TiDB

TiDB (Titanium Database) is an open-source distributed relational database management system that combines MySQL familiarity with modern distributed architecture power. Designed to handle hybrid OLTP and OLAP workloads (HTAP), TiDB delivers automatic horizontal scalability while maintaining ACID consistency. This solution enables organizations to transition from monolithic databases to distributed infrastructure without rewriting existing applications.

Fundamentals of TiDB

Three-layer architecture: TiDB Server (SQL), TiKV (Raft-based distributed storage), and PD (Placement Driver for orchestration)
MySQL protocol compatibility enabling transparent migration of existing applications
Compute-storage separation offering independent scalability of each component
Native distributed transaction support with Snapshot isolation guaranteeing ACID consistency

Strategic benefits

Infinite horizontal scalability without service interruption, managing petabytes of data
Native high availability with multi-region replication and automatic failover
HTAP performance combining transactional and analytical processing on the same infrastructure
Reduced operational costs through auto-scaling and elimination of manual sharding
Cloud-native ecosystem with Kubernetes support and flexible multi-cloud deployment
Active community and commercial support from PingCAP for mission-critical environments

Architecture and components

TiDB's architecture relies on three main components working in harmony. TiDB Server acts as the stateless SQL layer, handling queries and execution planning. TiKV constitutes the distributed storage engine based on Raft consensus, ensuring durability and consistency. The Placement Driver (PD) orchestrates the cluster, managing metadata and automatic data balancing.

tidb-cluster.yaml

# TiDB Cluster Configuration with TiDB Operator (Kubernetes)
apiVersion: pingcap.com/v1alpha1
kind: TidbCluster
metadata:
  name: production-cluster
  namespace: tidb-cluster
spec:
  version: v7.5.0
  timezone: UTC
  pvReclaimPolicy: Retain
  
  pd:
    baseImage: pingcap/pd
    replicas: 3
    requests:
      storage: "100Gi"
    config: |
      [replication]
        max-replicas = 3
        location-labels = ["zone", "rack", "host"]
  
  tikv:
    baseImage: pingcap/tikv
    replicas: 6
    requests:
      storage: "1Ti"
    config: |
      [storage]
        reserve-space = "10GB"
      [raftstore]
        region-max-size = "144MB"
  
  tidb:
    baseImage: pingcap/tidb
    replicas: 3
    service:
      type: LoadBalancer
    config: |
      [performance]
        max-procs = 0
        tcp-keep-alive = true

Progressive implementation

Compatibility assessment: Analyze existing MySQL schema with TiDB Data Migration (DM) to identify potential incompatibilities
Pilot deployment: Install a test TiDB cluster using TiUP or TiDB Operator depending on infrastructure (bare-metal or Kubernetes)
Data migration: Use TiDB Lightning for initial import and DM for continuous synchronization from MySQL
Load testing: Validate performance with tools like Sysbench and adjust region and replica configuration
Progressive switchover: Migrate traffic by business service with monitoring via integrated Prometheus and Grafana
Continuous optimization: Analyze slow queries with TiDB Dashboard and tune distributed indexes

Expert tip

Start with TiDB Serverless (PingCAP-managed DBaaS) for initial projects to evaluate compatibility without managing infrastructure. For production, initially size TiKV with a 3:1 ratio between raw storage and effective data to accommodate replicas and growth. Enable placement rules to distribute critical data across multiple availability zones from the start.

Ecosystem and tools

TiDB Operator: Automated TiDB cluster management on Kubernetes with rolling updates and auto-scaling
TiDB Lightning: Optimized bulk import tool to load terabytes of data in hours
TiCDC: Change Data Capture for real-time synchronization to Kafka, MySQL, or other TiDB clusters
TiFlash: Integrated columnar analytical engine to accelerate OLAP queries without ETL
TiDB Dashboard: Unified web interface for monitoring, diagnostics, and performance analysis
Chaos Mesh: Chaos engineering framework to test TiDB cluster resilience

TiDB represents a strategic solution for enterprises facing traditional database limitations against exponential data growth. By combining MySQL compatibility, cloud-native scalability, and HTAP capabilities, TiDB eliminates the trade-off between operational simplicity and distributed performance. Adopting TiDB enables data infrastructure modernization while preserving existing application investments, thereby reducing time-to-market and total cost of ownership.