Databases benefit greatly from containerization in terms of performance, ease-of-deployment, and scalability. However, building a database-as-a-service (DBaaS) on Kubernetes without the right infrastructure can be a complex, time-consuming project where some database services have to be run outside of the cluster for the sake of leveraging persistent storage. This session offers up a global financial institution’s real-world account of how bare metal Kubernetes infrastructure can further enhance the performance of MariaDB’s innovative, load-balanced database services – and how the requisite persistent storage can be best provisioned, managed and backed up without service interruption or creating an additional burden for application owners and developers.

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Best Practices For
Building High-Performance
Stateful Databases On
Kubernetes
Wallie Leung, Sr. Dir. Solution Engineering

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Agenda
 Why Run Databases In Containers?
 Advantages / Disadvantages Of Different Kubernetes Infrastructure Types
 A Look At DIY Kubernetes Infrastructure
 Persistent Storage For Databases
 MariaDB: Architectural Advantages
 Case Study
 Fortune 50 Bank Adopts Containerized DBs, Deploys On Bare Metal Infrastructure

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Why Run Databases On Bare Metal Kubernetes?
 Better performance
 Higher density per node (no VM tax)
 Accelerated time-to-production,
updates, fixes
 Easier, more granular scalability
 Leveraging open source
technologies eliminates hefty license
costs
 Conducive to DBaaS

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Where Should You Deploy Your Containerized Databases?
DIY Infrastructure
PROS:
 Low complexity at small scale
 Experience with traditional
technology components
CONS:
 Longer time-to-value
 With a VM layer, resource efficiency
is reduced and complexity
increases
 High complexity and cost at scale
 Difficult to manage at scale
Public Cloud
PROS:
 100% OPEX means lowest cost
at small scale
 Proven, resilient infrastructure
as a service
CONS:
 Highest costs at large scale
 Difficult to optimize efficiency
 Security and compliance
concerns
 No bare metal support
DIY Bare Metal
PROS:
 Flexible, seamlessly scalable
infrastructure
 Better overall performance at scale
 TCO advantages are realized
CONS:
 Specialized skill sets required at
different areas of the stack

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Do-It-Yourself Approach to Container Infrastructure
DAY 1:
Build a
Container
Environment
Yourself
Vendor Engagement
Equipment Installation
Container Orchestration
Network Storage
Config Management
Orchestration
Network Overlay
Persistent Storage
Clustering
Management
Burn-In Testing
Run Applications
Monitoring
Access Controls
Upgrade Trials
Tribal Knowledge
Support / Handoff
Operationalized
Container
Environment
Is Complete
Ecosystem Research

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Storage Remains a Top Container Adoption Challenge
“A modern storage solution must provide
DevOps teams with persistent, stateful
application data; allow the consumption of
storage on-demand; and deliver the same
level of availability and performance
provided to traditional application
infrastructures.”
Source: https://containerjournal.com/2019/02/20/new-storage-challenges-emerge-as-container-
adoption-increases/
Container persistent storage
for stateful applications has
proven particularly difficult for
the industry

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Drilling Down: Storage For Stateful Containers
Network File System
(NFS)
 Offers persistent storage
CHALLENGES
 Performance isn’t
adequate
Local Storage
 Host paths can be mounted
to containers in Docker and
Kubernetes
CHALLENGES
 Persistence
 High Availability (HA)
 Who is managing it?
Traditional SAN Storage
 Either connect by iSCSI or
FC
CHALLENGES
 Persistence

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Connecting The Ecosystem With FlexVolume / CSI
 FlexVolume is Kubernetes plug-in facility for 3rd party storage
 Allows a standard way of integrating 3rd party storage, including storage with
enterprise features, into Kubernetes
 Developed and contributed to Kubernetes by Diamanti
 Being supplanted by CSI (Container Storage Interface), which Diamanti
continues to contribute to
 Now developers and architects have storage that is accessible and
configurable from the K8s API and PodSpecs

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Database Container Challenges, According To MariaDB
StatefulSet
 Definition: StatefulSet manages Pods that are based on an identical container spec
 Identical pods: additional scripting required to instantiate different roles
 Complete enterprise cluster requires more StatefulSets (i.e. MaxScale+Master/Slave)
Persistence
 Persistent volumes can add new layers of abstraction (and latency)
 Provisioning / managing of IOPS or throughput is backend storage vendor-specific
Resource Management
 DB instances contend with other apps for CPU, RAM, network and storage I/O resources

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MariaDB Servers
DBaaS: Sample Architecture
MaxScale Instances
MS1 MS2
Application Pod
App 1
DB-1
(master)
DB-2
(slave)
DB-N
(slave)
PV-1 PV-2 PV-N
DB reads
Mirrored volumes
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
DB writes

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Why MariaDB Is Suited For Kubernetes
 Lightweight, portable database runtime
 Well-suited for containers
 Implementation in Kubernetes enables load balancing of reads and
writes
 Master DB and Slave DBs can be scaled independently
 Offer different topologies, depending on specific use case
 Offer CPU/Memory usage resources management

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Containers And Database-as-a-Service
The Goal of DBaaS
 Service model that provides users the ability to provision DBs without the need
for setting up physical hardware, installing software or configuring for
performance
 Operational advantages with container-based DBaaS
 App developers can check out DBs without burdening DBAs or IT Admins
 Scaling capacity on-demand
 Auto-recovery via Statefulset (in Kubernetes)
 Built-in resource management for memory and CPU per pod

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 Operational advantages with container-based DBaaS
 App developers can check out DBs without burdening DBAs or IT Admins
 Scaling capacity on-demand
 Auto-recovery via Statefulset (in Kubernetes)
 Built-in resource management for memory and CPU per pod
 User defined policy for QoS – Network and Storage - per pod
 Out-of-the-box high-performance persistent storage (500k IOPS per node)
 Plug-n-play networking setup
Containers And Database-as-a-Service On Diamanti

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Diamanti Bare-Metal Kubernetes Platform
Complete turnkey Kubernetes stack
 Hyperconverged 1U appliance built on x86 architecture
 Features container-optimized networking and storage
models
 24/7 full-stack support
Built for public cloud experience, on-prem
 Per container pod network and storage QoS
 Enterprise DP/DR features: mirroring/synchronous
replication, snapshots/asynchronous replication
 No vendor lock-in: freedom for moving workload
between on-perm Diamant to the cloud
 IaaS for containers
Benefits:
 High performance
 Efficient
 Secure
 Installs in minutes
 Low TCO

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Customer Success: Fortune 50 Bank
Challenge:
 Migration away from Oracle for cost,
agility
 ~4 weeks to deploy new DBs on
traditional infrastructure
Profile:
 Large global bank serving 16M
Canadian, American, and
international customers
 81,000 employees, worldwide
Initial approach:
 DIY infrastructure to support
containerized DBaaS
 2 FTE for 18 months and still cannot
operationalize the platform
Solution:
 Installed and configured 3-node
Diamanti D10 cluster
 Deployed PostgreSQL, MongoDB,
and MariaDB on Diamanti in a day,
vs. weeks
 Added addition Diamanti nodes
dynamically with zero service
disruption
16x
Footprint
reduction
$14M
TCO savings over 5 years
23x
Faster deployment
Minimal Downtime

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Next Steps
 Visit www.diamanti.com
 Follow @diamanticom
 Email
demo@diamanti.com
for a briefing and live
demo
 Stop by Diamanti Booth
for more detailed
discussion

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Thank You