ScaleArc Features

ScaleArc enables zero downtime for apps driven by MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL) databases. Release 2020.9 introduces support for PostgreSQL. The database load balancing software deploys transparently between your apps and your database servers, providing an abstraction layer between your apps and databases.

The ScaleArc software leverages your replication scheme to provide auto-failover that’s transparent to the application. It works with your master/master or master/slave replication schemes, supporting replication architectures such as Galera in MySQL environments and high availability technologies such as Always ON in SQL Server environments.

With no need to change application code, you've got an easy way to scale your MySQL, MSSQL and PostgreSQL databases. Avoiding app changes makes it possible to enable that replication-based scalability even when you can't access your application's source code, such as with Magento, Drupal, and WordPress.

With ScaleArc, you are guaranteed faster failover with no application errors, out-of-the-box scalability as well as the tools you need to make your database tier enterprise-class.

ScaleArc offers a suite of powerful features to realize the following benefits for your applications and databases: Availability, Performance, and Analytics.

Product Feature

Description

AVAILABILITY

Automated Failover 

ScaleArc has a built-in auto-failover module that detects database server failure and triggers an external script to handle replication changes, if needed, as in the case of master/slave setups where a slave promotion is needed if the master fails. ScaleArc seamlessly handles SQL traffic routing in case of failure by terminating any active connections to the failed database server and routing new connections to the new master server. ScaleArc can:

  • Easily migrate load from one data center to another in the event of failure
  • Reduce the time for failover by automating several steps
  • Lower application errors that result from failovers

For MSSQL environments, ScaleArc provides deep integration into SQL Server Always ON technology and lets you harness the full capabilities of SQL Server, without any app changes. You gain automated failover across data centers by replacing the AlwaysOn Availability Group Listener as the primary destination of SQL connections to achieve the above benefits in addition to having geo-aware load balancing capability for Read-traffic.

Surge queue

ScaleArc reduces application error messages by regulating load to prevent a database server from getting overloaded, leading to downtime during crashes. The ScaleArc surge queue safely and effectively limits the load temporarily during a failover event with:

  • No change in query order
  • Transactional awareness
  • Two separate queues for reads and writes

For MSSQL environments, ScaleArc further provides the capability to have geo-aware load balancing for Read-traffic.

Read/Write split

ScaleArc's Read/Write functionality boosts performance for read-heavy applications and easily scales the database without fear of crashing. Without any application modification, ScaleArc immediately recognizes which queries are Reads and which are Writes and transparently directs Reads to the Secondary and Writes to the Primary in a manner that is:

  • replication aware
  • transactionally safe
  • stored procedures aware

Dynamic load balancing

ScaleArc optimizes SQL traffic management and simplifies scale-out with its load balancing feature. Without changes at the application or database level, it lets you handle very high loads within and across data centers in a way that ensures

  • High performance
  • Transaction integrity
  • Application-level control

Replication awareness

With its deep intelligence, ScaleArc can route traffic based on a particular application's consistency requirements. It lets you set and effortlessly enforce parameters for tolerable performance lag – all the way down to a single second. ScaleArc's replication monitoring engine includes:

  • Replication type and role detection
  • Replication-aware load balancing
  • Replication-aware failover

PERFORMANCE

Connection pooling and multiplexing

ScaleArc maximizes system resources and saves time with its connection pooling and multiplexing. Because application servers don't peak together, numerous connections can sit idle. ScaleArc delivers only those connections that are necessary for active concurrent queries and multiplexes the rest to:

  • reduce the number of client connections
  • limit the number of connections to the server
  • make database access faster

Query caching

ScaleArc delivers user content 6x to 60x faster by caching responses for simple and frequently-called queries as well as for more complex queries with ScaleArc's memory cache. Additionally, ScaleArc helps you identify queries for caching, letting you determine what to cache and for how long. With ScaleArc, you can cache:

  • Transparently, without changing the application
  • In a transactionally-safe manner

ANALYTICS

Real-time analytics

Improve database operations with ScaleArc's comprehensive, real-time analytics. Easily identify problematic queries or frequent queries for caching, troubleshoot performance, and assess the impact of interactional application behaviors with SQL analytics that are:

  • Real-time, with sampling
  • Continuously available
  • Agentless

Centralized logging

With ScaleArc, you increase operational efficiencies and speed up troubleshooting, using an aggregate, centralized view of your ScaleArc traffic running across multiple database servers in near real-time. Operating as a single endpoint, ScaleArc eliminates the need to connect logs for each database, application, and server. The centralized logging is:

  • Out of band
  • Unlimited

Historical stats and forensics

ScaleArc provides the ability to quickly go back in time, retrieve historical data, and get the insight you need for faster problem identification, insight, and resolution. Like a flight recorder or "black box", ScaleArc logs all essential data, so you can go back to a point in time to see:

  • How much cache is being utilized
  • How many server connections are active 

Query firewall

ScaleArc Analytics allows you to complement your environment's security solution. Using Analytics, you can go back in time to:

  • View the logs and usage types to spot abnormalities/violations
  • Block select abnormalities/violations via ScaleArc’s query firewall

 

New Features available in ScaleArc v3.12 and Later

The table below summarizes the new features in ScaleArc for MySQL 3.12 and later releases:

Feature Description
Value Meter Value Meter tool measures and displays the value added by ScaleArc to a customer's environment.
Traffic Analyzer ScaleArc Traffic Analyzer tool analyzes the traffic and load on the database servers and generates reports.
Authentication module ScaleArc now allows for authentication and policy configuration for LDAP and third party software admin users.

 

In addition to the above new features, environments with MSSQL databases running ScaleArc Release 3.12 and newer can leverage these extra features:

Feature Description
Azure SQL database
support
ScaleArc now supports Azure SQL database.
Transactional Query Load Balancing ScaleArc now supports query load balancing within transactions.

 

Was this article helpful?
0 out of 0 found this helpful
Have more questions? Submit a request