Using HSQLDB in production environments

Question

I want to use HSQLDB in a production environment for stroring some data in memory and for data export using files. Does anybody have experience with using hsqldb in production environments? Is hsqldb treating server resources gracefully and does it cleanup unused resources properly?

I've seen a critical post on those issues from red hat and I'm wondering whether this still holds for hsqldb:

http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-15194

Answer 1

I've used hsql on numerous occasions in production (mainly as quick filebased storage for complex preferences) and never encountered any problems.

Answer 2

Don't know about HSQLDB but we've been using H2 on same purposes with no problems at all.

Answer 3

I can confirm some of the issues listed on the Red Hat page.

We have had issues using HSQLDB as a standalone instance in a Tomcat container. The application would not shutdown properly and hang at 100% cpu. There was a code fix, though.

We have also had issues were some data was lost after the server was forcibly killed. I could not reliably reproduce the situations.

I also have some strangeness that I cannot start multiple instances of the same application using HSQLDB at the same time.

You need to evaluate the if a standalone, in-memory DB is the right choice. If consistency and integrity is essential, HSQLDB may not be the right choice.

Answer 4

We experienced database corruption (entire database was lost) a few times times over a year using HSQLDB when it was not shut down cleanly.