Github user srosenthal commented on a diff in the pull request:
https://github.com/apache/spark/pull/1434#discussion_r15137079
--- Diff: docs/streaming-programming-guide.md ---
@@ -467,6 +468,62 @@ For more details on these additional sources, see the
corresponding [API documen
Furthermore, you can also implement your own custom receiver for your
sources. See the
[Custom Receiver Guide](streaming-custom-receivers.html).
+### Kinesis
+Build notes:
+<li>Spark supports a Kinesis Streaming Receiver which is not included in
the default build due to licensing restrictions.</li>
+<li>_**Note that by embedding this library you will include
[ASL](https://aws.amazon.com/asl/)-licensed code in your Spark package**_.</li>
+<li>For sbt users, set the `SPARK_KINESIS_ASL` environment variable before
building.</li>
+<li>For Maven users, enable the `-Pspark-kinesis-asl` profile.</li>
+<li>User applications will need to link to the `spark-kinesis-asl`
artifact.</li>
+<li>The Spark Kinesis Streaming Receiver source code, examples, tests, and
artifacts live in $SPARK_HOME/extras/spark-kinesis-asl.</li>
+
+Deployment and runtime notes:
+<li>Each shard of a stream is processed by one or more KinesisReceiver's
managed by the Kinesis Client Library (KCL) Worker.</li>
+<li>Said differently, a single KinesisReceiver can process many shards of
a stream.</li>
+<li>You never need more KinesisReceivers than the number of shards in your
stream.</li>
+<li>The Kinesis assembly jar must also be present on all worker nodes, as
they will need access to the Kinesis Client Library.</li>
+<li>/tmp/checkpoint is a valid and accessible directory on all workers (or
locally if running in local mode)</li>
+<li>This code uses the DefaultAWSCredentialsProviderChain and searches for
credentials in the following order of precedence:<br/>
+ 1) Environment Variables - AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_KEY<br/>
+ 2) Java System Properties - aws.accessKeyId and aws.secretKey<br/>
+ 3) Credential profiles file - default location (~/.aws/credentials)
shared by all AWS SDKs<br/>
+ 4) Instance profile credentials - delivered through the Amazon EC2
metadata service<br/>
+</li>
+<li>You need to setup a Kinesis stream with 1 or more shards per the
following:<br/>
+
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/kinesis/latest/dev/step-one-create-stream.html</li>
+<li>When you first start up the KinesisReceiver, the Kinesis Client
Library (KCL) needs ~30s to establish connectivity with the AWS Kinesis service,
+retrieve any checkpoint data, and negotiate with other KCL's reading from
the same stream.</li>
+<li>During testing, I noticed varying degrees of delays while retrieving
records from Kinesis depending on which coffee shop in San Francisco I was
working.
+The input and output data eventually matched, but sometimes after an
unusually long time.</li>
+<li>Be careful when changing the app name. Kinesis maintains a mapping
table in DynamoDB based on this app name
(http://docs.aws.amazon.com/kinesis/latest/dev/kinesis-record-processor-implementation-app.html#kinesis-record-processor-initialization).
+Changing the app name could lead to Kinesis errors as only 1 logical
application can process a stream.</li>
+
+Failure recovery notes:
+<li>The combination of Spark Streaming and Kinesis creates 3 different
checkpoints as follows:<br/>
+ 1) RDD data checkpoint (Spark Streaming) - frequency is configurable
with DStream.checkpoint(Duration)<br/>
+ 2) RDD metadata checkpoint (Spark Streaming) - frequency is every
DStream batch<br/>
+ 3) Kinesis checkpointing (Kinesis) - frequency is controlled by the
developer calling ICheckpointer.checkpoint() directly<br/>
+</li>
+<li>During testing, if you see the same data being read from the stream
twice, it's likely due to the Kinesis checkpoints not being written.</li>
+<li>Checkpointing too freqently will cause excess load on the AWS
checkpoint storage layer and may lead to AWS throttling</li>
+<li>Upon startup, a KinesisReceiver will begin processing records with
sequence numbers greater than the last checkpoint sequence number recorded per
shard.</li>
+<li>If no checkpoint info exists, the worker will start either from the
oldest record available (InitialPositionInStream.TRIM_HORIZON)
+or from the tip/latest (InitialPostitionInStream.LATEST). This is
configurable.</li>
+<li>When pulling from the stream tip (InitialPositionInStream.LATEST),
only new stream data will be picked up after the KinesisReceiver starts.</li>
+<li>InitialPositionInStream.LATEST could lead to missed records if data is
added to the stream while no KinesisReceivers are running.</li>
+<li>In production, you'll want to switch to
InitialPositionInStream.TRIM_HORIZON which will read up to 24 hours (Kinesis
limit) of previous stream data
+depending on the checkpoint frequency.</li>
+<li>InitialPositionInStream.TRIM_HORIZON may lead to duplicate processing
of records depending on the checkpoint frequency.</li>
+<li>Record processing should be idempotent when possible.</li>
+<li>Failed or latent KinesisReceivers will be detected and automatically
shutdown/load-balanced by the KCL.</li>
+<li>If possible, explicitly shutdown the worker if a failure occurs.</li>
+
+Example KinesisWordCount (and JavaKiensisWordCount) notes:
--- End diff --
Typo - JavaKinesisWordCount
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