[dba-Tech] VoltDB and its treatment of RAM on multiple servers

[Arthur Fuller]

VoltDB, the (relatively) new database from Michael Stonebraker, intended
for in-RAM databases needing to perform 50K+ transactions per second, has
some way of treating a bunch of servers as a logical unit. IOW, 8 servers
each equipped with 64GB of RAM can be regarded as a single 512GB unit of
RAM. I understand how this approach can work with hard disks, but I have no
clue how to make it work with RAM. Do you?

The documentation and even packaging of VoltDB suggests that its ideal
hardware environment is Linux (since the Windows version is installed and
run using Docker). I don't know enough about Linux to know whether this
"union" of servers' RAM is built-in or an innovation provided within
VoltDB. (Speak up, Jim and other Linux gurus!)

Whatever the answer, I can't see this working with the typical mix of
Windows boxes most of us, other than the thick wallets, being able to
cobble this together, especially since those of us with multiple boxes
typically run different versions on different boxes, so we can support
clients running various versions of Windows, Access, SQL, Office, etc. Add
to that the problem that on Windows VoltDB runs only in Docker. So I think
this is a strictly-Linux solution.

Assuming that I'm correct (Linux-only), I'm still faced with the problem of
how to implement it. Assume modest hardware, say three boxes of varying
vintage each running the same version of Linux, and all connected. Further
assume that as yet, VoltDB is not installed. Is it possible to treat their
collective RAM as a single logical unit of RAM? If so, how so?

-- 
Arthur