Isolating workloads with Systemd slices

The blog post discusses the use of systemd slices as an efficient method to achieve resource isolation for complex database servers, specifically focusing on ScyllaDB. Unlike Docker, which can be overkill with its OS image requirements and network abstraction, systemd slices offer a lighter alternative by utilizing Linux cgroups to manage resource allocation among processes. This method allows ScyllaDB to allocate resources effectively between its main server and auxiliary applications, such as backup tools and metrics agents, by defining hierarchical slices with specific resource priorities. The post highlights a benchmark test demonstrating the benefits of systemd slices, where ScyllaDB maintains high throughput and low latency even under CPU stress, thanks to prioritized resource allocation. The approach emphasizes the ability to manage resources without the overhead of container technologies, providing a native solution for resource isolation that can extend to ad hoc commands and various resource types like CPU, memory, and I/O.