Litestream is a standalone streaming replication tool for SQLite. It provides point-in-time recovery and enables running SQLite databases in edge and cloud environments with near-zero recovery time. It continuously backs up your SQLite database to object storage (like S3, Azure Blob Storage, or Google Cloud Storage), allowing you to easily restore your database to any point in time.
The primary value of Litestream is improved durability and availability for SQLite databases. It makes it easier to run SQLite in production environments where data loss is unacceptable and allows for read replicas to scale read workloads. This is especially useful for applications that are architected around SQLite but need the reliability of a traditional database.
Litestream is a lightweight, standalone streaming replication tool for SQLite databases. It provides continuous asynchronous replication to object storage (like AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage) or other compatible destinations, offering robust disaster recovery and enhanced durability for applications built on SQLite.
Key Features
- Continuous Asynchronous Replication: Litestream continuously monitors changes to your SQLite database and streams them to configured replicas in real-time, ensuring near-zero data loss in case of a primary database failure.
- Point-in-Time Recovery: By storing incremental changes, Litestream enables you to restore your database to any specific point in time, providing fine-grained recovery capabilities.
- Lightweight & Efficient: Designed to be highly efficient with minimal resource consumption, making it suitable for edge deployments and applications running on small servers.
- No Database Modifications: Works transparently with existing SQLite databases without requiring any changes to your application code or database schema.
- Disaster Recovery: Protects your data from various failure scenarios by maintaining up-to-date backups in durable object storage.
- Read Replica Support: Facilitates the creation of read replicas, allowing you to offload read workloads from your primary database and improve application scalability.
- Easy Setup: Simple to configure and integrate into existing deployments, often requiring just a single binary.
How it Works
Litestream works by intercepting write-ahead log (WAL) frames from SQLite. It then continuously streams these incremental changes to a remote replica. In case of a failure, you can start a new instance of your application pointing to a replica, and Litestream will restore the database to its latest state. This process provides much faster recovery compared to traditional backup and restore methods.
Benefits
- Enhanced Data Durability: Protects your SQLite data against loss due to hardware failure, accidental deletion, or other disasters.
- High Availability: Enables faster failover to a replica, minimizing downtime for your SQLite-backed applications.
- Scalability for Reads: Allows you to scale read operations by deploying multiple read replicas, improving application performance.
- Simplified Operations: Automates the backup and replication process, reducing manual effort and potential for human error.
- Cost-Effective: Leverages inexpensive object storage for backups, offering a cost-efficient solution for data redundancy.
- Perfect for Edge & Serverless: Its lightweight nature and ability to replicate to cloud storage make it ideal for applications deployed at the edge or in serverless environments.