Topologies

Overview

MariaDB products can be deployed in many different topologies. The topologies on this page are representative. MariaDB products can be deployed to form other topologies, leverage advanced product capabilities, or combine the capabilities of multiple topologies.

How we describe topologies

Topologies are the arrangement of nodes and links to achieve a purpose. This documentation describes a few of the many topologies that can be deployed using MariaDB database products.

We group topologies by workload (transactional, analytical, hybrid) and technologies (Enterprise Spider). Single-node topologies are listed separately.

To help you select the correct topology:

  • Each topology is named and this name is used consistently throughout the documentation.

  • A thumbnail diagram provides a small-scale summary of the topology's architecture.

  • Finally, we provide a list of the benefits of the topology.

Although multiple topologies are listed on this page, the listed topologies are not the only options. MariaDB products are flexible, configurable, and extensible, so it possible to deploy different topologies that combine the capabilities of multiple topologies listed on this page. The topologies listed on this page are primarily intended to be representative of the most commonly requested use cases.

Transactional (OLTP)

Topology

Diagram

Features

Xpand Topology
  • Distributed SQL

  • Elastic scale-out and scale-in

  • Highly available and fault tolerant

  • Automated provisioning of new nodes

  • Scales reads and writes

  • Synchronous replication with automatic rebalancing

  • Xpand 5.3, MaxScale 2.5

  • Xpand 6.0, MaxScale 6

  • Xpand 6.1, MaxScale 22.08

Transactional (OLTP)

Topology

Diagram

Features

Primary/Replica Topology
  • MariaDB Replication

  • Highly available

  • Asynchronous or semi-synchronous replication

  • Automatic failover via MaxScale

  • Manual provisioning of new nodes from backup

  • Scales reads via MaxScale

  • Enterprise Server 10.3+, MaxScale 2.5+

Galera Cluster Topology
  • Multi-Primary Cluster Powered by Galera for Transactional/OLTP Workloads

  • InnoDB Storage Engine

  • Highly available

  • Virtually synchronous, certification-based replication

  • Automated provisioning of new nodes (IST/SST)

  • Scales reads via MaxScale

  • Enterprise Server 10.3+, MariaDB Enterprise Cluster (powered by Galera), MaxScale 2.5+

Analytical (OLAP, Data Warehousing, DSS)

Topology

Diagram

Features

ColumnStore Object Storage Topology
  • Columnar storage engine with S3-compatible object storage

  • Highly available

  • Automatic failover via MaxScale and CMAPI

  • Scales reads via MaxScale

  • Bulk data import

  • Enterprise Server 10.5, Enterprise ColumnStore 5, MaxScale 2.5

  • Enterprise Server 10.6, Enterprise ColumnStore 23.02, MaxScale 22.08

ColumnStore Shared Local Storage Topology
  • Columnar storage engine with shared local storage

  • Highly available

  • Automatic failover via MaxScale and CMAPI

  • Scales reads via MaxScale

  • Bulk data import

  • Enterprise Server 10.5, Enterprise ColumnStore 5, MaxScale 2.5

  • Enterprise Server 10.6, Enterprise ColumnStore 23.02, MaxScale 22.08

Hybrid Workloads

Topology

Diagram

Features

HTAP Topology
  • Single-stack hybrid transactional/analytical workloads

  • ColumnStore for analytics with scalable S3-compatible object storage

  • InnoDB for transactions

  • Cross-engine JOINs

  • Enterprise Server 10.5, Enterprise ColumnStore 5, MaxScale 2.5

  • Enterprise Server 10.6, Enterprise ColumnStore 23.02, MaxScale 22.08

Spider Topologies

Topology

Diagram

Features

Spider Federated Topology
  • Read from and write to tables on remote ES nodes

  • Spider Node uses Spider storage engine for Federated Spider Tables

  • Federated Spider Table is a "virtual" table

  • Spider uses MariaDB foreign data wrapper to query Data Table on Data Node

  • Data Node uses non-Spider storage engine for Data Tables

  • Supports transactions

  • Enterprise Server 10.3+, Enterprise Spider

Spider Sharded Topology
  • Shard tables for horizontal scalability

  • Spider Node uses Spider storage engine for Sharded Spider Tables

  • Sharded Spider Table is a partitioned "virtual" table

  • Spider uses MariaDB foreign data wrapper to query Data Tables on Data Nodes for each partition

  • Data Node uses non-Spider storage engine for Data Tables

  • Supports transactions

  • Enterprise Server 10.3+, Enterprise Spider