Apache Crail (incubating)

Apache Crail is a fast multi-tiered distributed storage system designed from ground up for high-performance network and storage hardware. It marks the backbone of the Crail I/O architecture, which is described in more detail on crail.incubator.apache.org. The unique features of Crail include:

• Zero-copy network access from userspace
• Integration of multiple storage tiers such DRAM, flash and disaggregated shared storage
• Ultra-low latencies for both meta data and data operations. For instance: opening, reading and closing a small file residing in the distributed DRAM tier less than 10 microseconds, which is in the same ballpark as some of the fastest RDMA-based key/value stores
• High-performance sequential read/write operations: For instance: read operations on large files residing in the distributed DRAM tier are typically limited only by the performance of the network
• Very low CPU consumption: a single core sharing both application and file system client can drive sequential read/write operations at the speed of up to 100Gbps and more
• Asynchronous API leveraging the asynchronous nature of RDMA-based networking hardware
• Extensible plugin architecture: new storage tiers tailored to specific hardware can be added easily

Crail is implemented in Java offering a Java API which integrates directly with the Java off-heap memory. Crail is designed for performance critical temporary data within a scope of a rack or two.

Documentation

For information about how to deploy, run, test and program against Crail:

• Refer to https://incubator-crail.readthedocs.org
• Or build from source by running make html in /doc and opening /doc/build/html/index.html

Community

Please join the Crail developer mailing list for discussions and notifications. The list is at:

dev@crail.incubator.apache.org.

Disclaimer

Apache Crail is an effort undergoing incubation at The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), sponsored by the Apache Incubator PMC. Incubation is required of all newly accepted projects until a further review indicates that the infrastructure, communications, and decision making process have stabilized in a manner consistent with other successful ASF projects. While incubation status is not necessarily a reflection of the completeness or stability of the code, it does indicate that the project has yet to be fully endorsed by the ASF.