[cmorelli]

Honest question: why would I want a distributed scale-out RDBMS based on SQLite when there are others based on more performant server-based solutions (see Citus for PostgreSQL, Galera for MySQL, etc)

My understanding/recollection of SQLite is that it has significant performance issues with high concurrency. Great for a database on a pocket device, not the best choice for a horizontal scale-out high-concurrency system. At what point do I need horizontal scalability, but not care about concurrency on any one node?

Again, honest question - I'm not doubting the project or its value, I just don't get it.

[hamandcheese]

I think you're misunderstanding the goals of the project. It's not to create a horizontally scalable DB. Write perflrmance will not scale horizontally at all with this database.

The goal is to create something more like an etcd that can hold structured data.

[otoolep]

Exactly.

[justinsaccount]

From the README:

Why?

rqlite gives you the functionality of a rock solid, fault-tolerant, replicated relational database, but with very easy installation, deployment, and operation. With it you've got a lightweight and reliable distributed relational data store. Think etcd or Consul, but with relational data modelling also available.

You could use rqlite as part of a larger system, as a central store for some critical relational data, without having to run a heavier solution like MySQL.

Performance

rqlite replicates SQLite for fault-tolerance. It does not replicate it for performance. In fact performance is reduced somewhat due to the network round-trips.