CouchDB: Roll Your Own, Or Go With a Service?

Nerval's Lobster writes "Developer and editor Jeff Cogswell asks: When it comes to implementing a CouchDB installation, do you roll your own, or go with a service that provides a hosted version of the database? He takes a look at some of the technologies present in CouchDB that can greatly influence that decision. His conclusion? Like all things, it's a little complicated. 'If you're going to be self-hosting—unless you're working on a really small system—don't use the basic CouchDB for anything,' he writes. 'If you want scalability, either go with Couchbase or BigCouch, or wait until Cloudant's BigCouch merger into CouchDB is officially available.' But going with a host also creates its own things to watch for, including potential issues with replication and eventual consistency."

Comments

People need to use txt files more

[Anonymous Coward]

And maybe a handful of Excel sheets, but only if you have lots of data.

Re:People need to use txt files more

[Mitchell314]

noob, real pros use access!

Re:People need to use txt files more

[Mitchell314]

I first learned about databases when I was taking a class on set theory (bio/math major); relational databases were casually mentioned in the relational algebra topic. Up till that point, I had just thought of databases as dumbed-down versions of spreadsheets. After messing around with sqlite and python for a couple afternoons, I fell in love with SQL.

Re:People need to use txt files more

[cheater512]

You fell in love with SQL? Most people just grudgingly cringe at it and get on with the job.

Re:People need to use txt files more

[Mitchell314]

Most of my work and studies were in scientific computing, and from my experiences the overall attitude and workflow is different than usual business software development.

Re:People need to use txt files more

[sirlark]

I don't see what's so bad about SQL. I am forever hearing from business types who want their reporting to be more flexible, and complaining that there must already be some tool for the job. My answer is invariably, there is a tool for the job. It's called SQL. Your data is already in a relational database, so learn how to use it. But that's too hard. And SAP, and Oracle Forms, and web front ends etc. are just plaster over the crumbling wall that is the fact that people who don't know how to use the right tools for their job and refuse to learn to do so are always being hired.

Re:People need to use txt files more

[sirlark]

If there is one field/sector that REALLY needs to learn how to use a database, it's the sciences. Keeping experimental data from anything but the simplest of experiments in spreadsheets is just ridiculous.

Re:People need to use txt files more

[cheater512]

Its not bad for complicated single run things like reports, but for something like a web app, squeezing data in to a string and then the DB server pulling the data back out of the string just seems convoluted.

Whatever he does

[korbulon]

Make sure Cosmo Spacely doesn't find out.

Re:Whatever he does

[jeffcogswell]

:-D Cogswell Cogs will win!

Hosted is usually a bad idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless the host you choose is within 5-10ms of your server network-wise you should always self-host.

An average site makes many queries per page to the database. The latency adds up fast. People often fail to understand this and end up with very slow sites and/or very frustrated developers.

Re:Hosted is usually a bad idea

[Mitchell314]

The best way to get around that is to cache every possible permutation of the webpage . . .

Particularly bad case of Slashdotting

[vikingpower]

TFA being hosted on slashdot.org en being unreachable, we are led to the conclusion that /. /.-ed itself. Hooray !

Re:Particularly bad case of Slashdotting

[Lunix Nutcase]

Maybe their using a hosted CouchDB? *ducks*

Re:Particularly bad case of Slashdotting

[Lunix Nutcase]

They're, obviously...

What?

[Kadagan AU]

What's a CouchDB? This seems like a niche subject without any description..

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a lot like /dev/null except that sometimes you might be able to get out from it some data that you put in.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Like /dev/null, it's web scale.

Couch as a service?

[WaffleMonster]

This could be a very compelling business model. Instead of producing physical goods like sofas and counches one could project them virtually using holograms and force fields. Couch service providers would be able to offer a wide array of couches virtually as a service. However I suspect if you fail to pay your bill on time your couch may become incresingly uncomfortable to sit in.

Re:Couch as a service?

[Lunix Nutcase]

CaaS?

Re:Couch as a service?

[module0000]

Seems like a product you'd expect from the Serius Cybernetics Corporation - maybe they'll ship them with Genuine People Personalities?

spoiler: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy

Re:couches

[cayenne8]

Yeah, the questions raging in my mind was not so much how to use CouchDB...but more along the lines of what the fuck is CouchDB...?

Man, who's writing the article synopsises (sp?) these days?

Lately they're assuming some fairly arcane things are common knowledge....

Betteridge's law of headlines

[Anonymous Coward]

No.

Re:couches

[alta]

You my friend have reached the "golden age" in IT. I can tell so by your sub 1m UID. CouchDB is only arcane to old farts who no longer understand the things the younger crowd finds as "in"

We're from the days when MySQL was getting stored procedures, UDFs and views. That's all old hat. Now databases have Couches, and probably ottomans and coffee tables as well.

Embrace your golden years and die out quietly like the rest of us.... :)

Re:couches

[OakDragon]

CouchDB was named after a real-world analog. When you buy things, you might bring them home and store them away in logical places, so you can find them again. Or, you might just throw it on the couch. The name stuck.

Re:couches

[RMingin]

I must be extra old today, because I was thinking the same thing. This seems like the summary is being needlessly obtuse, a single short introductory line would have completely sufficed.

Couchbase!=Couchdb

[Maudib]

Aside from the name and the founder, there is very little in common between CouchDB and Couchbase.

I'm pretty sure that Couchbase is initially being built around memcache.

Re:Couchbase!=Couchdb

[rwa2]

It's getting there...

The people who made CouchDB bought NorthScale, the people who made Membase, which was an attempt to get memcached to automagically store all of its data in a backend database, so the lazy front-end devs would no longer have to worry about doing the whole "is it in memcache? get it from memcache : get it from DB and put it in memcache" logic.

Couchbase 1.8 was still using SQLite as its backend database. But starting from Couchbase 2.0 they managed to start using CouchDB as the backend, which added a bunch of query stuff which wasn't practical with the old way. But yeah, it's still primarily memcached in a big way... except that you have to worry about disk write performance.

Re:couches

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you could see that it's an acronym for cluster of unreliable commodity hardware

Re:couches

[cayenne8]

Embrace your golden years and die out quietly like the rest of us.... :)

Does this now call for the perfunctory "Get Off My Lawn" statement?

:)

Re:couches

[alta]

And Get Off My Lawn!

Isn't CouchDB supposed to be in your living room?

[Mozai]

If whatever you're building is large enough that you think you're unable to host your own small NoSQL database, is it time to reconsider using a small NoSQL database?