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TechQuiet 9d · day 12

Jepsen finds 96 bugs in ParticleDB, including data loss and type confusion

Testing of Orkes' AI database revealed critical flaws in ACID guarantees, though most were fixed by version 1.1.18.

newest coverage 9d agosummary written 11d ago86 pieces1.3k likes & upvotes259 comments LobstersMastodonHacker NewsNewswiresReddit

What to know

  • Jepsen found 96 critical issues in ParticleDB versions 1.1.4–1.1.18, including data loss and type confusion, contradicting its "Full ACID" claims.
  • Most bugs manifested on single-node deployments with minimal configuration, and most were fixed by version 1.1.18—but committed write loss and anomalies persisted in default and strongest transaction modes.
  • Orkes, which funded the testing, released version 1.1.19-rc.13 claiming to resolve all remaining issues, though independent verification is pending.

Jepsen Database testing and analysis firmOrkes Creator of ParticleDB database

How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts

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  1. 1

    Orkes releases ParticleDB 1.1.19-rc.13 claiming to fix remaining issues

    In response to Jepsen's findings, Orkes released version 1.1.19-rc.13 and claims it resolves all remaining issues discussed in the report. The research was funded by Orkes and conducted according to Jepsen's ethics policy.

    “ParticleDB's claims of "Full ACID" were somewhat premature.”
    — Jepsen · source
    1. 2 outlets Jepsen: ParticleDB 1.1.4

      first by HN Best, 11d ago · also HN Frontpage

    • ubernostrum

      As a general guideline I avoid Hacker News, but someone linked me comments from people who worked at Orkes, maker of ParticleDB, in the thread about the devastating Jepsen review of their software ( https:// jepsen.io/analyses/particledb- 1.1.4 if you haven’t seen it). So I clicked and read the comments, then skimmed the rest of the thread, and I…

      ubernostrumMastodon10d ago115▲view on Mastodon ↗
    2 more of the top 3 · 81 posts in this stretch

    • This is the most devastating Jepsen report I've ever read, and I will personally be hammering the entirety of section 4.5 ("LLM Tradeoffs") to our company doors. Too many good quotes to pull, but this from section 4.3 is perhaps the most emblematic: >Most databases have a test suite which exercises at least basic examples of each feature, and it…

      hmpcdatabases,testing11d ago94▲view on Lobsters ↗

    • https://github.com/particledbai/jepsen/issues/18 is utterly humiliating. I can’t believe they kept going after getting that report. I would die of shame.(Edit for clarity: this is quoted from the linked article) You could write predicates over non-existent columns: root=> SELECT * FROM t WHERE definitely_not_a_column = 4; a | b ---+---- 4 | 5 (1…

      semiquaverHacker News11d agoview on Hacker News ↗
    all of them →
  2. background

    Jepsen publishes ParticleDB analysis: 96 issues found across versions 1.1.4–1.1.18 — Jepsen's testing revealed 96 bugs in ParticleDB, Orkes' multi-model database for AI workloads. Issues ranged from pedestrian failures (crashes, deadlocks, data loss) to strange anomalies (partially-invisible rows, WHERE 4 = 5, confused columns, type confusion). Most issues occurred on single server with single client and no faults. By version 1.1.18.11.rc-22, all but ten issues were resolved, though the default occ transaction mode continued losing committed writes and the strongest serializable setting allowed internal anomalies and Lost Update.

What people are saying 21 voices from 4 sites · best of 81 · verbatim