SingleStore Platform

SingleStore (formerly MemSQL) is a distributed SQL database designed for real-time analytics and transactions. It offers a unified architecture combining row-store for fast writes and columnstore for analytical queries, with MySQL wire protocol compatibility. BenchBox connects via the MySQL protocol using the official singlestoredb Python SDK and uses LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE for high-throughput data ingestion. SQLGlot provides mysql dialect support for SQL translation.

SingleStore is deployed as both a fully managed cloud service (Helios) and as a self-managed cluster. It is used in production for financial services, gaming, retail analytics, and real-time operational dashboards.

Features

MySQL wire protocol - Standard MySQL connectivity via singlestoredb SDK (port 3306)
LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE - High-throughput bulk loading (>100K rows/sec)
Columnstore analytics - Columnar storage for dramatic TPC query speedups
Shard key distribution - Automatic data distribution across leaf nodes
Reference tables - Fully replicated small dimension tables (nation, region) to eliminate broadcast joins
Full TPC-H support - All 22 queries with row count validation
Full TPC-DS support - All 99 queries with row count validation
Helios + self-managed - Connects to SingleStore Helios or an on-premises cluster by host. BenchBox does not select or record the deployment, so Helios and self-managed runs share one identity

Quick Start

The commands install the singlestoredb dependency (or the SingleStore extra), configure the connection (SingleStore must be running), and run the TPC-H benchmark.

uv add singlestoredb

uv add benchbox --extra singlestore

export SINGLESTORE_HOST=localhost
export SINGLESTORE_PORT=3306
export SINGLESTORE_USER=root
export SINGLESTORE_PASSWORD=your_password

benchbox run --platform singlestore --benchmark tpch --scale 0.01

Docker Quick Start (Self-Managed)

The commands start SingleStore with Docker, verify connectivity, and run the benchmark.

docker run -d --name singlestoredb \
    -e ROOT_PASSWORD="your_password" \
    -p 3306:3306 \
    ghcr.io/singlestore-labs/singlestoredb-dev:latest

mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -P 3306 -u root -p -e "SELECT @@memsql_version"

benchbox run --platform singlestore --benchmark tpch --scale 0.01

Helios (Cloud) Connection

Set the Helios endpoint from your workspace connection string.

export SINGLESTORE_HOST=xyz123.singlestore.com
export SINGLESTORE_PORT=3306
export SINGLESTORE_USER=admin
export SINGLESTORE_PASSWORD=your_helios_password
export SINGLESTORE_DATABASE=benchbox

benchbox run --platform singlestore --benchmark tpch --scale 1

Connection Configuration

Parameter	Environment Variable	Default	Description
Host	`SINGLESTORE_HOST`	`localhost`	SingleStore node or Helios endpoint
Port	`SINGLESTORE_PORT`	`3306`	MySQL protocol port
Username	`SINGLESTORE_USER` or `SINGLESTORE_USERNAME`	`root`	Database user
Password	`SINGLESTORE_PASSWORD`	(empty)	Database password
Database	`SINGLESTORE_DATABASE`	(auto-generated)	Target database

Credential Validation

benchbox setup --platform singlestore saves the entered connection settings even when validation fails. BenchBox marks those credentials invalid and reports the validation error so that you can correct the server or network problem and then retry without entering every value again:

benchbox setup --platform singlestore --validate-only

Columnstore Tables

BenchBox creates all benchmark fact tables as columnstore tables for optimal analytical performance. Columnstore tables use columnar storage on leaf nodes, dramatically improving scan and aggregation performance compared to the default rowstore.

Shard Keys - Each fact table has a shard key on its primary join column, distributing rows evenly across leaf nodes and co-locating related rows for efficient distributed joins:

Table	Shard Key
`lineitem`	`l_orderkey`
`orders`	`o_orderkey`
`customer`	`c_custkey`
`part`	`p_partkey`
`supplier`	`s_suppkey`
`partsupp`	`ps_partkey`

Reference Tables - Small dimension tables (nation, region) are created as REFERENCE TABLE to replicate them to every leaf node, eliminating broadcast joins.

Bulk Loading

BenchBox uses LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE for bulk data loading, which achieves >100K rows/sec throughput. TPC-format files (with trailing field separator) are pre-processed to remove trailing delimiters before loading.

The singlestoredb connection is created with local_infile=True to enable local file ingestion.

Benchmarks

Benchmark	Status	Notes
TPC-H	✅ Supported	All 22 queries, optimized shard/sort keys per table
TPC-DS	✅ Supported	All 99 queries, random shard distribution (no custom keys)
SSB	✅ Supported	Star Schema Benchmark, random shard distribution
ClickBench	✅ Supported	Web analytics benchmark, random shard distribution

Dependencies

singlestoredb>=1.0.0

Install via:

uv add benchbox --extra singlestore

Troubleshooting

ImportError: singlestoredb not available - Install the dependency:

uv add singlestoredb

Connection refused on port 3306 - Verify SingleStore is running and the host/port are correct:

mysql -h $SINGLESTORE_HOST -P $SINGLESTORE_PORT -u $SINGLESTORE_USER -p -e "SELECT 1"

LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE disabled - Ensure the server has local_infile enabled:

SET GLOBAL local_infile = ON;

Helios connection issues - Confirm your workspace is active in the SingleStore portal and copy the exact hostname from the connection string shown in the portal.

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