The Fundamentals of RocksDB

RocksDB is a high-performance, embeddable storage engine initially developed by Facebook, now widely adopted across the tech industry by companies like LinkedIn, Meta, Google, and Yahoo due to its speed, reliability, and versatility. Built as a fork of Google's LevelDB, it is optimized for flash and SSD storage and utilizes Log Structured Merge Trees (LSM Trees) to handle write-heavy workloads efficiently. Unlike full databases, it functions as a storage engine that can be embedded directly into application servers, reducing latency and simplifying architecture by eliminating the need for separate database servers. RocksDB is highly customizable, allowing users to modify components like Memtables and SSTables, and supports real-time streaming applications such as Kafka Streams and Apache Flink. It offers advanced features like Bloom filters to reduce read and write amplification, and its level-based compaction strategy enhances performance by minimizing unnecessary I/O operations. RocksDB's flexibility is further enhanced by features like Column Families and Compaction Filters, which allow for tailored data management strategies, and it supports point-in-time snapshots for consistent data reads. The article also provides a practical example of using RocksDB with Golang for basic CRUD operations, illustrating its ease of integration and adaptability for various applications.