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Google File System Evolves, Hadoop To Follow

Christophe Bisciglia, Google's former infrastructure guru and current member of the Cloudera start-up team, has commented on Google's latest iteration on their GFS file system and deemed its features well within the evolutionary capabilities of open-source competitor Hadoop. "Details on Google's GFS2 are slim. After all, it's Google. But based on what he's read, Bisciglia calls the update 'the next logical iteration' of the original GFS, and he sees Hadoop eventually following in the (rather sketchy) footsteps left by his former employer. 'A lot of the things Google is talking about are very logical directions for Hadoop to go,' Bisciglia tells The Reg. 'One of the things I've been very happy to see repeatedly demonstrated is that Hadoop has been able to implement [new Google GFS and MapReduce] features in approximately the same order. This shows that the fundamentals of Hadoop are solid, that the fundamentals are based on the same principles that allowed Google's systems to scale over the years.'"

53 comments

  1. Hadoop by Jurily · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wish they would stop taking names from Star Wars.

    1. Re:Hadoop by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      I wish they would stop taking names from Star Wars.

      These are not the names you are looking for.

    2. Re:Hadoop by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Speaking of names, check this out from TFA:

      this overhaul of the Google File System is already under test as part of the "Caffeine" infrastructure the company announced earlier this week.

      If they keep naming things with coffee references (including Java), what would happen if it's discovered that coffee causes cancer or shrunken balls or what not? It's already going to affect acceptance in Utah. This is why corporations find bland mean-nothing names like "Teamware" or "Altria" or "Inprise". I personally like "Stuff 9".
         

    3. Re:Hadoop by e9th · · Score: 5, Informative

      This NY Times article includes a photo of Doug Cutting, Hadoop's creator (and now Cloudera employee), holding his son's toy elephant, Hadoop.

    4. Re:Hadoop by Korin43 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But would you really rather talk about companies with names like that? Google knows their audience. There's the normal people who will use anything that's set as the default, and the nerds who are the ones setting the defaults. Google can't convince normal people to switch (because telling someone to click on the search box and choose Google is "too complicated"), so it makes sense for them to target very specifically at nerds, who will then do their work for them.

    5. Re:Hadoop by dakameleon · · Score: 3, Funny

      The day "caffeine" becomes a word that is objectionable to a non-trivial chunk of my customer base is the day I know the PC crazies have won.

      --
      Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
    6. Re:Hadoop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      And this site includes a photo of him holding his ass wide open.

    7. Re:Hadoop by Abreu · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Score: 1, Informative

      WTF?

      --
      No sig for the moment.
    8. Re:Hadoop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      The rain was getting harder. It was now precisely 11:51 PM, and Mark was into his fifth beer. He was feeling pretty invincible but the night was young, and he intended to get wasted before it was all over. He had put in a rough week at work and he deserved it.

      He lit another cigarette. He and his drinkin' buddies sat in their traditional circle, in Ian's apartment. The talk wandered from sex to work, back to sex, to basketball, finally settling on sex. Mark had eaten lunch at Taco Bell, and had drunk four cups of coffee between lunchtime and quitting. In addition, the beers were beginning to settle in. And now, at 11:51 PM, Mark had to take a shit. He stood up. "Shit break," he announced. It was customary among this group to make such an announcement.

      Mark walked to the bathroom. As he locked the door behind him, thunder boomed. It was storming out there.

      He pulled his pants down and sat on the toilet. Ian's bathroom was a mess. He counted five empty toilet paper rolls, two paperbacks, and yesterday's newspaper. His friends laughed about something. The lights flickered for a moment, and the pre-shit growl came from within. He could feel the product lined up inside him for disposal. Then, he began to push.

      Plop. The first piece fell to the water. Then some movement, and Mark felt the main feature inside him, the mother lode. He grunted softly as he squeezed it out. It crackled past his sphincter, and splashed neatly into the bowl.

      Then another one queued up, and came out. It was almost as big as its predecessor. Mark would have well-purged bowels tonight, he realized with a smirk. He heard thunder again, closer this time.

      Another one? Jeez, he thought. When was my last shit? It ventured forth, Mark's muscles helping it out. It was the biggest one so far. The shit's passage through his anus, that rarest mix of pain and pleasure, was longer than any he could remember. Ahhhh...the stout log advanced with conviction. This was definitely going to be his finest creation; this was a huge one. Still grinning, he wondered if Ian had a camera.

      He pushed. Peering between his legs, past his genitals, he saw that it had reached the water. This was like seeing the longest freight train ever. Damn, it was a wide one. And it was still attached! And there was more! He pushed more, harder. It kept coming. He couldn't even feel the end of this one yet; soon it was bending, folding on itself like a sundae topping. Mark stopped pushing and caught his breath. He was sweating; he realized that however long this piece of shit was, it wasn't nearly all the way out yet. He still couldn't feel the end.

      He pushed, he strained, it kept coming. His intestines couldn't be that damn long, but this shit just wouldn't quit. In fact, he was feeling the diarrhoeal urgency of *having* to shit. He dutifully answered nature's call, and pushed harder. His efforts were rewarded with more shit. His sphincter was too strained to even pinch the loaf off. It was whole and complete.

      He couldn't feel the end.

      Fear now came to Mark. He flushed the toilet to make room for more. Even as the bowl refilled, the cramps rose up, and he pushed. Within seconds, the shit extended from his anus to bottom of the bowl. The harder he pushed, the more he had to shit. And it was getting worse. He scarcely had time to catch his breath; his face was quite red as he grunted and struggled to keep up. The shit seemed endless. He looked between his legs again, and gasped as he saw that the bowl was fully a quarter filled with his product, the water dangerously high. The tank wasn't even done filling, but he flushed again. Unfortunately, the plumbing was unable to handle the volume of feces, and the toilet backed up. Mark jumped when the cold water touched his buttocks.

      It was now 11:57. Thunder roared outside as water and shit particles flowed onto the tile.

      Mark's pants were bunched about his ankles, and he was in pain. The shit advanced relentlessly as he stumbled into the bathtub. He was almost panicking now, and

    9. Re:Hadoop by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Funny

      I personally switched to IIS to avoid offending my Native American brethren!

    10. Re:Hadoop by cheftw · · Score: 1

      The day "caffeine" becomes a word that is objectionable to a non-trivial chunk of my customer base is the day I know the PC crazies have won.

      It's not just PCs! Have you never seen a Mac-head with a latte?

      (I object to the term PC for a computer, it's mostly misleading)

      --
      Always back up, never back down. ---- Think you're cool 'cos your uid is prime? Take mine, modulo the one digit integers
    11. Re:Hadoop by Arthur+Grumbine · · Score: 1

      It's not just PCs! Have you never seen a Mac-head with a latte?

      (I object to the term PC for a computer, it's mostly misleading)

      I object to the term "whoosh". I think it's insulting and Politically inCorrect.

      --
      Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
    12. Re:Hadoop by micheas · · Score: 2, Funny

      How is lighttpd offensive to Native Americans? :-)

    13. Re:Hadoop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hadoop is Poodah spelled backwards. COINCIDENCE?

    14. Re:Hadoop by roguetrick · · Score: 1

      I object to your face. I think it's ugly and smells like a butt.

      --
      -The world would be a better place if everyone had a hoverboard
    15. Re:Hadoop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      PC == "Politically Correct" in this context

    16. Re:Hadoop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, you are WAY too close to his face...

    17. Re:Hadoop by Jeian · · Score: 1

      I'm actually hearing the Street Fighter 2 announcer yelling "HADOOPKEN! HADOOPKEN!" in my head.

    18. Re:Hadoop by KibibyteBrain · · Score: 1

      What monster would give his child a toy that looked like that? Freaky.

    19. Re:Hadoop by xouumalperxe · · Score: 1

      Stuff 9? As in stuff 9 fingers? That's almost like fisting. Pervert!

    20. Re:Hadoop by hesaigo999ca · · Score: 1

      Need mod points, need mod points quick! LMAO

    21. Re:Hadoop by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      I personally switched to IIS to avoid offending my Native American brethren!

      at the expense of offending international astronauts.
         

    22. Re:Hadoop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (I object to the term PC for a computer, it's mostly misleading)

      You object to the term "Personal Computer" for a computer? You're funny!

    23. Re:Hadoop by badkarmadayaccount · · Score: 1

      Am I the only one who though - "Funky Plan 9 reference"?

      --
      I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
  2. This just in! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda has a tiny penis that is so small it would be confused for a baby penis! His wife has to jack him off with a pair of tweezers tand The sad part is that when he cums it can't even fill a thimble!

  3. Wrong Link in the Summary? by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The quoted text seems to be coming from this register story entitled "Google File System II stalked by open-source elephant", not the one linked in the summary. Also, I can't follow the Firehose link below the story to see if this was changed from the original submission.

    --
    My work here is dung.
  4. FAT by XPeter · · Score: 1

    Kill M$, take the fat.

    --
    "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
    1. Re:FAT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      go shove another dildo up your ass.
       
      innovate or die!

    2. Re:FAT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Yeah, there's no bias on slashdot.
       
      faggots.

  5. "open-source competitor Hadoop" by FunPika · · Score: 1

    I thought GFS was a file system only meant to be internally by Google. And if thats the case, then how is it competing with anything?

    --
    After years of not using a signature, I am going to make one to say the following: Fuck Beta
    1. Re:"open-source competitor Hadoop" by peragrin · · Score: 1

      Because GFS is the foundation for all google apps, and why they end up scaling so well.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    2. Re:"open-source competitor Hadoop" by djdavetrouble · · Score: 5, Funny

      It WAS meant to be only internally by Google, but then they accidentally the whole thing.

      --
      music lover since 1969
    3. Re:"open-source competitor Hadoop" by FunPika · · Score: 1

      I thought GFS was a file system only meant to be used internally by Google. And if that's the case, then how is it competing with anything?

      Happy?

      --
      After years of not using a signature, I am going to make one to say the following: Fuck Beta
  6. So it looks like these are for "cloud computing" by ifwm · · Score: 0, Informative

    Reading up on the different file systems Hadoop and GFS , it appears these are used primarily for "cloud computing".

    Is that correct?

  7. it's alive! by glitch23 · · Score: 1

    deemed its features well within the evolutionary capabilities of open-source competitor Hadoop.

    I didn't know that file systems were living beings that could evolve. I thought they were inanimate and were designed by humans? Should I be afraid? Is it sentient yet?

    --
    this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
    1. Re:it's alive! by FunPika · · Score: 1

      Not yet, but when it does become sentient...get as far underground as you can before it nukes us all.

      --
      After years of not using a signature, I am going to make one to say the following: Fuck Beta
  8. Google File System was created by Man by WhiteDragon · · Score: 1

    It Rebelled.
    It Evolved.
    There are many Copies.
    And it has a Plan.

    --
    Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
    1. Re:Google File System was created by Man by mrboyd · · Score: 1

      And it has a Map.

  9. The power of open source! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, now that somebody else has shown the way, Hadoop will do its best to imitate them, like the good open source project it is!

  10. Re:So it looks like these are for "cloud computing by amirulbahr · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you want to be buzz-word compliant, then yes, kind of.

    More to the point, GFS and HDFS are distributed file-systems that are designed to run on potentially very large clusters of commodity hardware. The potential applications are quite diverse. Hadoop itself involves more than just the file-system, but HDFS is really at the core of any application you would want to build with it. This list gives you a good idea of who uses Hadoop and for what purpose.

  11. Unfortunate for Hadoop by mcrbids · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've been on the market for a distributed, clustered file system for some time. Unfortunately, Hardoop is not really what I'm looking for. What I'm looking for:

    1) Redundancy - no single point of failure.
    2) Suitable for standard-sized file I/O.
    3) Performance that doesn't completely suck ass.
    4) Graceful re-integration when bringing a cluster portion back online.
    5) Accessible through standard interfaces. (EG: Posix F/S)
    6) Doesn't require a PHD in the technology to administer.
    7) Doesn't require insane quantities of cash to build.
    8) Stable.

    There are clustered file systems that have some of these qualities. None that I've found so far have *all* of these qualities.

    Hardoop fails on #1, #2, and #6. It has a single nameserver commanding the cluster, so if it goes down, well... (shrug) It also does poorly for "normal" sized files, somehow having a 10 GB file is the norm for Google. And setting a multiple node cluster up is definitely non-trivial.

    Of all that I've reviewed, GlusterFS did the best but even in that case, I ran into severe over-serialization that brought my 6-node cluster to its knees. I tried three times to roll it out, and had to roll back all three times. I fiddled with the brick setup and caches for days before finally throwing in the towel.

    Now I get by with rsyncing program files, and a homegrown data distribution setup using network sockets and xinetd. Not optimal to be sure, but so far it's scaled linearly and provides decent performance, at the price of a PHD in said technology. I guess you could compare our technology to MogileFS, only our scheme

    A) uses DNS records to coordinate the cluster so that it scales up,
    B) has a richer "where is the file" schema than the simple flat keys used by Mogile, and
    C) has the ability to execute programs against files for performance. (EG: grep for searching text files, tar/gzip for compress/uncompress, virus scans, etc)
    D) has the ability to "hang open" for activities like logging.

    So far, this has held up well with about 500,000 file operations and millions of log entries per business day with an average file size of about 1-3 megabytes and every sign that growth can continue by simply stacking on more hardware. No, I'm not talking about massive throughput, but I *am* talking about the need for high availability systems that scale nicely without bottlenecks and exorbitant expense. Yes, it works pretty well, but we've had to invest significant programming time to do this.

    Guess it's like the old engineering saw: Convenient, Cheap, Quality: pick any two!

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
    1. Re:Unfortunate for Hadoop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey mcrbids,

      How did you partition and replicate your namespace, and what sort of fault tolerance guarantees do you provide? Are they tunable? I'd love to see more details on your solution!

      Later,
      Jeff

    2. Re:Unfortunate for Hadoop by Rakishi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hadoop is not really a file system or rather as you found out it doesn't make a good one. It's a framework for doing a certain type of parallel computing (map reduce) on very large amounts of data. There's a filesystem (hdfs) in there but it's pretty much designed for running such parallel jobs rather than being a clustered NAS. The filesystem is in some ways even irrelevant as there's actually support for various filesystems (Amazon S3, etc.).

    3. Re:Unfortunate for Hadoop by mcrbids · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Most of what we do is web-based, so we took a hint from GlusterFS and moved the decisional logic to the client. We host the client so we can assume a trustworthy client. This make debugging easy since all we have to do is echo stuff and see it in the browser.

      Data stores work something like gluster 'bricks' - they serve as only a data store, nothing more. You can thing of a data store as a webDAV server. Each partition is served by multiple data stores. To keep things simple, data stores trust requests and so 'auto-configure' based on the request.

      We divide our data into partitions that correspond to DNS subdomains. Then we use DNS to publish partition data. We provide minimal of two hosts (IP addresses) for each subdomain. All writes are made to all hosts by opening multiple sockets. Reads are read from the first 'best' host after reading header data.

      In the case where any host doesn't have matching 'best' data on a read, the socket reverses and a write is performed as read from the best read. This gives us auto-heal as needed. The only sticky point is delete, which we solve by assuming that a delete operation is successful only when all applicable data stores report success.

      While implementation details are thorny and expensive, this is a system that should scale to any concievable size since we can partition to as many data stores as there is IP space to. And, by dividing our cloud so that data stores will be grouped along with the client's hosting, we should see near-perfect linear scalability.

      Works well so far, but it took over a year of experience to get it all working right, though we certainly weren't working on it exclusively.

      What's your project like?

      --
      I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
    4. Re:Unfortunate for Hadoop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hadoop is not really a file system, yes. But HDFS is irrelevant? Tell that to Yahoo! or Facebook that have more than 50,000 computers running it. But then again, they're busy actually doing work, not mouthing off on Facebook...

    5. Re:Unfortunate for Hadoop by AlXtreme · · Score: 1

      No, I'm not talking about massive throughput, but I *am* talking about the need for high availability systems that scale nicely without bottlenecks and exorbitant expense. Yes, it works pretty well, but we've had to invest significant programming time to do this.

      Is there any chance your project would be released?

      As you found out there are only a couple of Linux clustering filesystems, all with drawbacks. It would be interesting having a new one designed from the start around reliability.

      --
      This sig is intentionally left blank
    6. Re:Unfortunate for Hadoop by Rakishi · · Score: 1

      Reading comprehension, apparently you should learn some. See those three words "in some ways"? Yeah they matter a lot.

      I said HDFS is irrelevant to Hadoop as in it's not a vital part of it or as in it's not required because it can be replaced and quite often in.

  12. Gay project names are hindering open source... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Hadoop? Really? Fucking GAY!!! Hadoop is probably Obama's gay cousin. Meet Hadoop Obongo the Gimp!

  13. woosh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    pc = politically correct

  14. c0m by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    gon5e Romeo and

  15. Coffee causes/cures cancer by andrewbaldwin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If they keep naming things with coffee references (including Java), what would happen if it's discovered that coffee causes cancer or shrunken balls or what not?

    Don't have to wait - in the UK one of the more egregious papers regularly publishes a scare story about cancer. So much so that there are sites dedicated to Daily Mail Oncology Ontology.

    Curiously coffee falls into both the good and bad camps.

    actually it's not that curious - never let consistency spoil a good rant

  16. Dont you know there's no evolution... by Faw · · Score: 1

    ...it is being intelligently designed.

  17. Re:So it looks like these are for "cloud computing by ifwm · · Score: 1

    "If you want to be buzz-word compliant, then yes, kind of."

    I see you're trying to be pedantic douchebag compliant.

    Congratulations, you succeeded.