= Read-Only Slaves/Writable Master and Database Sharding

Sequel has support for read only slave databases
with a writable master database, as well as database sharding (where you can
pick a server to use for a given dataset).  Support for both
features is database independent, and should work for all database adapters
that ship with Sequel.

== The :servers Database option

Sharding and read_only support are both enabled via the :servers database
option.  Using the :servers database option makes Sequel use a connection pool
class that supports sharding, and the minimum required to enable sharding
support is to use the empty hash:

  DB=Sequel.connect('postgres://master_server/database', :servers=>{})

In most cases, you are probably not going to want to use an empty hash.  Keys in the server hash are
not restricted to type, but the general recommendation is to use a symbol
unless you have special requirements. Values in the server hash should be
either hashes or procs that return hashes. These hashes are merged into
the Database object's default options hash to get the connection options
for the shard, so you don't need to override all options, just the ones
that need to be modified.  For example, if you are using the same user,
password, and database name and just the host is changing, you only need
a :host entry in each shard's hash.

Note that all servers should have the same schema for all
tables you are accessing, unless you really know what you are doing.

== Master and Slave Database Configurations

=== Single Read-Only Slave, Single Master

To use a single, read-only slave that handles SELECT queries, the following
is the simplest configuration:

  DB=Sequel.connect('postgres://master_server/database', \
    :servers=>{:read_only=>{:host=>'slave_server'}})

This will use the slave_server for SELECT queries and master_server for
other queries.

=== Multiple Read-Only Slaves, Single Master

Let's say you have 4 slave database servers with names slave_server0,
slave_server1, slave_server2, and slave_server3.

  DB=Sequel.connect('postgres://master_server/database', \
    :servers=>{:read_only=>proc{|db| {:host=>db.get_slave_host}}})
  def DB.get_slave_host
    @current_host ||= -1
    "slave_server#{(@current_host+=1)%4}"
  end

This will use one of the slave servers for SELECT queries and use the
master_server for other queries.  It's also possible to pick a random host
instead of using the round robin approach presented above, but that can result
in less optimal resource usage.

=== Multiple Read-Only Slaves, Multiple Masters

This involves the same basic idea as the multiple slaves, single master, but
it shows that the master database is named :default.  So for 4 masters and
4 slaves:

  DB=Sequel.connect('postgres://master_server/database', \
    :servers=>{:read_only=>proc{|db| {:host=>db.get_slave_host}}, \
      :default=>proc{|db| {:host=>db.get_master_host}}})
  def DB.get_slave_host
    @current_slave_host ||= -1
    "slave_server#{(@current_slave_host+=1)%4}"
  end
  def DB.get_master_host
    @current_master_host ||= -1
    "master_server#{(@current_master_host+=1)%4}"
  end
  
== Sharding

There is specific support in Sequel for handling master/slave database
combinations, with the only necessary setup being the database configuration.
However, since sharding is always going to be implementation dependent, Sequel
supplies the basic infrastructure, but you have to tell it which server to use
for each dataset.  Let's assume a simple scenario, a distributed rainbow
table for SHA-1 hashes, sharding based on the first hex character (for a total
of 16 shards).  First, you need to configure the database:

  servers = {}
  (('0'..'9').to_a + ('a'..'f').to_a).each do |hex|
    servers[hex.to_sym] = {:host=>"hash_host_#{hex}"}
  end
  DB=Sequel.connect('postgres://hash_host/hashes', :servers=>servers)
  
This configures 17 servers, the 16 shard servers (/hash_host_[0-9a-f]/), and 1
default server which will be used if no shard is specified ("hash_host").  If
you want the default server to be one of the shard servers (e.g. hash_host_a),
it's easiest to do:

  DB=Sequel.connect('postgres://hash_host_a/hashes', :servers=>servers)

That will still set up a second pool of connections for the default server,
since it considers the default server and shard servers independent.  Note that
if you always set the shard on a dataset before using it in queries, it will
not attempt to connect to the default server.  Sequel may use the default
server in queries it generates itself, such as to get column names or table
schemas, so you should always have a default server that works.

To set the shard for a given query, you use the Dataset#server method:

  DB[:hashes].server(:a).where(:hash=>/31337/)
  
That will return all matching rows on the hash_host_a shard that have a hash
column that contains 31337.

Rainbow tables are generally used to find specific hashes, so to save some
work, you might want to add a method to the dataset that automatically sets
the shard to use.  This is fairly easy using a Sequel::Model:

  class Rainbow < Sequel::Model(:hashes)
    dataset_module do
      def plaintext_for_hash(hash)
        raise(ArgumentError, 'Invalid SHA-1 Hash') unless /\A[0-9a-f]{40}\z/.match(hash)
        server(hash[0...1].to_sym).where(:hash=>hash).get(:plaintext)
      end
    end
  end
  
  Rainbow.plaintext_for_hash("e580726d31f6e1ad216ffd87279e536d1f74e606")

The connection pool can be further controlled to change how it handles attempts
to access shards that haven't been configured.  The default is
to assume the :default shard.  However, you can specify a
different shard using the :servers_hash option when connecting
to the database:

  DB = Sequel.connect('postgres://...', :servers_hash=>Hash.new(:some_shard))

You can also use this feature to raise an exception if an
unconfigured shard is used:

  DB = Sequel.connect('postgres://...', :servers_hash=>Hash.new{raise 'foo'})

If you specify a :servers_hash option to raise an exception for non configured
shards you should also explicitly specify a :read_only entry in your :servers option
for the case where a shard is not specified. In most cases it is sufficient
to make the :read_only entry the same as the :default shard:

  servers = {:read_only => {}}
  (('0'..'9').to_a + ('a'..'f').to_a).each do |hex|
    servers[hex.to_sym] = {:host=>"hash_host_#{hex}"}
  end
  DB=Sequel.connect('postgres://hash_host/hashes', :servers=>servers, 
    :servers_hash=>Hash.new{raise Exception.new("Invalid Server")}) 

=== Sharding Plugin

Sequel comes with a sharding plugin that makes it easy to use sharding with model objects.
It makes sure that objects retrieved from a specific shard are always saved back to that
shard, allows you to create objects on specific shards, and even makes sure associations
work well with shards.  You just need to remember to set to model to use the plugin:

  class Rainbow < Sequel::Model(:hashes)
    plugin :sharding
  end

  Rainbow.server(:a).first(:id=>1).update(:plaintext=>'VGM')

If all of your models are sharded, you can set all models to use the plugin via:

  Sequel::Model.plugin :sharding

=== server_block Extension

By default, you must specify the server/shard you want to use for every dataset/action,
or Sequel will use the default shard.  If you have a group of queries that should use the
same shard, it can get a bit redundent to specify the same shard for all of them.

The server_block extension adds a Database#with_server method that scopes all database
access inside the block to the given shard by default:

  DB.extension :server_block
  DB.with_server(:a) do
    # this SELECT query uses the "a" shard
    if r = Rainbow.first(:hash=>/31337/)
      r.count += 1
      # this UPDATE query also uses the "a" shard
      r.save
    end
  end

The server_block extension doesn't currently integrate with the sharding plugin, as it
ties into the Dataset#server method.  This shouldn't present a problem in practice as
long as you just access the models inside the with_server block, since they will use
the shard set by with_server by default.  However, you will probably have issues if
you retrieve the models inside the block and save them outside of the block.  If you
need to do that, call the server method explicitly on the dataset used to retrieve the
model objects.

=== arbitrary_servers Extension

By default, Sequel's sharding support is designed to work with predefined shards.  It ships
with Database#add_servers and Database#remove_servers methods to modify these predefined
shards on the fly, but it is a bit cumbersome to work with truly arbitrary servers
(requiring you to call add_servers before use, then remove_servers after use).

The arbitrary_servers extension allows you to pass a server/shard options hash as the
server to use, and those options will be merged directly into the database's default options:

  DB.extension :arbitrary_servers
  DB[:rainbows].server(:host=>'hash_host_a').all
  # or
  DB[:rainbows].server(:host=>'hash_host_b', :database=>'backup').all

arbitrary_servers is designed to work well in conjunction with the server_block extension:

  DB.with_server(:host=>'hash_host_b', :database=>'backup') do
    DB.synchronize do
      # All queries here default to the backup database on hash_host_b
    end
  end

If you are using arbitrary_servers with server_block, you may want to
define the following method (or something similar) so that you don't
need to call synchronize separately:

  def DB.with_server(*)
    super{synchronize{yield}}
  end

The reason for the synchronize method is that it checks out a connection
and makes the same connection available for the duration of the block.
If you don't do that, Sequel will probably disconnect from the database
and reconnect to the database on each request, since connections to
arbitrary servers are not cached.

Note that this extension only works with the sharded threaded connection
pool.  If you are using the sharded single connection pool, you need
to switch to the sharded threaded connection pool before using this
extension.  If you are passing the :single_threaded option to
the Database, just remove that option.  If you are setting:

  Sequel.single_threaded = true 

just remove or comment out that code.