+1 (binding) On Friday, December 6, 2013, Stack wrote:
> Discussion of the Phoenix proposal has settled since its original > posting on November 7th. Feedback has been incorporated. > > Let us now move to a vote. > > Should Phoenix become an Apache incubator project? > > [] +1 Accept Phoenix into the Incubator > [] +0 Don't care whether or which > [] -1 Do not accept Phoenix into the Incubator because... > > The latest version of the proposal can be found here [1]. It is > also posted below for your convenience. > > Let the vote run 72 hours. > > Thank you, > St.Ack > > 1. https://wiki.apache.org/incubator/PhoenixProposal > > > > > Abstract > > Phoenix is an open source SQL query engine for Apache HBase, a NoSQL data > store. It is accessed as a JDBC driver and enables querying and managing > HBase tables using SQL. > > Proposal > > Phoenix is an open source SQL skin over HBase delivered as a > client-embedded JDBC driver targeting low latency queries over HBase data. > Phoenix takes your SQL query, compiles it into a series of HBase scans, and > orchestrates the running of those scans to produce regular JDBC result > sets. The table metadata is stored in an HBase table and versioned, such > that snapshot queries over prior versions will automatically use the > correct schema. Direct use of the HBase API, along with coprocessors and > custom filters, results in performance on the order of milliseconds for > small queries, or seconds for tens of millions of rows. Phoenix interfaces > with both Pig and Map-reduce for the input and output of data. > > Background > > Phoenix initially started as an internal project at Salesforce.com to > efficiently analyze big data stored in HBase. It was open sourced on Github > about a year ago in Jan 2013. Over time Phoenix, together with HBase as the > storage tier, has begun to evolve into a general SQL database with support > for metadata management, secondary indexes, joins, query optimization, and > multi-tenancy. This is expected to continue as Phoenix implements a > cost-based query optimizer and potentially transaction support, and > surfaces new HBase security features such as encryption and cell-level > security. Phoenix's developer community has also grown to include > additional companies such as Intel, who have contributed join support to > Phoenix, as well as Hortonworks, who are in the process of porting Phoenix > to the 0.96 release of HBase. > > Rationale > > As usage and the number of contributors to Phoenix has grown, we have > sought for a long-term home for the project, and we believe the Apache > foundation would be a great fit. Joining Apache would ensure that tried and > true processes and procedures are in place for the growing number of > organizations interested in contributing to Phoenix. Phoenix is also a good > fit for the Apache foundation: Phoenix already interoperates with several > existing Apache projects (HBase, Hadoop, Pig, BigTop). The Phoenix team is > familiar with the Apache process and and believes in the Apache mission - > the team already includes multiple Apache committers. > > Initial Goals > > The initial goals will be to move the existing codebase to Apache and > integrate with the Apache development process. Once this is accomplished, > we plan for incremental development and releases that follow the Apache > guidelines. > > Current Status > > Phoenix has undergone two major and three minor releases (1.0, 1.1, 1.2, > 2.0, and 2.1) as well as many patch releases. Phoenix is being used in > production by Salesforce.com as well as at other organizations. The Phoenix > codebase is currently hosted at github.com, which will form the basis of > the Apache git repository. > > Meritocracy > > The Phoenix project already operates on meritocratic principles. Phoenix > has several developers from various organizations outside of Salesforce.com > who have contributed major new features. While this process has remained > mostly informal, as we do not have an official committer list, an implicit > organization exists in which individuals who contribute major components > act as maintainers for those modules. If accepted, the Phoenix project > would include several of these participants as initial committers. We will > work to identify all committers and PPMC members for the project and to > operate under the ASF meritocratic principles. > > Community > > Acceptance into the Apache foundation would bolster the already strong user > and developer community around Phoenix. That community includes many > contributors from various other companies, and an active mailing list > composed of hundreds of users. > > Core Developers > > The core developers of our project are listed in our contributors and > initial PPMC below. Though many are employed at Salesforce.com, there is a > representative cross sampling of other organizations including Intel, > Hortonworks, and Cloudera. > > Alignment > > Our proposed Phoenix effort aligns closely with Apache HBase. The HBase > project perimeter is denoted by a simple byte-array based Create, Read, > Update, Delete and Scan APIs with no current plans to extend beyond this > bounds. Phoenix complements this with a higher level API in SQL with which > many are already familiar. At first glance, it may seem that Phoenix should > just be folded into HBase as a new module. However, the focus of the two > projects will be quite different, especially as Phoenix matures. With > secondary indexing and joins just having been introduced into Phoenix, the > next big frontier will be to implement a cost-based query optimizer. This > is the heart-and-soul of most relational databases and can can take a > lifetime to get right. > > HBase is focused on being a scalable data store agnostic to types and > schema. Phoenix would layer typing, and relational facilities on top of > this scalable store. By keeping Apache HBase and Phoenix separate, both may > evolve independently and at different rates. Though the focus of the two > projects is different, the relationship between them is very positive and > mutually beneficial. New features in HBase will be leveraged in Phoenix as > it makes sense to surface these in a SQL paradigm. In addition, Phoenix may > drive new features in HBase, as evidenced by the new type system recently > introduced into HBase. This will enable better interoperability between > Apache Hive, standalone HBase uses case, and Phoenix by defining a standard > serialization format. > > Phoenix can be divided into a front end and a back end. The front end is > delivered as a JDBC driver and contains, among other things, the SQL parser > and query planner. The front end is currently written for the HBase client > API but could be extended to support other data stores in the Apache > family. > > The back end is, currently, HBase specific components for pushing as much > work to the server as possible. However, if there were sufficient interest > to build them, contributions to Phoenix of new back ends for other data > stores in the Apache family would be feasible. > > Other projects exists that perform SQL over HBase data (such as Apache > Hive), however these products do not provide the same low latency query > capabilities as Phoenix. Instead, they are more oriented around maximizing > throughput for batched operations. Phoenix opens the door to a completely > new set of use cases for Apache HBase that demand a more interactive user > experience. > > There are also a number of related Apache projects and dependencies that > are mentioned in the Relationships with Other Apache products section. > > Known Risks > > Orphaned Products > > Given the current level of investment in Phoenix - the risk of the project > being abandoned is minimal. All current and planned HBase use cases at > Salesforce.com go through Phoenix. In addition, both Intel and Hortonworks > plan to include Phoenix in their distributions. Other companies have > devoted significant internal infrastructure investment in Phoenix. > > Inexperience with Open Source > > Phoenix has existed as a healthy open source project for almost a year. > During that time, James, Mujtaba, and others have successfully fostered an > open-source community, attracting users and developers from a diverse group > of companies including Intel, Intuit, Bloomberg, Tagged, and Hortonworks. > Although neither are committers on other Apache projects, both James and > Mujtaba have experience working with and contributing to other Apache > projects. > > Homogenous Developers > > The initial list of committers includes developers from several > institutions, including Salesforce, Intel, and Hortonworks. > > Reliance on Salaried Developers > > Like most open source projects, Phoenix receives substantial support from > salaried developers. A large fraction of Phoenix development is supported > by Salesforce.com. In addition, those working from within corporations and > universities often devote “after hours” or spare time to the project. We > will continue our efforts to ensure stewardship of the project to be > independent of salaried developers. > > Relationship with Other Apache Products > > Although Phoenix provides a higher level abstraction than Apache HBase by > hiding its client APIs, Phoenix relies on Apache HBase for both storing and > retrieving data. It also inter-operates with Apache HBase by allowing > existing data, not created by Phoenix, to be queried. In addition, both > Apache Pig and Hadoop are supported for data input and output. Finally, the > Phoenix is included and installable through Apache Bigtop and the build and > test suite are run through Apache Maven. > > Phoenix offers an alternative query engine to Apache Hadoop (MapReduce). > Unlike MapReduce, Phoenix is designed for lower-latency, OLTP, and > interactive workloads. This makes the projects complimentary as users may > run MapReduce and Phoenix side-by-side. > > We plan to increase the interoperability between Phoenix, Apache Hive, and > standalone Apache HBase usage by standardizing on a new type system that > has been introduced in the current major release of HBase. By all these > products adopting this new serialization format, interoperability between > them will take a big step forward. > > In addition, we plan to explore providing lower level APIs for other > products such as Apache Drill to plug into when querying HBase data so that > they get the performance benefits of using Phoenix. > > A Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand > > Phoenix is already a healthy and relatively well known open source project. > This proposal is not for the purpose of generating publicity. Rather, the > primary benefits to joining Apache are those outlined in the Rationale > section. > > Documentation > > Additional documentation on Phoenix may be found on its github website: > > Phoenix overview: > https://github.com/forcedotcom/phoenix/blob/master/README.md > > Phoenix wiki: https://github.com/forcedotcom/phoenix/wiki > > Phoenix road map: https://github.com/forcedotcom/phoenix/wiki#roadmap > > Phoenix issue tracking: > > https://github.com/forcedotcom/phoenix/issues?direction=desc&sort=updated&state=open > > Phoenix codebase: https://github.com/forcedotcom/phoenix > > Phoenix SQL language reference: http://forcedotcom.github.io/phoenix/ > > Phoenix performance: > > https://github.com/forcedotcom/phoenix/wiki/Performance#phoenix-vs-related-products > > User group: https://groups.google.com/group/phoenix-hbase-user > > Initial Source > > The Phoenix codebase is currently hosted on Github: > https://github.com/forcedotcom/phoenix. > > Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan > > Currently, the Phoenix codebase is distributed under a BSD license. Upon > entering Apache, the Phoenix license will be migrated to the Apache 2.0 > License. > > External Dependencies > > Beyond relying on Apache HBase, Phoenix has the following external > dependencies: > > ANTLR 3.5 (BSD license: http://www.antlr3.org/license.html) > > Sqlline 1.1.2 (BSD license: > https://github.com/julianhyde/sqlline/blob/master/LICENSE) > > Open CSV 2.3 (Apache 2.0 license) > > Upon acceptance to the incubator, we would begin a thorough analysis of all > transitive dependencies to verify this information and introduce license > checking into the build and release process by integrating with Apache Rat. > > Required Resources > > Mailing list > > We will migrate the existing Phoenix mailing lists as follows: > > phoenix-hbase-u...@googlegroups.com --> us...@phoenix.incubator.apache.org > > phoenix-hbase-...@googlegroups.com --> -- Best regards, - Andy Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by hitting back. - Piet Hein (via Tom White)
