Using HBase Co-Processors to Build a Distributed, Transactional RDBMS

Title: Using HBase Co-Processors to Build a Distributed, Transactional RDBMS

Abstract:

John Leach, CTO of Splice Machine, will discuss how to use HBase co-processors to build an ANSI-99 SQL database with 1) parallelization of SQL execution plans, 2) ACID transactions with snapshot isolation and 3) consistent secondary indexing.

Transactions are critical in traditional RDBMSs because they ensure reliable updates across multiple rows and tables. Most operational applications require transactions, but even analytics systems use transactions to reliably update secondary indexes after a record insert or update.

In the Hadoop ecosystem, HBase is a key-value store with real-time updates, but it does not have multi-row, multi-table transactions, secondary indexes or a robust query language like SQL. Combining SQL with a full transactional model over HBase opens a whole new set of OLTP and OLAP use cases for Hadoop that was traditionally reserved for RDBMSs like MySQL or Oracle. However, a transactional HBase system has the advantage of scaling out with commodity servers, leading to a 5x-10x cost savings over traditional databases like MySQL or Oracle.

HBase co-processors, introduced in release 0.92, provide a flexible and high-performance framework to extend HBase. In this talk, we show how we used HBase co-processors to support a full ANSI SQL RDBMS without modifying the core HBase source. We will discuss how endpoint transactions are used to serialize SQL execution plans over to regions so that computation is local to where the data is stored. Additionally, we will show how observer co-processors simultaneously support both transactions and secondary indexing.

The talk will also discuss how Splice Machine extended the work of Google Percolator, Yahoo Labs’ OMID, and the University of Waterloo on distributed snapshot isolation for transactions. Lastly, performance benchmarks will be provided, including full TPC-C and TPC-H results that show how Hadoop/HBase can be a replacement of traditional RDBMS solutions.

Speakers: John Leach, CTO of Splice Machine

With over 15 years of software experience under his belt, John’s expertise in analytics and BI drives his role as Chief Technology Officer. Prior to Splice Machine, John founded Incite Retail in June 2008 and led the company’s strategy and development efforts. At Incite Retail, he built custom Big Data systems (leveraging HBase and Hadoop) for Fortune 500 companies. Prior to Incite Retail, he ran the business intelligence practice at Blue Martini Software and built strategic partnerships with integration partners. John was a key subject matter expert for Blue Martini Software in many strategic implementations across the world. His focus at Blue Martini was helping clients incorporate decision support knowledge into their current business processes utilizing advanced algorithms and machine learning. John received dual bachelor’s degrees in biomedical and mechanical engineering from Washington University in Saint Louis. Leach currently is the organizer for the Saint Louis Hadoop Users Group and is active in the Washington University Elliot Society.

Splice Machine is sponsoring the session.

PS: Please note the change in location for September 2 session.