I'm a Linux programmer.
I used to write code in order to get things done: java perl php c.
I need to start working with DATA STAGE.
All I see is that DATA STAGE is working on table/csv style data and doing it line by line.
I want to know if DATA STAGE can work on file that are not table/csv like. can it load
data into data structures and run function on them, or is it limited to working
only on one line at a time.
thank you for any information that you can give on the capabilities of DATA SATGE
IBM (formerly Ascential) DataStage is an ETL platform that, indeed, works on data sets by applying various transformations.
This does not necessarily mean that you are constrained on applying only single line transformations (you can also aggregate, join, split etc). Also, DataStage has it's own programming language - BASIC - that allows you to modify the design of your jobs as needed.
Lastly, you are still free to call external scripts from within DataStage (either using the DSExecute function, Before Job property, After Job property or the Command stage).
Please check the IBM Information Center for a comprehensive documentation on BASIC Programming.
You could also check the DSXchange forums for DataStage specific topics.
Yes it can, as Razvan said you can join, aggregate, split. It can uses loops and external scripts, it can also handles XML.
My advice for you is that if you have large quantities of data you're gonna have to work on then datastage is your friend, else if the data that you're going to have to load is not very big then it's going to be easier to use JAVA, c, or any programming language that you know.
You can all times of functions , conversions , manipulate the data. mainly Datastage is used for ease of use when you handling humongous data from datamart /datawarehouse.
The main process of datastage would be ETL - Extraction Transformation Loading.
If a programmer uses 100 lines of code to connect to some database here we can do it with one click.
Anything can be done here even c , c++ coding in a rountine activity.
If you are talking about hierarchical files, like XML or JSON, the answer is yes.
If you are talking about complex files, such as are produced by COBOL, the answer is yes.
All using in-built functionality (e.g. Hierarchical Data stage, Complex Flat File stage). Review the DataStage palette to find other examples.
Related
Case in point - I have a build which invokes a lot of REST API calls and processes the results. I would like to split the monolithic step that does all that into 3 steps:
initial data acquisition - gets data from REST Api. Plain objects, no reference loops or duplicate references
data massaging - enriches the data from (1) with all kinds of useful information. May result in duplicate references (the same object is referenced from multiple places) or reference loops.
data processing
The catch is that there is a lot of data and converting it to json takes too much time to my taste. I did not check the Export-CliXml function, but I think it would be slow too.
If I wrote the code in C# I would use some kind of binary serialization, which should be sophisticated enough to handle reference loops and duplicate references.
Please, note that serialization would write to the build staging directory and would be deserialized almost immediately as soon as the next step runs.
I wonder what are my options in Powershell?
EDIT 1
I would like to clarify what do I mean by steps. This is a build running on a CI build server. Each step runs in a separate shell and is reported individually on the build page. There is no memory sharing between the steps. The only way to communicate between the steps is either through build variables or file system. Of course, using databases is also possible, but it is an overkill.
Build variables are set using certain API and are exposed to the subsequent steps as environment variables. As such they are quite limited in length.
So I am talking about communicating through the file system. I am sacrificing performance here for the sake of build granularity - instead of having one monolithic step I want to have 3 smaller steps. This way the build is more transparent and communicates clearly what it is doing. But I have to temporarily persist payloads between steps. If it is possible to minimize the overhead, then the benefits worth it. If the performance is going to degrade significantly, then I will keep the monolithic step.
I have a CSV file with a number of fields. What is an idiomatic way to read the file, sort the file using a subset of fields, and then write another CSV as output.
Should I even attempt to do this in spring-batch? I understand that *nix-based OSes have the sort utility to do this, but I'd like to contain all my work within spring batch if possible.
The Batch Processing Strategies section of the documentation seems to suggest that might be standard utility steps to accomplish this:
In addition to the main building blocks, each application may use one or more of standard utility steps, such as:
Sort: A program that reads an input file and produces an output file where records have been re-sequenced according to a sort key field in the records. Sorts are usually performed by standard system utilities.
But I am not able to locate this. Any pointers most welcome!
Thanks very much!
Unless you really should do it inside Spring Batch I would suggest you do it with OS based commands.
But your point is correct, adding intermediary Steps to your Jobs to Sort/Filter or even clean DATA is a mainstream pattern used in Batch Processing or ETL Jobs.
Hope this helps.
I found out that there is a SystemCommandTasklet that is meant to run OS commands. This can be used to do things like sorting, finding unique items, etc.
I am new to Druid.
Problem Statement
We do currently push raw event data to Druid. I have a requirement to apply certain calculations on the data (say like certain stat techniques) which are not supported by Druid or the extensions it provides out of the box.
There are two questions I have -
What would be a better way to achieve this? (Have some external script that reads data from Druid, computes the calculations and puts it back to Druid)?
Can I take a route of writing Custom Extensions on Druid? I could not find any good documentation on how do we go about writing/ testing Druid Extensions.
These link does not provide any in-depth information -
http://druid.io/docs/latest/development/modules.html
https://github.com/apache/incubator-druid (Druid repo that has some core and community contrib extensions)
Appreciate any help on this. Thank you.
You can achieve this both ways now it's up to you how much comfortable you are writing an extension by yourself and then maintain it. This is certainly time-consuming compared to another way.
If you read data from druid and then perform your calculation and write data back to the druid, you will end up writing to the separate table. If you are not storge bound on druid cluster then you can certainly take this path and its less time-consuming.
Yes, this is the recommended way to perform any custom computation on data. You can certainly write a simple extension easily. Here's the example git hub repo link which helps to write a custom druid extension: https://github.com/implydata/druid-example-extension
My Data
It's primarily monitoring data, passed in the form of Timestamp: Value, for each monitored value, on each monitored appliance. It's regularly collected over many appliances and many monitored values.
Additionally, it has the quirky feature of many of these data values being derived at the source, with the calculation changing from time to time. This means that my data is effectively versioned, and I need to be able to simply call up only data from the most recent version of the calculation. Note: This is not versioning where the old values are overwritten. I simply have timestamp cutoffs, beyond which the data changes its meaning.
My Usage
Downstream, I'm going to have various undefined data mining/machine learning uses for the data. It's not really clear yet what those uses are, but it is clear that I will be writing all of the downstream code in Python. Also, we are a very small shop, so I can really only deal with so much complexity in setup, maintenance, and interfacing to downstream applications. We just don't have that many people.
The Choice
I am not allowed to use a SQL RDBMS to store this data, so I have to find the right NoSQL solution. Here's what I've found so far:
Cassandra
Looks totally fine to me, but it seems like some of the major users have moved on. It makes me wonder if it's just not going to be that much of a vibrant ecosystem. This SE post seems to have good things to say: Cassandra time series data
Accumulo
Again, this seems fine, but I'm concerned that this is not a major, actively developed platform. It seems like this would leave me a bit starved for tools and documentation.
MongoDB
I have a, perhaps irrational, intense dislike for the Mongo crowd, and I'm looking for any reason to discard this as a solution. It seems to me like the data model of Mongo is all wrong for things with such a static, regular structure. My data even comes in (and has to stay in) order. That said, everybody and their mother seems to love this thing, so I'm really trying to evaluate its applicability. See this and many other SE posts: What NoSQL DB to use for sparse Time Series like data?
HBase
This is where I'm currently leaning. It seems like the successor to Cassandra with a totally usable approach for my problem. That said, it is a big piece of technology, and I'm concerned about really knowing what it is I'm signing up for, if I choose it.
OpenTSDB
This is basically a time-series specific database, built on top of HBase. Perfect, right? I don't know. I'm trying to figure out what another layer of abstraction buys me.
My Criteria
Open source
Works well with Python
Appropriate for a small team
Very well documented
Has specific features to take advantage of ordered time series data
Helps me solve some of my versioned data problems
So, which NoSQL database actually can help me address my needs? It can be anything, from my list or not. I'm just trying to understand what platform actually has code, not just usage patterns, that support my super specific, well understood needs. I'm not asking which one is best or which one is cooler. I'm trying to understand which technology can most natively store and manipulate this type of data.
Any thoughts?
It sounds like you are describing one of the most common use cases for Cassandra. Time series data in general is often a very good fit for the cassandra data model. More specifically many people store metric/sensor data like you are describing. See:
http://rubyscale.com/blog/2011/03/06/basic-time-series-with-cassandra/
http://www.datastax.com/dev/blog/advanced-time-series-with-cassandra
http://engineering.rockmelt.com/post/17229017779/modeling-time-series-data-on-top-of-cassandra
As far as your concerns with the community I'm not sure what is giving you that impression, but there is quite a large community (see irc, mailing lists) as well as a growing number of cassandra users.
http://www.datastax.com/cassandrausers
Regarding your criteria:
Open source
Yes
Works well with Python
http://pycassa.github.com/pycassa/
Appropriate for a small team
Yes
Very well documented
http://www.datastax.com/docs/1.1/index
Has specific features to take advantage of ordered time series data
See above links
Helps me solve some of my versioned data problems
If I understand your description correctly you could solve this multiple ways. You could start writing a new row when the version changes. Alternatively you could use composite columns to store the version along with the timestamp/value pair.
I'll also note that Accumulo, HBase, and Cassandra all have essentially the same data model. You will still find small differences around the data model in regards to specific features that each database offers, but the basics will be the same.
The bigger difference between the three will be the architecture of the system. Cassandra takes its architecture from Amazon's Dynamo. Every server in the cluster is the same and it is quite simple to setup. HBase and Accumulo or more direct clones of BigTable. These have more moving parts and will require more setup/types of servers. For example, setting up HDFS, Zookeeper, and HBase/Accumulo specific server types.
Disclaimer: I work for DataStax (we work with Cassandra)
I only have experience in Cassandra and MongoDB but my experience might add something.
So your basically doing time based metrics?
Ok if I understand right you use the timestamp as a versioning mechanism so that you query per a certain timestamp, say to get the latest calculation used you go based on the metric ID or whatever and get ts DESC and take off the first row?
It sounds like a versioned key value store at times.
With this in mind I probably would not recommend either of the two I have used.
Cassandra is too rigid and it's too heirachal, too based around how you query to the point where you can only make one pivot of graph data from (I presume you would wanna graph these metrics) the columfamily which is crazy, hence why I dropped it. As for searching (which Facebook use it for, and only that) it's not that impressive either.
MongoDB, well I love MongoDB and I am an elite of the user group and it could work here if you didn't use a key value storage policy but at the end of the day if your mind is not set and you don't like the tech then let me be the very first to say: don't use it! You will be no good at a tech that you don't like so stay away from it.
Though I would picture this happening in Mongo much like:
{
_id: ObjectID(),
metricId: 'AvailableMessagesInQueue',
formula: '4+5/10.01',
result: NaN
ts: ISODate()
}
And you query for the latest version of your calculation by:
var results = db.metrics.find({ 'metricId': 'AvailableMessagesInQueue' }).sort({ ts: -1 });
var latest = results.getNext();
Which would output the doc structure you see above. Without knowing more of exactly how you wish to query and the general servera and app scenario etc thats the best I can come up with.
I fond this thread on HBase though: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/hbase-user/201011.mbox/%3C5A76F6CE309AD049AAF9A039A39242820F0C20E5#sc-mbx04.TheFacebook.com%3E
Which might be of interest, it seems to support the argument that HBase is a good time based key value store.
I have not personally used HBase so do not take anything I say about it seriously....
I hope I have added something, if not you could try narrowing your criteria so we can answer more dedicated questions.
Hope it helps a little,
Not a plug for any particular technology but this article on Time Series storage using MongoDB might provide another way of thinking about the storage of large amounts of "sensor" data.
http://www.10gen.com/presentations/mongodc-2011/time-series-data-storage-mongodb
Axibase Time-Series Database
Open source
There is a free Community Edition
Works well with Python
https://github.com/axibase/atsd-api-python. There are also other language wrappers, for example ATSD R client.
Appropriate for a small team
Built-in graphics and rule engine make it productive for building an in-house reporting, dashboarding, or monitoring solution with less coding.
Very well documented
It's hard to beat IBM redbooks, but we're trying. API, configuration, and administration is documented in detail and with examples.
Has specific features to take advantage of ordered time series data
It's a time-series database from the ground-up so aggregation, filtering and non-parametric ARIMA and HW forecasts are available.
Helps me solve some of my versioned data problems
ATSD supports versioned time-series data natively in SE and EE editions. Versions keep track of status, change-time and source changes for the same timestamp for audit trails and reconciliations. It's a useful feature to have if you need clean, verified data with tracing. Think energy metering, PHMR records. ATSD schema also supports series tags, which you could use to store versioning columns manually if you're on CE edition or you need to extend default versioning columns: status, source, change-time.
Disclosure - I work for the company that develops ATSD.
I've got a lot of mysql data that I need to generate reports from. It's mostly historic data so it won't be changing much, but it weighs in at 20-30 gigabytes easily and is expected to grow. I currently have a collection of php scripts that will do some complex queries and output csv and excel files. I also use phpMyAdmin with bookmarked queries. I manually edit them to change the parameters. The amount of data is growing and the number of people who need access to it is also growing, so I'm making the time to improve this situation.
I started reading about data warehousing the other day and it seems that this an area that relates to what I need to do. I've read some good articles and am even waiting on a book. I think I'm getting a handle on what these sorts of systems do and what's possible.
Creating a reporting system for my data has always been on a todo list, but until recently I figured it would be a highly niche programing venture. Since I now know data warehousing is a common thing, I figure there must be some sort of reporting/warehousing frames available to ease in the development. I'd gladly skip writing interfaces and scripts to schedule and email reports and the like and stick to writing queries and setting up relations.
I've mostly been a lamp guy, but I'm not above switching languages or platforms. I just need a more robust solution as my one off scripts don't scale well.
So where's a good place to get started?
I'll discuss a few points on the {budget, business utility function, time frame} spectrum out there. For convenience, let's follow the architecture conceptualization you linked to at
WikipediaDataWarehouseArticle
Operational database layer
The source data for the data warehouse - Normalized for In One Place Only data maintenance
Data access layer
The transformation of your source data into your informational access layer. ETL tools to extract, transform, load data into the warehouse fall into this layer.
Informational access layer
• Report-facilitating Data Structure
Data is not maintained here. It is merely a reflection of your source data
Hence, denormalized structures (containing duplicate, but systematically derived data)
are usually most effective here
• Reporting tools
How do you actually allow your users access to the data
• pre-canned reports (simple)
• more dynamic slice-and-dice access methods
The data accessed for reporting and analyzing and the tools for reporting and analyzing data
fall into this layer. And the Inmon-Kimball differences about design methodology,
discussed later in the Wikipedia article, have to do with this layer.
Metadata layer (facilitates automation, organization, etc)
Roll your own (low-end)
For very little out-of-pocket cost, just recognizing the need for the denormalized structures can buy those that are not using it some efficiencies
Get in the ballgame (some outlays required)
You don't need to use all the functionality of a platform right off the bat.
IMO, however, you want to be on a platform that you know will grow, and in the highly competitive and consolidating BI environment, that seems to be one of the four enterprise mega-vendors (my opinion)
Microsoft (the platform of our 110 employee firm)
SAP
Oracle
IBM
BiMarketStateArticle
My firm is at this stage, using some of the ETL capability offered by SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and some alternate usage of the open source, but in practice license requiring Talend product in the "Data Access Layer", a denormalized reporting structure (implemented completely in the basic SQL Server database), and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) to largely automate (based on your skill) the production of pre-specified reports. Note that an SSRS "report" is merely a (scalable) XML configuration/specification that gets rendered at runtime via the SSRS engine. Choices such as export to an excel file are simple options.
Serious Commitment (some significant human commitment required)
Notice above that we have yet to utilize the data mining/dynamic slicing/dicing
capabilities of SQL Server Analysis Services. We are working toward that,
but now focused on improving the quality of our data cleansing in the "Data Access Layer".
I hope this helps you to get a sense of where to start looking.
Pentaho has put together a pretty comprehensive suite of products. The products are "free", but be prepared for the usual heavy sell once you fork over your identifying information.
I haven't had a chance to really stretch them as we're a Microsoft shop from one sad end to the other.
I think you should first check out Kimball and Inmon and see if you want to approach your data warehouse in a particular way. Kimball, in particular, lays out a very good framework for the modelling and construction of the warehouse.
There are a number of tools which try to make the process of designing, implementing and managing/operating a Data Warehouse and they each have their strengths and weaknesses and often vastly differing price points. Under the covers you are always going to be best off if you have a good knowledge of warsehousing principles from the Kimball and/or Inmon camps.
As well as tools like Kalido and Wherescape RED (which do similar thing in very different ways), many of the ETL platforms now have good in-built support for the donkey work of implementation - SCD components etc and lineage tracking.
Best though to view all these as tools to be used in the hands of you, the craftsman, they make certain easy things even easier (or even trivial), some hard things easier but some things they just get in they way of IMHO ;) Learn the methodology and principles first and get a good understanding of them and then you will know which tools to apply from your kitbag and when...
It hasn't been updated in a while but there's a nice Data Warehousing/ETL Ruby package called ActiveWarehouse.
But I would check out the Pentaho products like Nick mentioned in another answer. It should easily handle the volume of data you have and may provide you with more ways to slice and dice your data than you could have ever imagined.
The best framework you can currently get is Anchor Modeling.
It might look quite complex because of it's generic structure and built-in capability to historize data.
Also modeling technique is quite different than ERD.
But you end-up with sql code to generate all db objects including 3NF views and:
insert/update handled by triggers
query any point/range in history
you application developers will not see underlying 6NF anchor model.
The technology is open sourced and at the moment is unbeatable.
If you would have AM question you may want to ask on that tag anchor-modeling.
Kimball is the simpler method for data warehousing.
We use Informatica for moving data around, but it doesn't do DW things like indexing by default.
I like the idea of Wherescape RED, as a DW tool and using MS SQL's Linked Servers to obviate the need for an ETL tool.