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Posted to general@incubator.apache.org by Tom White <to...@apache.org> on 2010/04/15 23:42:51 UTC

[PROPOSAL] Whirr Project

I would like to propose Whirr as an incubator proposal.

Whirr will be a set of libraries for running cloud services, such as
Hadoop or Cassandra. The initial code (for Hadoop) is hosted as a
Hadoop contrib module, but I believe it would flourish as its own
project with its own community.

The proposal is on the incubator wiki at
http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/WhirrProposal.

We look forward to hearing feedback and questions on the proposal.
Also, we don't have any mentors yet, so please sign up if you are
interested in helping out.

Thanks,
Tom

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Re: [PROPOSAL] Whirr Project

Posted by Doug Cutting <cu...@apache.org>.
Tom White wrote:
> The proposal is on the incubator wiki at
> http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/WhirrProposal.

This sounds useful to me.  I'd be willing to help mentor.

Doug

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Re: [PROPOSAL] Whirr Project

Posted by Tom White <to...@apache.org>.
Thanks for the advice, Niclas. I've sent a mail to the PMC private list.

Cheers,
Tom

On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 5:25 PM, Niclas Hedhman <ni...@hedhman.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 7:58 AM, Tom White <to...@apache.org> wrote:
>>> You do know any ASF member can sign up to be an incubator mentor, right? If
>>> I count correctly you have two on your list :)
>>
>> I didn't know that. I've added myself as a mentor.
>
> Just send a mail to PMC private list that you wish to be added to the
> PMC and subscribe to the private list. Then you are set to go.
>
>
> Cheers
> --
> Niclas Hedhman, Software Developer
> http://www.qi4j.org - New Energy for Java
>
> I  live here; http://tinyurl.com/2qq9er
> I  work here; http://tinyurl.com/2ymelc
> I relax here; http://tinyurl.com/2cgsug
>
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>
>

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Re: [PROPOSAL] Whirr Project

Posted by Niclas Hedhman <ni...@hedhman.org>.
On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 7:58 AM, Tom White <to...@apache.org> wrote:
>> You do know any ASF member can sign up to be an incubator mentor, right? If
>> I count correctly you have two on your list :)
>
> I didn't know that. I've added myself as a mentor.

Just send a mail to PMC private list that you wish to be added to the
PMC and subscribe to the private list. Then you are set to go.


Cheers
-- 
Niclas Hedhman, Software Developer
http://www.qi4j.org - New Energy for Java

I  live here; http://tinyurl.com/2qq9er
I  work here; http://tinyurl.com/2ymelc
I relax here; http://tinyurl.com/2cgsug

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Re: [PROPOSAL] Whirr Project

Posted by Tom White <to...@apache.org>.
On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 3:46 PM, Leo Simons <ma...@leosimons.com> wrote:
>
> ...and pasted inline below (as is customary). The proposal looks fine to me.
> Like you mention your initial group of committers is a bit small which is a
> risk but hey, cloud is hot, go build community :)

That's the plan.

> You do know any ASF member can sign up to be an incubator mentor, right? If
> I count correctly you have two on your list :)

I didn't know that. I've added myself as a mentor.

@Doug - thanks for volunteering to be a mentor - I've added you to the
wiki page too.

Cheers,
Tom

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Re: [PROPOSAL] Whirr Project

Posted by Leo Simons <ma...@leosimons.com>.
On 4/15/10 10:42 PM, Tom White wrote:
> I would like to propose Whirr as an incubator proposal.
>
> Whirr will be a set of libraries for running cloud services, such as
> Hadoop or Cassandra. The initial code (for Hadoop) is hosted as a
> Hadoop contrib module, but I believe it would flourish as its own
> project with its own community.
>
> The proposal is on the incubator wiki at
> http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/WhirrProposal.

...and pasted inline below (as is customary). The proposal looks fine to 
me. Like you mention your initial group of committers is a bit small 
which is a risk but hey, cloud is hot, go build community :)

You do know any ASF member can sign up to be an incubator mentor, right? 
If I count correctly you have two on your list :)

cheers,

Leo

--
= Whirr, a library of cloud services =

== Abstract ==
Whirr will be a set of libraries for running cloud services.

== Proposal ==
Whirr will provide code for running a variety of software services on 
cloud infrastructure. It will provide bindings in several languages 
(e.g. Python and Java) for popular cloud providers to make it easy to 
start and stop services like Hadoop clusters. The project will not be 
limited to a particular set of services, rather it will be expected that 
a range of services are developed, as determined by the project 
contributors. Possible services include Hadoop, HBase, !ZooKeeper, 
Cassandra.

== Background ==
The ability to run services on cloud providers is very useful, 
particularly for proofs of concept, testing, and also ad hoc production 
work. Bringing up clusters in the cloud is non-trivial, since careful 
choreography is required. (Designing an interface that is convenient as 
well as secure is also a challenge in a cloud context.)  Making services 
that runs on a variety of cloud providers is harder, even with the 
availability of libraries like libcloud and jclouds, since each 
platform's quirks and extra features must be considered (and either 
worked around, or possibly taken advantage of, as appropriate) . Whirr 
will facilitate sharing of best practices, both for a particular service 
(such as Hadoop configuration on a particular provider), and for common 
cloud operations (such as installation of dependencies across cloud 
providers). It will provide a space to share good configurations and 
will encode service-specific knowledge.

== Rationale ==
There are already scripts in the Hadoop project that allow users to run 
Hadoop clusters on Amazon EC2 and other cloud providers. While users 
have found these scripts useful, their current home as a Hadoop Common 
contrib project has the following limitations:
  * Tying the scripts' release cycle to Hadoop's means that it is 
difficult to distribute updates to the scripts which are changing fast 
(new features and bugfixes).
  * The scripts support multiple versions of Hadoop, so it makes more 
sense to distribute them separately from Hadoop itself.
  * They are general: people want to contribute code for non-Hadoop 
services like Cassandra (for example: 
http://github.com/johanoskarsson/cassandra-ec2).
  * Having a uniform approach to running services in the cloud, hosted 
in one project, makes launching sets of complementary services easier 
for the user. Today, the scripts and libraries hosted within each 
project (e.g. in Hadoop, HBase, Cassandra) have slightly different 
conventions and semantics, and are likely to diverge over time. Building 
a community around cloud infrastructure services will help enforce a 
common approach to running services in the cloud.

== Initial Goals ==
  * Provide a new home for the existing Hadoop cloud scripts.
  * Add more services (e.g. HBase)
  * Develop Java libraries for Hadoop clusters
  * Add new cloud providers by taking advantage of libcloud and jclouds.
  * (Future) Run on own hardware, so users can take advantage of the 
same interface to control services running locally or in the cloud.

== Current Status ==
=== Meritocracy ===
The Hadoop scripts were originally created by Tom White, and have had a 
substantial number of contributions from members of the Hadoop 
community. By becoming its own project, significant contributors to 
Whirr would become committers, and allow the project to grow.

=== Community ===
The community interested in cloud service infrastructure is currently 
spread across many smaller projects, and one of the main goals of this 
project is to build a vibrant community to share best practices and 
build common infrastructure. For example, this project would provide a 
home to facilitate collaboration between the groups of Hadoop and HBase 
developers who are building cloud services.

=== Core developers ===
Tom White wrote most of the original code and is familiar with open 
source and Apache-style development, being a Hadoop committer and an ASF 
member. There have been a number of contributors who have provided 
patches to these scripts over time. Andrew Purtell who created the HBase 
cloud scripts is a HBase committer. Johan Oskarsson (Hadoop and 
Cassandra committer) ported the scripts to Cassandra.

=== Alignment ===
Whirr complements libcloud, currently in the Incubator. Libcloud 
provides multi-cloud provider support, while Whirr will provide 
multi-service support in the cloud. Whirr will build cloud components 
for several Apache projects, such as Hadoop, HBase, !ZooKeeper, 
Cassandra, and hopefully more.

== Known Risks ==
=== Orphaned products ===
There is a risk that Whirr will not gain adoption. However, the current 
Hadoop scripts seem to be fairly widely used. The small number of 
initial committers is also a risk, although by starting the project it 
is expected that new contributors will quickly be attracted to the 
project and help it grow.

=== Inexperience with Open Source ===
The initial code comes from Hadoop where it was developed in an 
open-source, collaborative way. All the initial committers are 
committers on other Apache projects, and are experienced in working with 
new contributors.

=== Homogenous Developers ===
The initial set of committers is from a diverse set of organizations, 
and geographic locations. They are all experienced with developing in a 
distributed environment.

=== Reliance on Salaried Developers ===
It is expected that Whirr will be developed on salaried and volunteer 
time, although all of the initial developers will work on it mainly on 
salaried time.

=== Relationships with Other Apache Products ===
Whirr will depend on many other Apache Projects as already mentioned 
above (e.g. Hadoop, !ZooKeeper). If the project develops some common 
infrastructure then it is possible that it becomes a dependency on a 
project that wishes to use that infrastructure for running in the cloud.

=== A Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand ===
We think that Whirr will benefit from the community sharing ideas and 
best practices for running cloud services. The ASF does a great job at 
building communities, which is why we want to build Whirr at Apache.

== Documentation ==
Information on the current scripts and general background can be found at
  * http://wiki.apache.org/hadoop/AmazonEC2
  * http://archive.cloudera.com/docs/ec2.html
  * http://hbase.s3.amazonaws.com/hbase/HBase-EC2-HUG9.pdf
  * http://www.slideshare.net/steve_l/new-roles-for-the-cloud

== Initial Source ==
http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/hadoop/common/trunk/src/contrib/cloud/

== Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan ==
The initial source is already in an Apache project's SVN repository 
(Hadoop), so there should be no action required here.

== External Dependencies ==
The existing external dependencies all have Apache compatible licenses: 
boto (MIT), libcloud (Apache 2.0), simplejson (MIT). Jclouds is not a 
dependency of the current source, but it is Apache 2.0 licensed, so it 
will be possible to use it in the future if required.

== Cryptography ==
Whirr uses standard APIs and tools for SSH and SSL.

== Required Resources ==
=== Mailing lists ===
  * whirr-private (with moderated subscriptions)
  * whirr-dev
  * whirr-commits
  * whirr-user

=== Subversion Directory ===
  * https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/whirr

=== Issue Tracking ===
  * JIRA Whirr (WHIRR)

=== Other Resources ===
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.

== Initial Committers ==
  * Tom White (tomwhite at apache dot org)
  * Andrew Purtell (apurtell at apache dot org)
  * Johan Oskarsson (johan at apache dot org)
  * Steve Loughran (stevel at apache dot org)

== Affiliations ==
  * Tom White, Cloudera
  * Andrew Purtell, Trend Micro
  * Johan Oskarsson, Twitter
  * Steve Loughran, HP Labs


== Sponsors ==
=== Champion ===
  * Tom White

=== Nominated Mentors ===
  * TBD

=== Sponsoring Entity ===
  * Incubator PMC

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Re: [PROPOSAL] Whirr Project

Posted by Tom White <to...@apache.org>.
Hi Chris,

Thanks for your interest in the proposal. Using Whirr in other
projects, like OODT, is definitely a use case I'm interested in. Also
Solr would make a good service to include in Whirr.

Cheers,
Tom

On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 10:28 PM, Mattmann, Chris A (388J)
<ch...@jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
> Hi Tom,
>
> This sounds interesting. It would be interesting to look at e.g., how we could take some of the OODT [1] configurations and use Whirr as a front-end to run them in the cloud. I also know the folks in Solr are using Zookeeper, so they may benefit from this project as well.
>
> I don't have a huge amount of time since I'm overcommitted at work, and with 2 podlings I'm participating in (OODT and SIS), but my +1 to move forward with this as it seems useful. I will try and monitor the lists and if I get the time to help out at some point, I'll bug you on list ^_^
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
>
> [1] http://incubator.apache.org/projects/oodt.html
>
>
> On 4/15/10 2:42 PM, "Tom White" <to...@apache.org> wrote:
>
> I would like to propose Whirr as an incubator proposal.
>
> Whirr will be a set of libraries for running cloud services, such as
> Hadoop or Cassandra. The initial code (for Hadoop) is hosted as a
> Hadoop contrib module, but I believe it would flourish as its own
> project with its own community.
>
> The proposal is on the incubator wiki at
> http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/WhirrProposal.
>
> We look forward to hearing feedback and questions on the proposal.
> Also, we don't have any mentors yet, so please sign up if you are
> interested in helping out.
>
> Thanks,
> Tom
>
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> To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscribe@incubator.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: general-help@incubator.apache.org
>
>
>
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Chris Mattmann, Ph.D.
> Senior Computer Scientist
> NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, CA 91109 USA
> Office: 171-266B, Mailstop: 171-246
> Email: Chris.Mattmann@jpl.nasa.gov
> WWW:   http://sunset.usc.edu/~mattmann/
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Adjunct Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department
> University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089 USA
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>

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Re: [PROPOSAL] Whirr Project

Posted by "Mattmann, Chris A (388J)" <ch...@jpl.nasa.gov>.
Hi Tom,

This sounds interesting. It would be interesting to look at e.g., how we could take some of the OODT [1] configurations and use Whirr as a front-end to run them in the cloud. I also know the folks in Solr are using Zookeeper, so they may benefit from this project as well.

I don't have a huge amount of time since I'm overcommitted at work, and with 2 podlings I'm participating in (OODT and SIS), but my +1 to move forward with this as it seems useful. I will try and monitor the lists and if I get the time to help out at some point, I'll bug you on list ^_^

Cheers,
Chris

[1] http://incubator.apache.org/projects/oodt.html


On 4/15/10 2:42 PM, "Tom White" <to...@apache.org> wrote:

I would like to propose Whirr as an incubator proposal.

Whirr will be a set of libraries for running cloud services, such as
Hadoop or Cassandra. The initial code (for Hadoop) is hosted as a
Hadoop contrib module, but I believe it would flourish as its own
project with its own community.

The proposal is on the incubator wiki at
http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/WhirrProposal.

We look forward to hearing feedback and questions on the proposal.
Also, we don't have any mentors yet, so please sign up if you are
interested in helping out.

Thanks,
Tom

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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Chris Mattmann, Ph.D.
Senior Computer Scientist
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, CA 91109 USA
Office: 171-266B, Mailstop: 171-246
Email: Chris.Mattmann@jpl.nasa.gov
WWW:   http://sunset.usc.edu/~mattmann/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089 USA
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++