vFabric SQLFire 1.0 Release Notes

What's in the Release Notes

Note: To upgrade from vFabric SQLFire 1.0.0 to the current version, see Installing or Upgrading vFabric SQLFire.

The release notes cover the following topics:

• What's New in SQLFire 1.0.1
• Basic Features of SQLFire 1.0.0
• Changes for SQLFire 1.0 Beta Participants
• Resolved Issues
• Known Issues

What's New in SQLFire 1.0.1

• Numerous bug fixes and usability enhancements. See Resolved Issues.
  
  This update also includes the Apache Derby bug fixes DERBY-3408, DERBY-3887, DERBY-4338, DERBY-4748, DERBY-5113, and DERBY-5157.
• New sqlf commands were added to provide DdlUtils functionality for importing and exporting database schemas and table data. See Using SQLF Commands to Export and Import Data.
• You can now invoke custom result processor classes by specifying the implementation class name, rather than an alias. See Using Data-Aware Procedures.
• The SYS.SYSTABLES table was updated to include a new column for installed AsyncEventListeners. The WRITER, LISTENER, and LOADER columns were updated to display the actual class name of installed writers, listeners, and loaders.
• Query plans have been updated to include additional information about table and index scans. See Capture Query Execution Plans.
• Updated exception text for SQLState 0A000 errors (feature not supported errors).
• Listener, writer, and loader implementations can now use classes that you have dynamically loaded into SQLFire. See Storing and Loading JAR Files in SQLFire.
• The CREATE TABLE syntax was updated to support attaching multiple AsyncEventListener implementations, and correct the syntax for GATEWAYSENDER.
• The deprecated SYS.ADD_ASYNC_EVENT_LISTENER and SYS.REMOVE_ASYNC_EVENT_LISTENER procedures have been removed. Use CREATE ASYNCEVENTLISTENER and DROP ASYNCEVENTLISTENER instead.

Basic Features of SQLFire 1.0.0

VMware® vFabric™ SQLFire is a memory-optimized, distributed database management system designed for applications that have demanding scalability and availability requirements. Applications can manage database tables entirely in memory, or they can overflow table data from memory to disk. A SQLFire distributed system can be easily scaled out using commodity hardware.

SQLFire provides the following basic features:

• Tables that are replicated or partitioned across the SQLFire distributed system
• Redundancy for partitioned tables
• Server groups to control the placement of database objects, such as table replicas and partitions
• Data-aware stored procedures that can execute in parallel on multiple SQLFire members
• JDBC peer client and thin client drivers
• ADO.NET thin client driver
• Eviction with disk overflow for partitioned or replicated tables
• Persistent data dictionary
• Automatic rebalancing of data when SQLFire servers are added
• Transactions with isolation levels TRANSACTION_NONE, and TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED
• Loaders for read-through caching of a datastore
• Listeners for responding to DML events on table data
• Writers for write-through caching
• AsyncEventListeners for asynchronous write-behind caching of a datastore
• Tools for monitoring cluster membership and analyzing queries

See the SQLFire User's Guide for more information.

Changes for SQLFire 1.0 Beta Participants

This section highlights some of the key changes made to the SQLFire product since the Beta release.

• gemfire.jar not required in classpath

  The sqlfire.jar file now incorporates all of the classes that are necessary from the vFabric GemFire core engine. The gemfire.jar file is no longer required in the CLASSPATH for SQLFire members or client applications.

• JAR file installation

  You can now install JAR file classes directly into a SQLFire system using either the install_jar procedure or the SYS.JARS table.

• User-defined type support

  A user-defined type is a serializable Java class whose instances are stored in columns. User-defined functions can be defined on columns of user-defined types. You can also use these types can as argument types for stored procedures. User-defined types are managed using the CREATE TYPE and DROP TYPE statements.

• Improved performance

  SQLFire includes many performance enhancements, including an enhanced query optimizer tha makes better use of indexes, batching support from thin clients, and faster execution for unprepared queries.

• Reduced memory footprint for table and index data

Resolved Issues

Issues Resolved in 1.0.1

For information about published issues that were resolved in the VMware bug tracking system, see BugsFixedSQLFire101.html.

Known Issues

This section highlights certain known issues in vFabric SQLFire and its supported platforms. See BugNotesSQLFire10.html for issues that have been registered as bugs in the VMWare bug tracking system.

vFabric License Server Limitation

If you are installing SQLFire in a vSphere virtual machine as part of the vFabric Cloud Application Platform, you can either use the vFabric License Server to install your SQLFire licenses, or you can install the licenses locally within the SQLFire installation. However, you cannot use the vFabric License Server to manage licenses on physical machines, or with standalone SQLFire licenses such as vFabric SQLFire Enterprise.

See vFabric SQLFire Licensing.