TL;DR We just released Pomerium v0.31 with a new file-based databroker backend. It eliminates the operational overhead of managing a separate data persistence layer by introducing a self-healing, infrastructure-agnostic storage mode that recovers in milliseconds and keeps sessions alive.
Scale and Performance Without the Overhead
Few teams have a full-time DBA. And most Pomerium deployments don’t need the control, scale, and complexity of Postgres.
Pomerium’s new file-based databroker backend removes the burden of managing a separate data persistence layer without sacrificing performance.
Meet the Self-Healing File-Based Databroker
The new backend embeds Pebble, the storage engine behind CockRoachDB — a fast, embedded key-value store built for production workloads. It’s designed to cover 80% of real deployments without the overhead of Postgres.
What you get:
- Self-healing recovery. Raft handles clustering and leader election. If one node fails, another takes over in less than a second.
- Infra-agnostic. Run anywhere — Kubernetes, VMs, bare metal, or air-gapped networks. No managed database required.
- Persistent and safe. Sessions and data survive service restarts.
- Built for scale. Pomerium’s databroker is optimized for Pebble’s key-value store.
- Observability ready. Exposes metrics and traces for direct visibility in Grafana or your preferred tool.
How Self-Healing Works with Optional Clustered Mode
Teams can decide between clustered and non-clustered mode. We recommend clustered mode for teams required self-healing with automatic leader election in the event of a failure.
When cluster mode is active:
- The leader writes new data.
- Followers replicate changes in real time.
- If the leader fails, Raft based leader election promotes a follower to leader immediately.
- The new leader already has the full state and resumes writes.
No volume reattachment, or manual replay. Just automatic recovery.
Quick Start Example
Enable file-based clustering with two simple lines:
databroker_storage_type: file
databroker_storage_connection_string: file:///var/pomerium/databroker
That’s it. Your sessions persist. Your data survives restarts. Failover happens automatically.
The Right Default for Most Teams
For most deployments, the file-based databroker is the recommended choice: simple, self-healing, and ready for production.
Pomerium now handles storage the way operators always wanted — quietly, reliably, and without additional operational overhead.
Try Pomerium v0.31
Upgrade to the latest version or deploy fresh today.
Request a demo or connect with your Pomerium team to see how v0.31 simplifies your setup.
NB: Raft is available with Pomerium Core and Enterprise.
Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash
Top comments (1)
Also, check out the great convo about the data broker with my coworkers Caleb and Bobby.