Hi, okay, let's separate concerns:
### Golang vs. Scala vs. something else entirely: ### I'm okay doing it in Scala although I don't see an issue in swapping the language for a component that needs to be rewritten from the ground up anyway (which I'm suggesting at least the ContainerRouter is). The ContainerPool/ContainerProxy part of it comes to mind immediately. It was built with a scale of maybe 100 containers max in mind. There are a few performance problems with it at scale, that I can point out off the bat. The changes needed to mitigate those are rather severe and while we **can** implement those (and maybe even should if this proofs to make sense) I believe it makes sense to at least experiment with a freshly written component. In the new architecture, we can also greatly reduce the state model to just paused/unpaused for the ContainerRouter, further simplifying its implementation. The ContainerRouter's speed requirements are more close to those of nginx/envoy than they are to those of the current ContainerPool/Proxy implementation. As Dave mentioned, for the ContainerRouter it will be very critical to know how many containers it can handle in reality, hence I'm shooting for an as efficient implementation of its innerts as possible to flesh out how far we can push the boundaries here. In any case: Yes we can stick to Scala here, but at least the ContainerRouter might be 100% new code and we might not even be able to rely on things like akka-http for its implementation for the reasons mentioned above. ### Seperate repo vs. branch ### Towards Michaels points: The prototype repo is supposed to be used for experimenting/prototyping and for that purpose only. As Dave pointed out above, we'd want these experiments to happen with Apache visibility. There will never be a completely working system available in that repository. The goal of it is to find out if certain assumptions of a new design are feasible or not. The goal is **not** to build productised components that we can take over to the mainline. I always thought of that rearch as an incremental step as well and it shouldn't need major changes to the API (or at least none that we are not already introducing right now). I don't think we're going to see the true potential of this though if we try to take the system's components as is and reuse them in contexts they have never been built for in the first place. As soon as we have clearance over which way we want to ultimately go with the architecture, I agree we should come up with a nice migration plan and start building it into the main repository through that migration plan. The prototyping repository should vanish at some point. ### Summary ### I don't feel super strong about a choice of language, I just thought I'd throw that in the ring as well. As sentiments seem quite strong against doing that right now, which is perfectly fine, I'd be fine doing the implementations in Scala. The disclaimer though is, that I'd like to write critical components afresh to not have to fight with existing architectural choices to much but to be able to think freely about the problems at hand. Which is why I do feel quite strongly about not doing this in a branch. The structure of the project will be very different and I can easily see people confused if we start having pull-requests against a "prototype" branch mixed in with our usual pull-requests. I do however agree that we eventually will need to build this in an incremental way, once we know what we want to build in the first place. For me, it's off the table to attempt to rewrite the system from scratch, we'll likely never get that done (I think that's version 2 syndrome Michael?). I agree that might end up in a dead end and we shouldn't do that. Does that make the intention more clear? I hope I addressed all the points asked. Opinions welcome :) Cheers, Markus Am Mi., 29. Aug. 2018 um 00:55 Uhr schrieb Dascalita Dragos < ddrag...@gmail.com>: > I also click on the clean and lean upgrade path, with gradual improvements > to the existing system (which is production-proof), as Michael and Rodric > are suggesting. > > At the same time I see how Go would make sense from the Kubernetes and > Knative impl POV, how the trends favor Go over Scala [1], [2], and the > potential benefits from addressing a larger dev audience. @Markus, feel > free to keep me honest if this is where you're coming from. > > Trying to keep our options open, I'm thinking: why not take Markus' > challenge, and design these enhancements now to support polyglot > implementations in the future ? This would be the important decision we can > take. BTW, for the data plane itself, we could go at even lower levels to > Envoy or Nginx, to provide superior performance, should we choose to. > > [1] - > > https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F091hdj,%2Fm%2F09gbxjr > > [2] - https://octoverse.github.com/ > > On Tue, Aug 28, 2018 at 2:53 PM Rodric Rabbah <rod...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Thanks Michael for raising these points. I share the same opinion and > > sentiment and think a branch with a clean migration story is better and > > makes more sense. I am not entirely convinced that the choice of language > > itself will make the difference vs the new architecture which is quite > > different and should in itself be more efficient. > > > > -r > > > > On Tue, Aug 28, 2018 at 4:51 PM Michael Marth <mma...@adobe.com.invalid> > > wrote: > > > > > Hi Markus, > > > > > > IMHO what you propose below is a rather severe change in scope of this > > > discussion and effort. > > > Up until so far this was about _evolving_ the OW architecture. We have > > not > > > explicitly discussed it, but one could assume that it is at least > > feasible > > > to gradually adopt the new architecture. So there would be a smooth > path > > > between the current state of the code base and a future one. > > > > > > Your proposal below breaks this assumption somewhat (by proposing a new > > > repo instead of a branch - which will inevitably make the 2 code bases > > > drift apart) as well as explicitly by suggesting a new implementation > > > language. Especially the latter would create a schism between OW-now > and > > > OW-future. > > > This schism has implications like the perception of OW-now being > > > deprecated, the _possibility_ of no clean upgrade path, the immediate > > split > > > of the community between *-now and *-future and of course carries the > > risk > > > of the version 2 syndrome. > > > > > > I would propose to implement the future architecture in a branch and in > > > Scala first. If it turns out to be good, then subsequent experiments > can > > > show or not-show if a switch of language is of additional value. That > > would > > > allow to make a decision based on data rather than anything else. > > > > > > My2c > > > Michael > > > > > > > > > On 28.08.18, 14:26, "Markus Thömmes" <markusthoem...@apache.org> > wrote: > > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > > Am Mo., 27. Aug. 2018 um 20:04 Uhr schrieb David P Grove < > > > gro...@us.ibm.com > > > >: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > "Markus Thömmes" <markusthoem...@apache.org> wrote on 08/23/2018 > > > 04:19:33 > > > > PM: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Key point I want to make is: At some point we'll have to start > to > > > > prototype > > > > > things out and see if our assumptions actually hold water. For > > > example, > > > > my > > > > > assumption on a work-stealing backend is pretty much in the > air. > > > > > > > > > > My proposal for going forward would be: > > > > > 1. Create a playground for the implementation of some parts of > > the > > > system > > > > > (a new repository?) > > > > > 2. Let's build some of the things that are uncontroversial and > > > absolutely > > > > > needed in any case (ContainerRouter, ContainerManager). > > > > > 3. Play around with them, hook them up in different ways, see > > what > > > works > > > > > and what doesn't. > > > > > > > > > > Some things will need some testing out to see the scale that > the > > > > components > > > > > can operate at. These things will narrow or widen the solution > > > space for > > > > > the more controversial topics around how to distribute > containers > > > in the > > > > > system, how to balance between the routers, work-stealing > queue: > > > yes/no > > > > etc. > > > > > > > > > > Having some simple components fleshed out could encourage > > > innovation and > > > > > creates some facts that we need to focus things into a good > > > direction. > > > > > > > > > > What do you think? Too early to start with this and/or the > wrong > > > way of > > > > > doing it? > > > > > > > > > > > > > +1 for starting to prototype. It's been a good discussion and I > > > think > > > > we've identified some things that we know we don't know, so time > to > > > > experiment and find out. > > > > > > > > > > > > Not sure what the best logistics are for this. Would like the > work > > > to be > > > > at Apache (community visibility). I'm not sure if the best way > is > > a > > > new > > > > repo or an experimental branch of the main repo (we could dial > down > > > the > > > > level of testing on the branch to make it less cumbersome?). The > > > branch is > > > > attractive to me because it might make it easier to keep in synch > > > with the > > > > components we aren't changing. > > > > > > > > > > I actually think we should generate a new repository for this. > > Opening > > > PRs > > > etc. will then not clutter the "main" repository and we don't need > to > > > worry > > > about breaking anything. > > > > > > If nobody objects I'm going to get "incubator-openwhisk-protoype" > > > generated > > > and will create a rough outline in the repository (different > folders > > > for > > > different parts of the system). > > > > > > One more basic question (and this is going to be controversial): > Most > > > of > > > the componentry in the execution layer will have to be build anew. > > I'd > > > like > > > to switch the implementation language of at least the > ContainerRouter > > > to > > > Golang. Why? Because scale/performance matters a lot for them. As > > Dave > > > mentioned on multiple occasions, it will greatly matter how many > > > containers > > > such a Router can handle under load and that scale will define the > > > implementation alternatives we will have at hand. I therefore would > > > like to > > > optimise these Routers for minimal overhead. We could go even lower > > > level, > > > but I guess that'd be at a kinda big maintenance cost. > > > > > > I can envision the ContainerManager to be simpler to implement in > > > Golang as > > > well, at least for some of the deployment alternatives (Kubernetes > > > comes to > > > mind). The Golang based clients seemed superior to me vs. clients > in > > > any > > > other language. > > > > > > As all of the communication will probably be HTTP only anyway, > these > > > implementations should be swappable anytime. > > > > > > Comments very welcome! Let me know your opinions. > > > > > > Cheers, > > > Markus > > > > > > > > > > > >
