X-SSD: A Storage System with Native Support for Database Logging and Replication

Transaction logging and log shipping are standard techniques to provide recoverability and high availability in data management systems. They entail an update to a local log file at every transaction and sending such an update to a remote site in a coordinated fashion. Modern databases have leveraged technologies such as Persistent Memory (PM) and RDMA-enabled networking to perform these updates as fast as possible. This mix of technologies, however, presents several drawbacks: some technologies are not portable, restricting deployments to a single class of machines; they make the data path more contrived; and they force very low-level APIs to interoperate, posing severe correctness issues.