We've added three mentors since starting the proposal thread, so I
would like to start the vote to accept Whirr into the Apache
Incubator.
The proposal is included below and is also at:
http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/WhirrProposal
Please cast your votes:
[ ] +1 Accept Whirr for incubation
[ ] +0 Don't care
[ ] -1 Reject for the following reason:
Thanks,
Tom
= 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/
* http://github.com/tomwhite/whirr
== 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)
* Patrick Hunt (phunt at apache dot org)
== Affiliations ==
* Tom White, Cloudera
* Andrew Purtell, Trend Micro
* Johan Oskarsson, Twitter
* Steve Loughran, HP Labs
* Patrick Hunt, Yahoo!
== Sponsors ==
=== Champion ===
* Tom White
=== Nominated Mentors ===
* Doug Cutting
* Tom White
* Steve Loughran
=== Sponsoring Entity ===
* Incubator PMC
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