Tungsten Clustering vs. Galera Cluster

Learn why Tungsten Clustering is a better (complete, proven) and more cost-effective (software, 24/7 support and consulting all included) MySQL High Availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR) and Geographically-Distributed (Geo-Scale) solution compared to Codership's Galera Cluster and its derivatives, MariaDB Cluster and Percona XtraDB Cluster.

For any MySQL clustering to be a complete high-availability and disaster recovery solution, it requires three core components working in sync: connectivity (proxy), management (orchestration) and replication (local/global).

Tungsten Clustering

Tungsten Clustering includes three highly integrated and fully tested components Tungsten Proxy, Tungsten Manager and Tungsten Replicator working together to provide both local (individual clusters) and global (multiple clusters working together) data service for continuous 24/7 MySQL operations.

Connectivity

Complete and Integrated
(Tungsten Proxy)

Orchestration

Integrated Business Rules
(Tungsten Manager)

Replication

Advanced Local and Global
(Tungsten Replicator)

Galera Cluster

Galera Cluster is a decent solution for local MySQL HA needs, especially when dealing with smaller sized transactions. As workloads increase, transactions become larger, or if geo distribution is needed, Galera Cluster becomes less attractive due to significant performance overhead. Also a 3rd-party proxy or load balancer would be needed for maximum performance and availability benefits.

Connectivity

Direct (benefits from 3rd party proxy or load balancer)

Orchestration

Limited

Replication

Sync replication for local needs, N/A for multi-site/global needs

	Tungsten Cluster	Galera Cluster
Connectivity	Complete and Integrated (Tungsten Proxy)	Direct (benefits from 3rd party proxy or load balancer)
Orchestration	Integrated Business Rules (Tungsten Manager)	Limited
Replication	Advanced Local and Global (Tungsten Replicator)	Sync replication for local needs, N/A for multi-site/global needs

Galera Cluster Comparison

Use Cases Supported

MySQL HA

Supported

MySQL DR

Supported

Not Supported

MySQL Zero Downtime Maintenance

Supported

MySQL Continous Operations

Supported

MySQL Multi-Primary

Supported

MySQL Active/Passive Clusters

Supported

Not Supported

MySQL Active/Active Clusters

Supported

Not Supported

MySQL Geo-Scale Clusters

Supported

Not Supported

Features & Benefits

Continuous Operations

4.67

2.50

Zero Downtime Maintenance

Both database, operating system and hardware changes & upgrades

Supported

High Availability

Automatic failover of primary

Multi-master in use

DR with Active/Passive Cluster

Automated site level switch with one failover command

Must mix replication technologies, involves DIY

DR with Active/Active Cluster

Only requires repointing the apps

Active/Active not supported

DR Failback

Single command, fast

Manual rebuild needed

Backup & Data Recovery

Flexible backups using existing external tools

Standard tools; however requires additional steps compared to other technologies

Scalability/Read replicas

4.40

3.80

Scalability/Read replicas

Supported

Supported (all active)

Scalability/Physical location

Deploy anywhere, on-prem and in the cloud (also hybrid- and multi-cloud)

Deploy anywhere but single site only

Scalability/Instance size

Choose the instance size, minimal requirements

DB Node Auto-Scale

No auto-scale. Requires manual steps

DB Cluster Scaling

Ideal for the SaaS apps (Pod Architecture)

Pod Architecture

Geographic Scaling

5.00

0.67

Scalability/Read replicas

Across regions, availability zones, and clouds

Mix replication technologies, no management

Active/Active Geo-Clusters

Multi-site active/active supported and widely deployed

Not supported

Active/Passive Geo-Clusters

Supported and widely deployed in cross-regions and cross-clouds, also on-premises

Complicated due to mixing of replication technologies and no management layer

Performance

4.75

2.75

Smart-Scale

Tungsten Proxy with automatic read/write split, no application changes

No proxy included

Load Balancing

Highly configurable with automatic read/write splitting

All masters, but requires application logic or additional proxy (not included)

Up to Date Read Replicas

Using asynchronous replication

All masters with synchronous replication

Robust Database Performance

Tune your favorite database, asynchronous replication adds almost no performance penalty

Depends on workload due to synchronous replication

Transparency

5.00

2.67

No Application Changes

Works out of box without app changes

Some features require application changes, certain SQL constructs not supported

All MySQL Versions

Native MySQL: Community, MySQL Enterprise, MariaDB, Percona Server, all versions

Based on Galera builds of MySQL

Compatibility With All Database Engines

All MySQL engines

InnoDB only

Security

4.33

Security/Encryption at rest

Can leverage existing cloud or filesystem encryption technologies

Security/Encryption in flight

Supported for all traffic

Compliance (PCI, HIPAA)

Can be used in security/privacy standards

Management and Monitoring

4.80

3.40

Deployment

Easy to deploy

Complex, easier with 3rd party tools such as ClusterControl; or Galera Manager (on AWS only)

Cluster Management

Easy management via web-based GUI

Complex due to issuing commands to control replication; Galera manager available, but brand new (AWS only)

Monitoring - GUI

Full GUI based cluster monitoring. Performance monitoring with Prometheus

Complex due to issuing commands to control replication, Galera manager available but brand new (AWS only)

Alerts / Notifications

Integration with notifications systems

Scripted

OS/DB Patching

Assistance with scripts, no downtime

Real-time Data (Analytics, Data Lake, Reporting)

5.00

3.00

Replication Into Analytics

Real-time to the data analytics engines (AWS Redshift, Hadoop, Vertica, many others)

Using native replication, 3rd party or DIY tools

Filtering

Complex filtering at schema and data level

Basic filters, not useful in multi-master

Cluster Aware

Replication stream not interupted by loss of a single cluster node

Replication stream not interrupted by loss of a single cluster node

Support Services

24/7 Support

5.00

3.00

24/7 Support

24/7 support with high, near 100% customer satisfaction

24/7 directly from Codership, or through Percona or MariaDB, 4 hour reponse time

Fast Support Reponse Time

The fastest in the industry, averaging less than 3 minutes for Urgent support request.

4 hours, could be catostrophic for enterprise

Support Team Experience

Each member has 20+ years experience on DBA and Site Reliability

Core developers among support staff

Intangibles

MySQL Version Support

5.00

3.00

MySQL Community

Fully supported, all versions up to 8.0

8.0.21

MySQL Enterprise

Fully supported, all versions up to 8.0

Not supported

MariaDB

Fully supported, all versions up to 10.5

Most MariaDB versions with MariaDB Galera

Percona Server

Fully supported

Most Percona versions with Percona XtraDB

Infrastructure and Platform

5.00

3.00

On-premises Deployment

Fully supported

Cloud Deployment

All cloud environments (AWS, Google Cloud, MS Azure) are supported

Multi-Cloud

Fully supported

Except for complicated DIY deployments

Hybrid-Cloud

Fully supported

Except for complicated DIY deployments

Product Maturity

5.00

2.33

Complete

One solution for HA, DR & Geo-Scale

No proxy, no multi-site

Integrated

Comes with Manager, Proxy & Replicator

No proxy, which is critical for MySQL clustering

Fully Tested

Proven in business-critical customer environments

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

4.33

3.67

Low Subscription Cost, High Value

Instance size does not matter, non-linear pricing (additional clusters are at increasingly lower cost), no cost TrueUps

Support costs unknown

24/7 Support

Included

Offered, but could be up to 4 hour response time

Few DBA Resource Needed

Large number of clusters can be managed with small number of DBAs

Tungsten Clustering

Tungsten Clustering comes at an equal or often lower total cost of ownership (TCO) versus alternative solutions and provides access to the best MySQL database engineers at a moments notice via 24/7 human-only enterprise support.

The Tungsten Clustering family of products is the only complete, fully-integrated, fully-tested MySQL HA, DR and geo-clustering solution running on-premises and in the cloud combined with industry-best and fastest, 24/7 support for business-critical MySQL, MariaDB, & Percona Server applications.

Continuous Operations

High Availability

Disaster Recovery

Global Scaling

Watch the Comparison Presentation

MySQL HA/DR/Geo-Scale - High Noon #2: Galera Cluster

Read the Comparison Blog

Galera - High Noon with Tungsten Clustering for MySQL High Availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR) and Geographic Distribution

This is the second blog in our ‘High Noon’ comparison series in which we look at the main solutions for MySQL high availability, disaster recovery and geographic distribution. Here we focus on highly available, geo-scale, multi-region MySQL for mission-critical sites and apps with Codership’s Galera and its variants (MariaDB Galera and Percona XtraDB Cluster) as compared to MySQL clusters with Continuent Tungsten, the only complete, fully-integrated solution for highly-available MySQL clustering solution - for any version of MySQL, MariaDB, and Percona Server - on-premises, in the cloud, hybrid-cloud or multi-cloud.

Matthew Lang

Feb 16, 2021

High Noon Competitor Comparisons, Disaster Recovery, MySQL High Availability, Tungsten Clustering

Upgrade From the Following Solutions

Amazon Aurora

Galera Cluster
(aka XtraDB Cluster and MariaDB Cluster)

MySQL InnoDB Cluster

Google CloudSQL

Microsoft Azure Database for MySQL

ClusterControl

Do It Yourself Solution
(such as with ProxySQL and Orchestrator)

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