I wanted to know about some examples or scenarios related to Mongo DB which can be done by map-reduce but not aggregation framework ?
Map-reduce is considered to be very powerful tool/mechanism of aggregating data. Then can some of you please share few scenarios where it is not possible for map-reduce to do it ?
Thanks & Best Regards.
In MongoDB currently aggregation framework is limited to 16MB of returned results.
MapReduce can write its output to a collection and has no size limitations.
MapReduce can group entire documents, aggregation framework works on field level. MapReduce can map keys to values and values to keys which can't be done any other way. MapReduce can also call/use various JavaScript built-in functions where aggregation is limited to functions and expressions which are built-in to its framework.
Related
Some blogs says that mapreduce is slower than aggregation. So which one is ideal to use?
If you go through the official document you can clearly see it written:
For most aggregation operations, the Aggregation Pipeline provides better performance and more coherent interface. However, map-reduce operations provide some flexibility that is not presently available in the aggregation pipeline.
The MongoDB documentation says about map-reduce:
For most aggregation operations, the Aggregation Pipeline provides better performance and more coherent interface. However, map-reduce operations provide some flexibility that is not presently available in the aggregation pipeline.
Does it mean that there are some aggregation operations that cannot be performed in the usual MongoDB aggregation framework but are possible using map-reduce?
In particular I'm looking for an example of map-reduce that cannot be implemented in the MongoDB aggregation framework
Thanks!
An example of "flexibility". Basically, if you have any logic, that does not fit into standard aggregation operators, map-reduce is the only option to do it serverside.
What is a reliable and efficient way to aggregate small data in MongoDB?
Currently, my data that needs to be aggregated is under 1 GB, but can go as high as 10 GB. I'm looking for a real time strategy or near real time (aggregation every 15 minutes).
It seems like the likes of Map/Reduce, Hadoop, Storm are all over kill. I know that triggers don't exist, but I found this one post that may be ideal for my situation. Is creating a trigger in MongoDB an ideal solution for real time small data aggregation?
MongoDB has two built-in options for aggregating data - the aggregation framework and map-reduce.
The aggregation framework is faster (executing as native C++ code as opposed to a JavaScript map-reduce job) but more limited in the sorts of aggregations that are supported. Map-reduce is very versatile and can support very complex aggregations but is slower than the aggregation framework and can be more difficult to code.
Either of these would be a good option for near real time aggregation.
One further consideration to take into account is that as of the 2.4 release the aggregation framework returns a single document containing its results and is therefore limited to returning 16MB of data. In contrast, MongoDB map-reduce jobs have no such limitation and may output directly to a collection. In the upcoming 2.6 release of MongoDB, the aggregation framework will also gain the ability to output directly to a collection, using the new $out operator.
Based on the description of your use case, I would recommend using map-reduce as I assume you need to output more than 16MB of data. Also, note that after the first map-reduce run you may run incremental map-reduce jobs that run only on the data that is new/changed and merge the results into the existing output collection.
As you know, MongoDB doesn't support triggers, but you may easily implement triggers in the application by tailing the MongoDB oplog. This blog post and this SO post cover the topic well.
I am somewhat confused about when to use group(), aggregate with $group or mapreduce. I read the documentation at http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Aggregation for group(), http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/reference/aggregation/group/#_S_group for $group.. Is sharding the only situation where group() won't work? Also, I get this feeling that $group is more powerful than group() because it can be used in conjunction with other pipeline operators from aggregation framework.. How does $group compare with mapreduce? I read somewhere that it doesn't generate any temporary collection whereas mapreduce does. Is that so?
Can someone present an illustration or guide me to a link where these three concepts are explained together, taking the same sample data, so I can compare them easily?
EDIT:Also, it would be great if you can point out anything new specifically in these commands since the new 2.2 release came out..
It is somewhat confusing since the names are similar, but the group() command is a different feature and implementation from the $group pipeline operator in the Aggregation Framework.
The group() command, Aggregation Framework, and MapReduce are collectively aggregation features of MongoDB. There is some overlap in features, but I'll attempt to explain the differences and limitations of each as at MongoDB 2.2.0.
Note: inline result sets mentioned below refer to queries that are processed in memory with results returned at the end of the function call. Alternative output options (currently only available with MapReduce) could include saving results to a new or existing collection.
group() Command
Simple syntax and functionality for grouping .. analogous to GROUP BY in SQL.
Returns result set inline (as an array of grouped items).
Implemented using the JavaScript engine; custom reduce() functions can be written in JavaScript.
Current Limitations
Will not group into a result set with more than 20,000 keys.
Results must fit within the limitations of a BSON document (currently 16MB).
Takes a read lock and does not allow any other threads to execute JavaScript while it is running.
Does not work with sharded collections.
See also: group() command examples.
MapReduce
Implements the MapReduce model for processing large data sets.
Can choose from one of several output options (inline, new collection, merge, replace, reduce)
MapReduce functions are written in JavaScript.
Supports non-sharded and sharded input collections.
Can be used for incremental aggregation over large collections.
MongoDB 2.2 implements much better support for sharded map reduce output.
Current Limitations
A single emit can only hold half of MongoDB's maximum BSON document size (16MB).
There is a JavaScript lock so a mongod server can only execute one JavaScript function at a point in time .. however, most steps of the MapReduce are very short so locks can be yielded frequently.
MapReduce functions can be difficult to debug. You can use print() and printjson() to include diagnostic output in the mongod log.
MapReduce is generally not intuitive for programmers trying to translate relational query aggregation experience.
See also: Map/Reduce examples.
Aggregation Framework
New feature in the MongoDB 2.2.0 production release (August, 2012).
Designed with specific goals of improving performance and usability.
Returns result set inline.
Supports non-sharded and sharded input collections.
Uses a "pipeline" approach where objects are transformed as they pass through a series of pipeline operators such as matching, projecting, sorting, and grouping.
Pipeline operators need not produce one output document for every input document: operators may also generate new documents or filter out documents.
Using projections you can add computed fields, create new virtual sub-objects, and extract sub-fields into the top-level of results.
Pipeline operators can be repeated as needed (for example, multiple $project or $group steps.
Current Limitations
Results are returned inline, so are limited to the maximum document size supported by the server (16MB)
Doesn't support as many output options as MapReduce
Limited to operators and expressions supported by the Aggregation Framework (i.e. can't write custom functions)
Newest server feature for aggregation, so has more room to mature in terms of documentation, feature set, and usage.
See also: Aggregation Framework examples.
Can someone present an illustration or guide me to a link where these three concepts are explained together, taking the same sample data, so I can compare them easily?
You generally won't find examples where it would be useful to compare all three approaches, but here are previous StackOverflow questions which show variations:
group() versus Aggregation Framework
MapReduce versus Aggregation Framework
In CouchDB you always have to use map reduce to query results.
In MongoDB you can their query methods for retrieving data, but they also let you do map-reduce.
I wonder, when do I actually need map-reduce?
Are those query methods different from map-reduce or are they just wrappers for map-reduce functions?
MapReduce is needed for aggregations in MongoDB. The normal queries follow a very different (and much faster) code path and they should always be used for real-time operations. MapReduce is definitely not intended for real-time, it's more for batch jobs.
Technically, you could write all your queries using MapReduce, but that would be both painful and slow.