RethinkDB is designed for real-time applications. Its changefeeds push updates instantly to connected clients, powering live dashboards, collaborative tools, and IoT backends. But the same feature that makes RethinkDB attractive — continuous updates — also creates constant disk activity. Journals, checkpoints, and replication hammer the storage layer, and on traditional volumes, clusters slow down, fall behind, or recover too slowly.
Simplyblock removes these bottlenecks. With NVMe-over-TCP, zone-resilient volumes, and live scalability, it gives RethinkDB the storage backbone it needs to stay fast and reliable under load.
RethinkDB’s Realtime Model Pushes Storage Hard
Every change feed means continuous writes and reads. Add journals and checkpoints, and you’ve got a workload that relies heavily on disk throughput. When storage lags, change feeds lose their real-time edge, queries slow down, and replicas struggle to keep up.
Simplyblock keeps storage latency predictable and throughput high, ensuring that RethinkDB changefeeds stay responsive, even when workloads scale or traffic spikes.
🚀 Use Simplyblock with RethinkDB for Realtime Durability
NVMe-backed storage ensures changefeeds stay fast and clusters are resilient.
👉 Learn more about Disaggregated Storage with simplyblock →
Step 1: Faster Cluster Recovery and Rebalancing
When a RethinkDB node fails, the cluster replays journals and redistributes shards. On slow storage, that recovery can take far too long, leaving apps waiting.
With simplyblock, journals replay at NVMe speeds, so recovery and rebalancing are much faster.
Why this matters:
- Faster journal replay = quicker recovery after node failure
- Shards redistribute smoothly, reducing disruption
- Cluster availability stays high, even under stress
sbctl pool create –name rethinkdb-pool
sbctl volume create –pool rethinkdb-pool –size 200Gi –name rethinkdb-data
mkfs.ext4 /dev/simplyblock/rethinkdb-data
mount /dev/simplyblock/rethinkdb-data /var/lib/rethinkdb/data
Step 2: Absorbing Write-Heavy Workloads Without Latency Spikes
IoT backends, analytics, and logging pipelines send constant bursts of writes. Traditional block storage often buckles under the pressure, causing latency spikes that ripple through queries and changefeeds.
Simplyblock handles these bursts easily, keeping writes smooth and latency under control.
Why this matters:
- Continuous streams don’t stall during spikes
- Changefeeds deliver updates in real-time without lag
- Applications remain responsive, even during heavy ingestion
# Example: resizing write buffer volume if incoming logs grow fast
sbctl volume resize –name rethinkdb-data –size 400Gi
resize2fs /dev/simplyblock/rethinkdb-data
To optimize performance during high-write workloads and ensure consistent throughput, refer to the RethinkDB Optimization Guide.
Step 3: Scaling Journals and Data Files Without Downtime
RethinkDB journals and changefeeds can expand rapidly in production. On fixed volumes, running out of space forces downtime or migrations.
With simplyblock, you can scale storage live, so the cluster keeps serving clients while capacity grows.
Why this matters:
- No downtime when journals or data files expand
- Smooth scaling for production workloads
- Perfect for database workloads on Kubernetes, where flexibility is critical
sbctl volume resize –name rethinkdb-data –size 600Gi
resize2fs /dev/simplyblock/rethinkdb-data
Step 4: Zone-Independent Storage for Distributed Clusters
RethinkDB distributes across nodes, often spanning multiple zones. Zone-locked volumes break attachments when nodes move or failover across regions.
Simplyblock volumes are zone-independent, ensuring continuous access no matter where the node runs.
Why this matters:
- Failovers across zones are seamless
- Storage doesn’t break during rescheduling
- Strong foundation for multi-availability zone disaster recovery
For more on high availability and RethinkDB clusters in Kubernetes, see this Stack Overflow discussion on High Availability issues.
Step 5: Storage-Level Replication for Stronger Durability
RethinkDB replication protects at the node level, but it doesn’t guard against storage failures. Adding simplyblock replication provides an extra layer of durability.
Why this matters:
- Double protection: RethinkDB replication + storage replication
- Data stays safe even in the event of hardware or zone failure
- Foundation for fast backups and disaster recovery
sbctl volume replicate –volume-id=rethinkdb-data –target-zone=us-east-b
To configure remote replication in RethinkDB, check the RethinkDB Replication for a detailed guide on replication strategies.
RethinkDB Runs Best with High-Performance Storage
RethinkDB was built for speed, but its real-time model depends on durable storage that can keep up. Standard volumes introduce latency, slow recovery, and make scaling difficult. Simplyblock fixes those issues with NVMe-over-TCP, zone-aware durability, live volume resizing, and built-in replication.
For real-time dashboards, IoT systems, and collaborative applications, simplyblock ensures RethinkDB stays fast, consistent, and production-ready.
Questions and Answers
Simplyblock provides distributed block storage with NVMe-over-TCP to drastically reduce latency and I/O wait times in RethinkDB. This ensures high-throughput, durable storage ideal for real-time change feeds and heavy write workloads.
Simplyblock enables persistent, encrypted volumes with native Kubernetes CSI support. This allows you to run RethinkDB with dynamic provisioning, automated failover, and strong data-at-rest encryption — all without manual storage operations.
Yes. Simplyblock decouples storage from compute, allowing you to scale your RethinkDB volumes elastically without downtime. This is ideal for scaling large datasets or handling high-ingest workloads in a database on Kubernetes deployments.
You can configure encrypted logical volumes for RethinkDB using simplyblock’s CSI driver. Keys can be managed manually or through a supported KMS. The setup ensures full tenant isolation and security compliance by encrypting each volume at the block level.
Absolutely. RethinkDB thrives on low-latency IOPS and fast replication, which simplyblock supports natively. The platform is ideal for real-time use cases like analytics, monitoring tools, and messaging systems that depend on consistently fast storage.