Riak 1.4 can count on the cluster

Basho's latest update to its distributed open source key/value database, Riak 1.4, has been released and brings with it the database's first distributed data type, PN-Counters. These are eventually consistent and can be incremented and decremented on any node across the cluster; a cookbook is in development which documents their use.

Riak 1.4 also has a new, more compact binary data format which reduces the storage overheads connected with small objects or large bucket names; new clusters will use the new format, while upgrading users will have the option to migrate to it when they are ready, as both old and new formats are supported side by side. The more compact format is also used in network communications, which should reduce traffic levels.

Other changes include improvements in secondary indexing with support for sorted and paginated query results, a more capable Riak Control administration GUI, progress reporting when trouble shooting clusters, and the ability for a node to give an overload message if it has too many queued messages.

Riak's commercial version, Riak Enterprise, has also been improved. Its data centre replication now supports SSL, NAT and sync scheduling, an ability to filter real-time write replication, and a technical preview of an optional "Active Anti-Entropy" mechanism which decreases data transfer times.

Riak 1.4 is available to download as source or as binaries for Debian 6 and 7, Ubuntu (12.04, 11.04, 10.04), FreeBSD, Mac OS X, RHEL (5 and 6), Fedora 17, SmartOS (1.6, 1.8, 13.1) and Solaris 10. Riak is published under the Apache License 2.

(djwm)