'Cause some exec finally noticed the product was losing market share. Or got a wild hair strategically placed. My point is only that we should be clear that some number of Lucene users *will* be in such a position.
I'm actually fine with a decision that we're not going to support such a scenario, but let's be clear that that's the decision we're making. And corporate competence aside, there's still licensing that may prevent me archiving the raw data.... Erick On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 10:20 AM, Earwin Burrfoot <ear...@gmail.com> wrote: > I think the need to upgrade to latest and greatest lucene for poor > corporate users that lost all their data is somewhat overblown. > Why the heck do you need to upgrade if your app rotted in neglect for > years?? > > On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 18:14, Erick Erickson <erickerick...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > Coming in late to the discussion, and without really understanding the > > underlying Lucene issues, but... > > The size of the problem of reindexing is under-appreciated I think. > > Somewhere > > in my company is the original data I indexed. But the effort it would > take > > to > > resurrect it is O(unknown). An unfortunate reality of commercial products > is > > that the often receive very little love for extended periods of time > until > > all of > > the sudden more work is required. There ensues an extended period of > > re-orientation, even if the people who originally worked on the project > are > > still > > around. > > *Assuming* the data is available to reindex (and there are many reasons > > besides poor practice on the part of the company that it may not be), > > remembering/finding out exactly which of the various backups you made > > of the original data is the one that's actually in your product can be > > highly > > non-trivial. Compounded by the fact that the product manager will be > > adamant about "Do NOT surprise our customers". > > So I can be in a spot of saying "I *think* I have the original data set, > and > > I > > *think* I have the original code used to index it, and if I get a new > > version of > > Lucene I *think* I can recreate the index and I *think* that the user > will > > see > > the expected change. After all that effort is completed, I *think* we'll > see > > the > > expected changes, but we won't know until we try it" puts me in a very > > precarious position. > > This assumes that I have a reasonable chance of getting the original > data. > > But > > say I've been indexing data from a live feed. Sure as hell hope I stored > the > > data somewhere, because going back to the source and saying "please > resend > > me 10 years worth of data that I have in my index" is...er...hard. Or say > > that the original provider has gone out of business, or the licensing > > arrangement > > specifies a one-time transmission of data that may not be retained in its > > original > > form or..... > > The point of this long diatribe is that there are many reasons why > > reindexing is > > impossible and/or impractical. Making any decision that requires > reindexing > > for > > a new version is locking a user into a version potentially forever. We > > should not > > underestimate how painful that can be and should never think that "just > > reindex" > > is acceptable in all situations. It's not. Period. > > Be very clear that some number of Lucene users will absolutely not be > able > > to reindex. We may still make a decision that requires this, but let's > make > > it > > without deluding ourselves that it's a possible solution for everyone. > > So an upgrade tool seems like a reasonable compromise. I agree that being > > hampered in what we can develop in Lucene by having to accomodate > > reading old indexes slows new features etc. It's always nice to be > > able to work without dealing with pesky legacy issues <G>. Perhaps > > splitting out the indexing upgrades into a separate program lets us > > accommodate both concerns. > > FWIW > > Erick > > On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 9:42 AM, Danil ŢORIN <torin...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >> True. Just need the tool. > >> > >> On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 16:39, Earwin Burrfoot <ear...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> > > >> > On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 17:17, Yonik Seeley < > yo...@lucidimagination.com> > >> > wrote: > >> > > Seamless online upgrades have their place too... say you are > upgrading > >> > > one server at a time in a cluster. > >> > > >> > Nothing here that can't be solved with an upgrade tool. Down one > >> > server, upgrade index, upgrade sofware, up. > >> > > >> > -- > >> > Kirill Zakharenko/Кирилл Захаренко (ear...@gmail.com) > >> > Home / Mobile: +7 (495) 683-567-4 / +7 (903) 5-888-423 > >> > ICQ: 104465785 > >> > > >> > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> > To unsubscribe, e-mail: java-dev-unsubscr...@lucene.apache.org > >> > For additional commands, e-mail: java-dev-h...@lucene.apache.org > >> > > >> > >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: java-dev-unsubscr...@lucene.apache.org > >> For additional commands, e-mail: java-dev-h...@lucene.apache.org > >> > > > > > > > > -- > Kirill Zakharenko/Кирилл Захаренко (ear...@gmail.com) > Home / Mobile: +7 (495) 683-567-4 / +7 (903) 5-888-423 > ICQ: 104465785 > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: java-dev-unsubscr...@lucene.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: java-dev-h...@lucene.apache.org > >
