Windows

RocksDB provides native Windows support through CMake and Visual Studio, enabling high-performance key-value storage on Windows platforms.

Prerequisites

System Requirements

Operating System: Windows Server 2012 R2 or later, Windows Vista or later
Architecture: 64-bit (32-bit is not supported)
Visual Studio: 2017 or later
CMake: 3.5 or higher

Compiler Support

RocksDB requires C++20 support, which is available in:

Visual Studio 2017 or later
MSVC compiler with C++20 language features

Installation Methods

Option 1: Using vcpkg (Recommended)

The easiest way to install RocksDB on Windows is through vcpkg:

Install vcpkg

If you haven’t already installed vcpkg:

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git
cd vcpkg
.\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

Install RocksDB

vcpkg install rocksdb:x64-windows

Integrate with Visual Studio

vcpkg integrate install

Option 2: Building from Source with CMake

Clone repository

git clone https://github.com/facebook/rocksdb.git
cd rocksdb

Configure third-party libraries

Edit thirdparty.inc at the root level to point to your third-party library locations (zlib, snappy, lz4, etc.).

Generate Visual Studio solution

mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A x64

For Visual Studio 2017:

cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 15 2017" -A x64

Build the project

cmake --build . --config Release

# Open the generated .sln file in Visual Studio
# Build the solution using Build > Build Solution

Windows-Specific Features

Unbuffered I/O

Windows implements disk caching differently from Linux. RocksDB on Windows supports unbuffered I/O to gain control over memory consumption:

rocksdb::Options options;
options.use_os_buffer = false;  // Disable OS disk buffering

When use_os_buffer=false, Windows imposes alignment restrictions on disk offsets, buffers, and data amounts. This may reduce disk throughput but provides better memory control.

Memory-Mapped Files

RocksDB on Windows supports memory-mapped files, random access, and rate-limiter functionality equivalent to POSIX platforms.

Thread-Local Storage

Windows port uses inline wrappers that forward pthread_specific calls to Windows TLS interfaces, maintaining compatibility with the core RocksDB logic.

Platform Differences

File Operations

pread/pwrite: Replaced with WriteFile/ReadFile using OVERLAPPED structure for atomic positioning
fallocate: Replaced with SetFileInformationByHandle for file truncation and pre-allocation
File locking: Windows allows concurrent file access with relaxed permissions to support RocksDB’s file handling patterns

C++ Standard Library

Some C++20 features have limited support in older MSVC versions. RocksDB includes compatibility shims for:

constexpr limitations
Zero-sized arrays
Thread-local storage cleanup
std::chrono nanoseconds support

Performance Benchmarks

Performance results from Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter:

Test Environment

CPU: 2x Intel Xeon E5 2450 @ 2.10 GHz (16 cores total)
Storage: 2x SSD devices (894GB free)
RAM: 128 GB
Dataset: 100M keys, 10-byte keys, 800-byte values (~76GB total)

Flash Storage Results

Operation	Performance
Bulk Load (Random)	182,465 ops/sec (142.0 MB/s)
Bulk Load (Sequential)	202,000 ops/sec (157.4 MB/s)
Random Write	18,900 ops/sec (14.8 MB/s)
Random Read	63,600 ops/sec (49.5 MB/s)
Read While Writing	39,700 ops/sec

In-Memory Results

Operation	Write Rate	Read Performance
Point Lookup (80K writes/sec)	40,500 writes/sec	3.1M reads/sec (364.8 MB/s)
Point Lookup (10K writes/sec)	5,800 writes/sec	4.0M reads/sec (464.9 MB/s)
Prefix Range (80K writes/sec)	46,300 writes/sec	2.7M reads/sec (316.4 MB/s)
Prefix Range (10K writes/sec)	5,780 writes/sec	3.7M reads/sec (425.3 MB/s)

Troubleshooting

Build Errors

CMake can't find third-party libraries

Edit thirdparty.inc to specify the correct paths to zlib, snappy, lz4, and other compression libraries.

C++20 support errors

Ensure you’re using Visual Studio 2017 or later. Update to the latest version if issues persist.

64-bit architecture errors

RocksDB on Windows only supports 64-bit builds. Ensure you’re targeting x64 architecture in CMake and Visual Studio.

Runtime Issues

If you encounter file access errors, ensure your application has appropriate file permissions. RocksDB requires the ability to rename, copy, and delete files that may be open.

Community

Platform Support

Prerequisites

System Requirements

Compiler Support

Installation Methods

Option 1: Using vcpkg (Recommended)

Option 2: Building from Source with CMake

Windows-Specific Features

Unbuffered I/O

Memory-Mapped Files

Thread-Local Storage

Platform Differences

File Operations

C++ Standard Library

Performance Benchmarks

Test Environment

Flash Storage Results

In-Memory Results

Troubleshooting

Build Errors

Runtime Issues

Next Steps

Getting Started

Configuration

​Prerequisites

​System Requirements

​Compiler Support

​Installation Methods

​Option 1: Using vcpkg (Recommended)

​Option 2: Building from Source with CMake

​Windows-Specific Features

​Unbuffered I/O

​Memory-Mapped Files

​Thread-Local Storage

​Platform Differences

​File Operations

​C++ Standard Library

​Performance Benchmarks

​Test Environment

​Flash Storage Results

​In-Memory Results

​Troubleshooting

​Build Errors

​Runtime Issues

​Next Steps

Getting Started

Configuration

Prerequisites

System Requirements

Compiler Support

Installation Methods

Option 1: Using vcpkg (Recommended)

Option 2: Building from Source with CMake

Windows-Specific Features

Unbuffered I/O

Memory-Mapped Files

Thread-Local Storage

Platform Differences

File Operations

C++ Standard Library

Performance Benchmarks

Test Environment

Flash Storage Results

In-Memory Results

Troubleshooting

Build Errors

Runtime Issues

Next Steps