in Schooner SQL 5.1

Intra-Schema Parallel Asynchronous Appliers

SchoonerSQL's unique use of parallel appliers across a WAN increases the throughput tremendously so that the asynchronous slaves in the other datacenter receive updates with the minimum practical lag.

Unlike other database vendors whose parallel appliers works only for different databases, Schooner's parallel appliers are at the intrinsic code and transaction level. Irrespective of database schema or tables, two or more transactions will be checked for any conflict and if there is none, dispatched using parallel threads. This requires zero effort in terms of configuration from developers or database administrators.

This diagram shows several threads operating in parallel at the transaction level and for every row, table, and the databases inside a SchoonerSQL instance. The number of threads is configurable but the default is 32.

Auto Asynchronous Failover Across WAN

SchoonerSQL provides automated asynchronous failover across WAN (and therefore across datacenters). This eliminates the downtime that normally results while waiting for manual recovery.

In addition you get the following benefits:

Eliminates the need to write special failover scripts
No manual processes for failover
Saves the DBA's valuable time
Less resources required for managing datacenters

Automated Failover when Update Master Fails Inside a Datacenter

Normal Operation

Event: Master receiving writes fails and asynchronous replication breaks across DCs, as shown below

Resolution: SchoonerSQL cluster management ensures that the async slave across data center 2 automatically connects to this new master within seconds.

High-Speed Incremental Recovery

SchoonerSQL allows nodes to recover incrementally whenever possible, greatly speeding up the recovery process and further reducing database downtime. Only missing transactions are applied rather than copying all of the data. Fast synchronous recovery of a node not only applies the transactions on the node before it went down but also the in-flight transactions happening during this recovery process. Our implementation makes sure that the failed node recovers fast and efficiently.

Alerts in the Cluster Admin GUI

SchoonerSQL sends email-based alerts that are very useful in monitoring the overall database cluster. The alert contains name, date and time, severity, description, and configurable thresholds. The following alerts are supported:

Instance created/deleted
Instance up/down
Instance attached/detached
Group created/removed
Recovery started with several phases
Async failover
VIP configuration