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Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] Flume for the Apache Incubator
From: Ralph Goers <ralph.goers@dslextreme.com>
In-Reply-To: <BANLkTikpFomGb_5NG7=0yOJ7pU025a2gig@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 27 May 2011 18:07:56 -0700
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References: <BANLkTikpFomGb_5NG7=0yOJ7pU025a2gig@mail.gmail.com>
To: general@incubator.apache.org

A hearty +1 from me.  Do you need another mentor?

Ralph

On May 27, 2011, at 7:18 AM, Jonathan Hsieh wrote:

> Howdy!
>=20
> I would like to propose Flume to be an Apache Incubator project.  =
Flume is a
> distributed, reliable, and available system for efficiently =
collecting,
> aggregating, and moving large amounts of log data to scalable data =
storage
> systems such as Apache Hadoop's HDFS.
>=20
> Here's a link to the proposal in the Incubator wiki
> http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/FlumeProposal
>=20
> I've also pasted the initial contents below.
>=20
> Thanks!
> Jon.
>=20
> =3D Flume - A Distributed Log Collection System =3D
>=20
> =3D=3D Abstract =3D=3D
>=20
> Flume is a distributed, reliable, and available system for efficiently
> collecting, aggregating, and moving large amounts of log data to =
scalable
> data storage systems such as Apache Hadoop's HDFS.
>=20
> =3D=3D Proposal =3D=3D
>=20
> Flume is a distributed, reliable, and available system for efficiently
> collecting, aggregating, and moving large amounts of log data from =
many
> different sources to a centralized data store. Its main goal is to =
deliver
> data from applications to Hadoop=92s HDFS.  It has a simple and =
flexible
> architecture for transporting streaming event data via flume nodes to =
the
> data store.  It is robust and fault-tolerant with tunable reliability
> mechanisms that rely upon many failover and recovery mechanisms. The =
system
> is centrally configured and allows for intelligent dynamic management. =
It
> uses a simple extensible data model that allows for lightweight online
> analytic applications.  It provides a pluggable mechanism by which new
> sources, destinations, and analytic functions which can be integrated =
within
> a Flume pipeline.
>=20
> =3D=3D Background =3D=3D
>=20
> Flume was initially developed by Cloudera to enable reliable and =
simplified
> collection of log information from many distributed sources. It was =
later
> open-sourced by Cloudera on GitHub as an Apache 2.0 licensed project =
in June
> 2010. During this time Flume has been formally released five times as
> versions 0.9.0 (June 2010), 0.9.1 (Aug 2010), 0.9.1u1 (Oct 2010), =
0.9.2 (Nov
> 2010), and 0.9.3 (Feb 2011).  These releases are also distributed by
> Cloudera as source and binaries along with enhancements as part of =
Cloudera
> Distribution including Apache Hadoop (CDH).
>=20
> =3D=3D Rationale =3D=3D
>=20
> Collecting log information in a data center in a timely, reliable, and
> efficient manner is a difficult challenge but important because when
> aggregated and analyzed, log information can yield valuable business
> insights.   We believe that users and operators need a manageable =
systematic
> approach for log collection that simplifies the creation, the =
monitoring,
> and the administration of reliable log data pipelines.  Oftentimes =
today,
> this collection is attempted by periodically shipping data in batches =
and by
> using potentially unreliable and inefficient ad-hoc methods.
>=20
> Log data is typically generated in various systems running within a =
data
> center that can range from a few machines to hundreds of machines.  In
> aggregate, the data acts like a large-volume continuous stream with =
contents
> that can have highly-varied format and highly-varied content.  The =
volume
> and variety of raw log data makes Apache Hadoop's HDFS file system an =
ideal
> storage location before the eventual analysis.  Unfortunately, HDFS =
has
> limitations with regards to durability as well as scaling limitations =
when
> handling a large number of low-bandwidth connections or small files.
> Similar technical challenges are also suffered when attempting to =
write
> data to other data storage services.
>=20
> Flume addresses these challenges by providing a reliable, scalable,
> manageable, and extensible solution.  It uses a streaming design for
> capturing and aggregating log information from varied sources in a
> distributed environment and has centralized management features for =
minimal
> configuration and management overhead.
>=20
> =3D=3D Initial Goals =3D=3D
>=20
> Flume is currently in its first major release with a considerable =
number of
> enhancement requests, tasks, and issues recorded towards its future
> development. The initial goal of this project will be to continue to =
build
> community in the spirit of the "Apache Way", and to address the highly
> requested features and bug-fixes towards the next dot release.
>=20
> Some goals include:
> * To stand up a sustaining Apache-based community around the Flume =
codebase.
> * Implementing core functionality of a usable highly-available Flume =
master.
> * Performance, usability, and robustness improvements.
> * Improving the ability to monitor and diagnose problems as data is
> transported.
> * Providing a centralized place for contributed connectors and related
> projects.
>=20
> =3D Current Status =3D
>=20
> =3D=3D Meritocracy =3D=3D
>=20
> Flume was initially developed by Jonathan Hsieh in July 2009 along =
with
> development team at Cloudera. Developers external to Cloudera provided
> feedback, suggested features and fixes and implemented extensions of =
Flume.
> Cloudera engineering team has since maintained the project with =
Jonathan
> Hsieh, Henry Robinson, and Patrick Hunt dedicated towards its =
improvement.
> Contributors to Flume and its connectors include developers from =
different
> companies and different parts of the world.
>=20
> =3D=3D Community =3D=3D
>=20
> Flume is currently used by a number of organizations all over the =
world.
> Flume has an active and growing user and developer community with =
active
> participation in [user|
> https://groups.google.com/a/cloudera.org/group/flume-user/topics] and
> =
[developer|https://groups.google.com/a/cloudera.org/group/flume-dev/topics=
]
> mailing lists.  The users and developers also communicate via IRC on =
#flume
> at irc.freenode.net.
>=20
> Since open sourcing the project, there have been over 15 different =
people
> from diverse organizations who have contributed code. During this =
period,
> the project team has hosted open, in-person, quarterly meetups to =
discuss
> new features, new designs, and new use-case stories.
>=20
> =3D=3D Core Developers =3D=3D
>=20
> The core developers for Flume project are:
> * Andrew Bayer: Andrew has a lot of expertise with build tools,
> specifically Jenkins continuous integration and Maven.
> * Jonathan Hsieh: Jonathan designed and implemented much of the =
original
> code.
> * Patrick Hunt: Patrick has improved the web interfaces of Flume =
components
> and contributed several build quality  improvements.
> * Bruce Mitchener: Bruce has improved the internal logging =
infrastructure
> as well as edited significant portions of the Flume manual.
> * Henry Robinson: Henry has implemented much of the ZooKeeper =
integration,
> plugin mechanisms, as well as several Flume features and bug fixes.
> * Eric Sammer: Eric has implemented the Maven build, as well as =
several
> Flume features and bug fixes.
>=20
> All core developers of the Flume project have contributed towards =
Hadoop or
> related Apache projects and are very familiar with Apache principals =
and
> philosophy for community driven software development.
>=20
> =3D=3D Alignment =3D=3D
>=20
> Flume complements Hadoop Map-Reduce, Pig, Hive, HBase by providing a =
robust
> mechanism to allow log data integration from external systems for =
effective
> analysis.  Its design enable efficient integration of newly ingested =
data to
> Hive's data warehouse.
>=20
> Flume's architecture is open and easily extensible.  This has =
encouraged
> many users to contribute integrate plugins to other projects.  For =
example,
> several users have contributed connectors to message queuing and bus
> services, to several open source data stores, to incremental search =
indexes,
> and to a stream analysis engines.
>=20
> =3D Known Risks =3D
>=20
> =3D=3D Orphaned Products =3D=3D
>=20
> Flume is already deployed in production at multiple companies and they =
are
> actively participating in feature requests and user led discussions. =
Flume
> is getting traction with developers and thus the risks of it being =
orphaned
> are minimal.
>=20
> =3D=3D Inexperience with Open Source =3D=3D
>=20
> All code developed for Flume has is open sourced by Cloudera under =
Apache
> 2.0 license.  All committers of Flume project are intimately familiar =
with
> the Apache model for open-source development and are experienced with
> working with new contributors.
>=20
> =3D=3D Homogeneous Developers =3D=3D
>=20
> The initial set of committers is from a reduced set of organizations.
> However, we expect that once approved for incubation, the project will
> attract new contributors from diverse organizations and will thus grow
> organically. The participation of developers from several different
> organizations in the mailing list is a strong indication for this =
assertion.
>=20
> =3D=3D Reliance on Salaried Developers =3D=3D
>=20
> It is expected that Flume will be developed on salaried and volunteer =
time,
> although all of the initial developers will work on it mainly on =
salaried
> time.
>=20
> =3D=3D Relationships with Other Apache Products =3D=3D
>=20
> Flume depends upon other Apache Projects: Apache Hadoop, Apache Log4J,
> Apache ZooKeeper, Apache Thrift, Apache Avro, multiple Apache Commons
> components. Its build depends upon Apache Ant and Apache Maven.
>=20
> Flume users have created connectors that interact with several other =
Apache
> projects including Apache HBase and Apache Cassandra.
>=20
> Flume's functionality has some indirect or direct overlap with the
> functionality of Apache Chukwa but has several significant =
architectural
> diffferences.  Both systems can be used to collect log data to write =
to
> hdfs.  However, Chukwa's primary goals are the analytic and monitoring
> aspects of a Hadoop cluster.  Instead of focusing on analytics, Flume
> focuses primarily upon data transport and integration with a wide set =
of
> data sources and data destinations.   Architecturally, Chukwa =
components are
> individually and statically configured.  It also depends upon Hadoop
> MapReduce for its core functionality.  In contrast, Flume's components =
are
> dynamically and centrally configured and does not depend directly upon
> Hadoop MapReduce.  Furthermore, Flume provides a more general model =
for
> handling data and enables integration with projects such as Apache =
Hive,
> data stores such as Apache HBase, Apache Cassandra and Voldemort, and
> several Apache Lucene-related projects.
>=20
> =3D=3D An Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand =3D=3D
>=20
> We would like Flume to become an Apache project to further foster a =
healthy
> community of contributors and consumers around the project.  Since =
Flume
> directly interacts with many Apache Hadoop-related projects by solves =
an
> important problem of many Hadoop users, residing in the the Apache =
Software
> Foundation will increase interaction with the larger community.
>=20
> =3D Documentation =3D
>=20
> * All Flume documentation (User Guide, Developer Guide, Cookbook, and
> Windows Guide) is maintained within Flume sources and can be built =
directly.
> * Cloudera provides documentation specific to its distribution of =
Flume at:
> http://archive.cloudera.com/cdh/3/flume/
> * Flume wiki at GitHub: https://github.com/cloudera/flume/wiki
> * Flume jira at Cloudera: https://issues.cloudera.org/browse/flume
>=20
> =3D Initial Source =3D
>=20
> * https://github.com/cloudera/flume/tree/
>=20
> =3D=3D Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan =3D=3D
>=20
> * The initial source is already licensed under the Apache License, =
Version
> 2.0. https://github.com/cloudera/flume/blob/master/LICENSE
>=20
> =3D=3D External Dependencies =3D=3D
>=20
> The required external dependencies are all Apache License or =
compatible
> licenses. Following components with non-Apache licenses are =
enumerated:
>=20
> * org.arabidopsis.ahocorasick : BSD-style
>=20
> Non-Apache build tools that are used by Flume are as follows:
>=20
> * AsciiDoc: GNU GPLv2
> * FindBugs: GNU LGPL
> * Cobertura: GNU GPLv2
> * PMD : BSD-style
>=20
> =3D=3D Cryptography =3D=3D
>=20
> Flume uses standard APIs and tools for SSH and SSL communication where
> necessary.
>=20
> =3D Required  Resources =3D
>=20
> =3D=3D Mailing lists =3D=3D
>=20
> * flume-private (with moderated subscriptions)
> * flume-dev
> * flume-commits
> * flume-user
>=20
> =3D=3D Subversion Directory =3D=3D
>=20
> https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/flume
>=20
> =3D=3D Issue Tracking =3D=3D
>=20
> JIRA Flume (FLUME)
>=20
> =3D=3D Other Resources =3D=3D
>=20
> The existing code already has unit and integration tests so we would =
like a
> Hudson instance to run them whenever a new patch is submitted. This =
can be
> added after project creation.
>=20
> =3D Initial Committers =3D
>=20
> * Andrew Bayer (abayer at cloudera dot com)
> * Jonathan Hsieh (jon at cloudera dot com)
> * Aaron Kimball (akimball83 at gmail dot com)
> * Bruce Mitchener (bruce.mitchener at gmail dot com)
> * Arvind Prabhakar (arvind at cloudera dot com)
> * Ahmed Radwan (ahmed at cloudera dot com)
> * Henry Robinson (henry at cloudera dot com)
> * Eric Sammer (esammer at cloudera dot com)
>=20
> =3D Affiliations =3D
>=20
> * Andrew Bayer, Cloudera
> * Jonathan Hsieh, Cloudera
> * Aaron Kimball, Odiago
> * Bruce Mitchener, Independent
> * Arvind Prabhakar, Cloudera
> * Ahmed Radwan, Cloudera
> * Henry Robinson, Cloudera
> * Eric Sammer, Cloudera
>=20
>=20
> =3D Sponsors =3D
>=20
> =3D=3D Champion =3D=3D
>=20
> * Nigel Daley
>=20
> =3D=3D Nominated Mentors =3D=3D
>=20
> * Tom White
> * Nigel Daley
>=20
> =3D=3D Sponsoring Entity =3D=3D
>=20
> * Apache Incubator PMC
>=20
>=20
> --=20
> // Jonathan Hsieh (shay)
> // Software Engineer, Cloudera
> // jon@cloudera.com


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