The next feature added to Tarantool/Box development branch is box.socket, a luasocket-style API to work with TCP and UDP sockets.

Initially this was requested for monitoring and audit of the server, for example, to send a UDP packet to a statistics server on every connect/dicsonnect, or simply once in every few seconds.

But there are other very interesting uses:

  • node.js -like operation mode, when http and script server is a single application. In our case, a database, a Web server and a scripting engine (there is a prototype of Javascript stored procedures for Tarantool, too),
  • proxying - a replica can automatically proxy an update request to the master server,
  • custom client-server protocols.

Apparently the lack of network I/O in traditional databases is a restriction of a secure client/server operation model. Once you’re not worried as much about security, this becomes a very interesting addition. I’m sure we’ll learn about all the drawbacks of the approach in the coming months :)