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Storage

Apache Ignite 3 features a modern and highly configurable storage system that allows you to choose where and how your data is stored. This topic provides an overview of storage principles in Apache Ignite.

The diagram below depicts the relationship between tables, distribution zones, storage profiles and storage engines:

In Apache Ignite, storage has both cluster-wide and node-specific components:

Cluster-wide Components: Table definitions, Distribution Zone configurations, and Profile names/types are consistent across the entire cluster.
Node-specific Components: The actual implementation of a Storage Profile is configured locally on each node.

In Apache Ignite’s architecture:

Tables contain your data and are assigned to distribution zones
Distribution zones determine how data is partitioned and distributed across the cluster
Storage profiles define which storage engine to use and how to configure it
Storage engines handle the actual storage and retrieval of data

For example, all nodes using a profile named "fast_storage" must configure it with the same engine type (e.g., aimem), but can have different settings in storage profiles (like memory allocation) based on each node’s capabilities.

What is a Storage Engine?

Storage engines handle how your data is physically written to and read from storage media. Each engine has its own approach to organizing and accessing data, optimized for different usage patterns. It defines:

The binary format of stored data
Configuration properties for specific data formats

Apache Ignite supports different storage engines that can be used interchangeably, depending on your expected database workload.

Available Storage Engines

AIMemory Storage (Volatile)

Apache Ignite Volatile storage provides quick, in-memory storage without persistence guarantees. All data is stored in RAM and will be lost on cluster shutdown.

AIPersist Storage (B+ tree)

Apache Ignite Persistence provides responsive persistent storage. It stores all data on disk, loading as much as possible into RAM for processing. Each partition is stored in a separate file, along with indexes and metadata.

RocksDB Storage (LSM tree)

RocksDB is an experimental persistent storage engine based on LSM tree, optimized for environments with a high number of write requests.

Configuring Storage Engines

Storage engine configuration applies to all profiles using that engine. All storage engines start with their respective default configuration. To change storage engine configuration, use the CLI tool:

node config show ignite.storage.engines
node config update ignite.storage.engines.aipersist.checkpoint.intervalMillis = 16000

After updating the configuration, restart the node for changes to take effect.

What is a Storage Profile?

A storage profile is the Apache Ignite node entity that defines the configuration parameters for a Storage Engine. A Distribution Zone must be configured to use a set of Storage Profiles declared in the node configuration. A table can only have a single primary storage profile defined.

Storage profiles define:

Which storage engine is used to store data
Configuration values for that storage engine

You can declare any number of storage profiles on a node.

Default Storage Profile

Apache Ignite creates a default storage profile that uses the persistent Apache Ignite storage engine (aipersist). Unless otherwise specified, distribution zones will use this storage profile. To check the currently available profiles on a node, use:

node config show ignite.storage.profiles

Creating and Using Storage Profiles

While Apache Ignite creates the default storage profile automatically, you can create additional profiles as needed. To create a new profile, pass the profile configuration to the storage.profiles parameter:

node config update "ignite.storage.profiles:{rocksProfile{engine:rocksdb,sizeBytes:10000}}"

After configuration is updated and the node restarted, the new storage profile becomes available for use by distribution zones.

Defining Tables With Storage Profiles

After defining storage profiles and distribution zones, you can create tables using SQL or from code. Both zone and storage profile cannot be changed after table creation.

To create a table with a specific storage profile:

CREATE ZONE IF NOT EXISTS exampleZone STORAGE PROFILES ['default, profile1'];

CREATE TABLE exampleTable (key INT PRIMARY KEY, my_value VARCHAR)
ZONE exampleZone STORAGE PROFILE 'profile1';

In this case, exampleTable uses the storage engine with parameters specified in the profile1 storage profile. If a node doesn’t have profile1 configured, the table won’t be stored on that node. Each node may have different configuration for profile1, and data will be stored according to local configuration.

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