In-Memory and Relaxed-Durability Databases

Adaptive Server 15.5 introduces in-memory and relaxed-durability databases.

In-memory databases reside entirely in cache and do not use disk storage for data or logs, and therefore do not require disk I/O. This results in potentially better performance than a traditional disk-resident database, as well as other advantages. However, since an in-memory database exists only in cache, you cannot recover the database if the supporting host is shut down or the database fails.

With relaxed-durability databases, Adaptive Server extends the performance benefits of an in-memory database to disk-resident databases. Disk-resident databases perform writes to disk, and ensure that the transactional ACID (atomicity, consistency, integrity, and durability) properties are maintained. A traditional disk-resident database operates at full durability to guarantee transactional recovery from a server failure. Relaxed-durability databases trade the full durability of committed transactions for enhanced runtime performance for transactional workloads. A relaxed-durability database created with the no_recovery level is similar to an in-memory database: you cannot recover data or logs if the server terminates or is shut down. You can also create a relaxed-durability database with the at_shutdown level, where transactions are written to disk if there is a proper shutdown of the database.

See the Adaptive Server Enterprise In-Memory Database Users Guide.