RethinkDB, an open-source scalable database for the real-time web, today announced the release of RethinkDB 2.1. The new version, which was tested in beta by developers over two months, features automatic failover, enabling clusters to automatically select a substitute machine if one fails, giving enterprise-class reliability to mitigate downtime and production errors.

Automatic failover takes away the need for human intervention and significantly improves system reliability, relieving companies of the threat of downtime, which can be both costly and cumbersome.

“We’re thrilled to be able to bring this feature to our clients in the enterprise,” said Slava Akhmechet, co-founder of RethinkDB. “Through having automatic failover, users no longer need to lose time and money when a machine fails.”

Central to this feature is the Raft consensus protocol, which RethinkDB took the last year to implement. Developed at Stanford University in 2013, Raft’s influence is growing quickly in distributed computing and related fields. In RethinkDB 2.1, Raft provides the underlying logic that enables replicas to elect an acting primary. It is one of the most popular and robust consensus protocols, providing a failsafe automatic failover mechanism, making it possible to eliminate downtime.

Along with including automatic failover, RethinkDB 2.1 now allows users to add and remove nodes without any interruption in service. This gives users the capability to elastically add and remove machines to the cluster without any downtime.

In addition to these features, RethinkDB 2.1’s administration APIs remain the same, which means users do not need to do anything to upgrade their systems other than downloading the newest version.

“Automated failover significantly reduces our downtime and the complexity of our recovery process,” said Blake Blackshear, CTO, NextGxDx. “When providing an enterprise product, any type of downtime is not only annoying, but can have a major financial impact on customers. These updates allow us to confidently deliver on our SLA.”

To learn more about RethinkDB 2.1, please click here.