An Evaluation Method and Comparison of Modern Cluster-based Highly Available Database Solutions

High availability in cloud computing is a top concern which refers to keeping a service operational and available for the maximum amount of time without downtime. In any given application and service, the high availability of the database plays a critical role in the application's high availability as a whole. Modern cluster-based multi-master technologies provide high availability database solutions through synchronous replication. Different database management systems offer different technologies and solutions for high availability. This paper proposes a comprehensive method for the evaluation of high availability database solutions. As a comparative case study, two modern high availability database solutions which are open-source and available for free use, namely the Percona XtraDB Cluster and the MySQL NDB Cluster are used. Benchmark tests with standard CRUD database operations and analysis of the test results show that no single solution is superior to the other in all scenarios and needs. Therefore, one should choose an appropriate solution wisely depending on the needs for an application or service. The proposed evaluation method would be useful to get insights into which solution is effective for a given application and hence it can be used in making an informed choice among different solutions at hand.