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SLINGDB

SLINGDB is a lightweight persistent key-value database with a HTTP interface. It is basically a hash map stored on disk where you can store one value for each key in each database. The keys and values are binary objects and SLINGDB does not interpret the content of these. Besides the key and value, a record can also have a 64 bit integer version number or timestamp.

Instalation

SLINGDB can be installed independently of the other SLING components and is distributed as a standalone Debian package which can be installed using dpkg on Ubuntu 16+ or any other compatible platform with a Debian package manager and systemd service manager:

curl -o /tmp/slingdb.deb https://ringgaard.com/data/dist/slingdb.deb
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/slingdb.deb

The SLINGDB runs as a systemd service and after installation you can check if it is running:

sudo systemctl status slingdb

You can also start, stop, restart, enable, disable etc. the SLINGDB service using the systemctl command.

The SLINGDB service is listening on port 7070 by default and you use ordinary HTTP requests to communicate with it, e.g. you can create a new test database with the following command:

curl -X POST localhost:7070/create?name=test

The SLINGDB server has a web-based dashboard on http://localhost:7070/adminz that can be used for monitoring activity:

SLINGDB admin dashboard.

HTTP API

You can add, update, delete and retrieve records using normal HTTP requests. The URL for a record is http://localhost:7070/[database]/[key]. The following HTTP methods are supported:

  • GET
  • HEAD
  • PUT
  • DELETE
  • OPTIONS
  • POST

PUT

To add a record with the key 123 and value hello world you can send the following request:

curl -X PUT -d 'hello world' localhost:7070/test/123

GET

You can fetch a record with a standard HTTP GET request:

curl localhost:7070/test/123

HEAD

You can use the HTTP HEAD method if you want to check if a record for a key exists without returning the value:

curl --head localhost:7070/test/123

If the record exists, it returns HTTP status 200 and the size (Content-Length) and version/timestamp (Version/Last-Modified) are returned in the HTTP headers. If there is no record with this key, HTTP status 404 is returned.

DELETE

The HTTP DELETE method is used for deleting records:

curl -X DELETE localhost:7070/test/123

OPTIONS

The HTTP OPTIONS method returns a list of mounted databases in JSON format:

curl -X OPTIONS localhost:7070

POST

The POST verb is used for various maintenance tasks.

create new database

New databases can be created with the create command:

curl -X POST localhost:7070/create?name=test

This will create a new database in /var/lib/slingdb/test. The database directory is configured with dbdir configuration option (default is /var/lib/slingdb). The database configuration can be specified in the request body. The configuaration options are colon-separated key-value pairs:

  • data: path (adds data partition to database to allow database to span multiple disks)
  • initial_index_capacity: 1M (set the initial capacity of the hash index)
  • index_load_factor: 0.75 (the index is expanded when the load factor is reached)
  • data_shard_size: 256G (size of each data shard in the database)
  • buffer_size: 4096 (record input/output buffer size)
  • chunk_size: 64M (recordio chunk size limiting the largest record that can be stored in database)
  • compression: 1 (0=no compression, 1=snappy compression)
  • read_only: false (static databases can be set to read-only mode)
  • timestamped: false (timestamped databases use version as modification timestamp)

mount database

When SLINGDB is started, it mounts all the databases in the subdirectories under the database directory. Databases can be taken offline for maintenance. The mount command is used for putting a database online again:

curl -X POST localhost:7070/mount?name=test

unmount database

A database can be taken offline with the unmount command:

curl -X POST localhost:7070/unmount?name=test

For security reasons there is no command to remove a database. To delete a database, you first unmount it, and then manually remove the database directory, e.g. sudo rm -r /var/lib/slingdb/test.

backup database index

The backup command makes a consistent backup of the database index which is used to speed up database recovery after a crash:

curl -X POST localhost:7070/backup?name=test

C++ API

You can use SLINGDB in C++ by using the DBClient class in sling/db/client.h. It uses the native SLINGDB protocol for communicating with the SLINGDB server, which has lower overhead than the HTTP protocol. The native SLINGDB protocol uses the HTTP protocol upgrade mechanism to run on the same port as the HTTP protocol.

Python API

The SLING Python API has a Database class that can be used for using SLINGDB in Python. It is built on top of the C++ native API.

connecting

First, you make a connection to the SLINGDB server:

import sling

db = sling.Database("test")

The database name has the general form [<hostname>[:<port>]/]<database> where hostname defaults to localhost and port defaults to 7070, so test is shorthand for localhost:7070/test.

reading

  • value = db[key]
    Fetch record value with key from database. Returns None if record does not exist.

  • key in db
    Check if record with key is in the database.

  • value, version = db.get(key)
    Fetch record with key and return value and version for record. Returns (None, 0) if record does not exist.

  • values = db([key1, key2, ...])
    Fetch multiple records. Returns a dictionary with the records.

writing

  • db[key] = value
    Add or update record in database.

  • db.put(key, value, [version=0], [mode=sling.DBOVERWRITE])
    Add or update record in database with optional version and mode. The mode parameter controls when the database is updated:

    • sling.DBOVERWRITE (overwrite existing records)
    • sling.DBADD (only add new records, do not overwrite existing ones)
    • sling.DBORDERED (do not overwrite records with higher version)
    • sling.DBNEWER (only overwrite existing record if version is newer)

    Returns outcome of the operation:

    • sling.DBNEW (new record added)
    • sling.DBUPDATED (existing record updated)
    • sling.DBUNCHANGED (record not updated because value is unchanged)
    • sling.DBEXISTS (record already exists and overwrite not allowed)
    • sling.DBSTALE (record not updated because version is lower)
    • sling.DBFAULT (record not updated because of write error)

  • db.add(key, value, [version])
    Add new record to database. This is equivalent to db.put(key, value, version, mode=sling.sling.DBADD).

  • db.delete(key) or del db[key]
    Delete record in database.

iterating

  • for key, version, value in db([begin=0], [end=-1], [stable=False], [deletions=False])
    Returns iterator for iterating over all or parts of the database. The key is returned as a string if it is valid UTF-8. Otherwise it is returned as a byte array. The value is returned as a byte array unless it is empty in which case it is returned as None.

    If begin is specified, iteration starts at that position in the database. Otherwise the iterator starts at the beginning of the database.

    If end is specified, the iterator stops before that position. Otherwise the iterator reads until the end of the database.

    If stable=True the iterator stops after reading the last record when the iterator is created to avoid reading records updated during iteration. This is equivalent to setting end=db.epoch().

    If deletions=True deleted records are returned as well. A deleted record has an empty value, i.e. None.

  • for key, version, value in db
    Iterate over all records in database. Equivalent to db(0, -1, False, False).

  • for key in db.keys([begin=0], [end=-1], [stable=False], [deletions=False])
    Iterate over records in database returning keys.

  • for value in db.values([begin=0], [end=-1], [stable=False], [deletions=False])
    Iterate over records in database returning vaules.

  • for key, value in db.items([begin=0], [end=-1], [stable=False], [deletions=False])
    Iterate over records in database returning keys and values.

  • db.position()
    Returns current position after iterating over records in database.

  • db.epoch()
    Returns position for the end of the database.

Security considerations

After installation, the SLINGDB server can only be accessed from the local machine. If you want to access the SLINGDB server from other machines, you need to change /etc/slingdb/slingdb.conf. The addr option can be changed from 127.0.0.1 to the IP address of the interface you want the SLINGDB service to listen on. If you remove the addr option, you can access SLINGDB from all network interfaces. After you have changed slingdb.conf you need to restart the SLINGDB service:

sudo systemctl restart slingdb

SLINGDB does not have any access control so you will probably need to run it behind a firewall and only allow access through an application server or a reverse proxy.