The Hows and Whys of a Distributed SQL Database

This talk explains why distributed SQL databases emerged and examines CockroachDB’s techniques for combining relational consistency with horizontal scalability and high availability, including sharding, replication, consensus, and lock-free transactions.

Syllabus

Introduction
History
Primitive databases
The relational model
Objectoriented databases
Database sharding
No sequel databases
Distributed sequel databases
Why these systems are being built
The two primary systems
The question of how
Disclaimer
Data Distribution
Order Preserving
Range Indexing
Range Scan
When to Split
When to Up Replicate
Primary Secondary Replication
Eventually Consistent
Distributed Consensus
Raft
When things dont go well
Engineering complications
Transactions
Consistency
Atomicity
MVCC
No sequel transactions
Distributed sequel
Starting a transaction
Conflicts
Write Conflict
Detect Conflict
Push or abort
Intent
Summary
Outro