Kubernetes-on-Rails?! KateSQL: A Shopify-Scale Cloud-Hosted MySQL Platform

Running MySQL​ in The Cloud​ is a challenge. Replicated MySQL loves stability; the cloud eschews stability. Replicated MySQL loves low-latency high-performance hardware; the cloud is mainly composed of lower-performance virtualized hardware. For reliability reasons, it’s necessary to run across multiple regions. Add in Kubernetes (which loves statelessness) on top of all of this and it can be difficult to keep anything safely running at all. We needed a Shopify-scale system for managing MySQL for our internal users, in a modern and automated way, with a minimum amount of toil. We needed to support safe and seamless migration between regions, zones, and Kubernetes clusters. We needed automatic and robust configuration and user/grant management. Shopify developed KateSQL, Shopify-scale cloud-hosted MySQL platform, over the past year to solve all of these problems and provide a MySQL platform that we will be able to grow with in the future. Speakers: Jeremy Cole and Akshay Suryawanshi – Shopify