Okuzeka
Software Engineering vocabulary · Databases and Persistence

Sharding

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˈʃɑːrdɪŋ/nounAdvanced term

In software engineering, sharding means: Splitting one large dataset across several database servers, each holding a different part of the rows, so the system can grow beyond one machine.

In Turkish: sharding, yatay parçalama, parçalara bölme

How it is used

Each part is a shard, and rows are placed by a shard key such as customer_id or region. Choosing a good shard key is critical, because queries across shards and resharding are hard. MongoDB, Cassandra and tools like Vitess and Citus support sharding.

Example sentences

  1. We started sharding by customer ID when the main database passed four terabytes.

  2. Sharding makes reports across all customers much harder to run.

Common collocations

  • shard key
  • sharding strategy
  • shard the database
  • cross-shard query
  • partitioningDividing one large table into smaller pieces, called partitions, by a rule such as date range or region, while it still looks like one table to queries.
  • replicationKeeping copies of the same database on several servers by sending every change from one server to the others, for safety and to share the load.
  • high availabilityDesigning a database system so that it keeps working with very little downtime, even if a server, disk or data center fails.
  • NoSQLA broad group of databases that do not use the classic table-and-SQL model, storing data as documents, key-value pairs, wide columns or graphs instead.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Databases and Persistence

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: