ObjectBox EdgeX v1.1 – database with ARM32 support

With EdgeX Foundry just reaching v1.1, we continue to provide ObjectBox as an embedded high-performance database backend so you can start using ObjectBox EdgeX v1.1 right away. If you need data reliability and high-speed database operations, ObjectBox is for you. Additionally, starting with ObjectBox EdgeX 1.1, you can use it on 32-bit ARM devices.

Combining the speed and size advantages of ObjectBox on the EdgeX platform, we empower companies to analyze more data locally on the machine, enabling new use cases.

With ObjectBox-backed EdgeX we’re bringing the efficiency, performance and small footprint of the ObjectBox database to all EdgeX applications. It is fully compatible, so you can use it as a drop-in replacement: you call against the same REST and Go EdgeX APIs. As simple as that;no need to change any code.

Performance comparison of EdgeX database backends

EdgeX Foundry comes with a choice of two database engines: MongoDB and Redis. ObjectBox EdgeX brings an alternative to Redis and MongoDB to the table.  Because ObjectBox is an embedded database, optimized for high speed and ease of use while also delivering data reliability, it enables a new set of use cases. As we all know, benchmarks are hard to do. This is why all our benchmarks are open source and we invite you to check them out for yourself. To give you a quick impression of how you could benefit from using ObjectBox, let’s have a look at how each compares in basic database operations on “Device Readings”, one of the most performance intensive data points.

Note: The Read and Write operations (all CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations are measured in objects / second). The benchmarks test internal EdgeX database layer performance, not the REST APIs throughput.

These benchmarks provide a good perspective why you should consider ObjectBox with EdgeX. Benchmark sources are available publicly in ObjectBox EdgeX github repo.

So, why is ObjectBox EdgeX faster?

First of all, you are probably aware of the phrase “Lies, damned lies, and statistics benchmarks”. Of course, you should look at performance for yourself and consider based on your specific use case needs. That’s why we make our benchmarks available as open source. It is a good starting point.

To make it easier to compare ObjectBox (in addition to our open source benchmarks) here are some of the high-level “unfair advantages” that make ObjectBox fast:

• Objects: As you can derive from its name, ObjectBox is all about for objects. It’s highly optimized for persisting objects. The EdgeX architecture and Go sources are a great fit here as it puts Go’s objects (structs) in the center of its interface. This means, we can omit costly transformations and this helps with speed.
• Embedded database: Redis and MongoDB are client/server databases running in separate processes. ObjectBox, however, is running in the same process as EdgeX itself (each EdgeX microservice, to be precise). This has definite efficiency advantages, but it also comes with some restrictions: Whereas you can put Redis/MongoDB in separate Dockers or machines, this option is not available for ObjectBox yet.
• Transaction merging: ObjectBox can execute individual write operations in a common database transaction. This means, we can reduce the costly transactions for a number of write operations. This is a great way to add on performance, delaying the transaction end by single digit milliseconds.

Get started with ObjectBox EdgeX

The simplest way to get started is to fetch the latest docker-compose.yml and start the containers:

You can check the status of your running services by going to http://localhost:8500/. At this point, you have the REST services running at their respective ports, available to access from your EdgeX applications.

Find more details, instructions for ARM32, and sources in our GitHub repo at  https://github.com/objectbox/edgex-objectbox.

If you’re new to EdgeX, find out all about the open source  IoT Edge Platform here. The EdgeX project is led by the Linux Foundation and supported by many industry players, including Dell, IBM, and Fujitsu.

We love to hear from you ?

We’re very interested to hear about the challenges you are facing on the edge and in IoT. As performance experts, we are always embracing a tough challenge. Reach out to us to set up a pilot project.

Is there something you are missing? Please do reach out to us. We want to make ObjectBox the best edge data persistence layer available. We love to receive your feedback.

What next?

Find out more about ObjectBox EdgeX and get started, go directly to GitHub or download the snap on Snapcraft.