Is it advisable to use HBase as a backend for a GUI app or is HBase more for
storing huge amounts of data used mainly for data analysis in
non-online/batch mode?  In other words, after storing data on HBase do most
people extract the summary and store it in a SQL database for quick
retrieval by GUI?  Or is 'SQL' a really bad word on this mailing list ;)

I think the answer is 'it depends'. What exactly is a "GUI app"
anyways these days? The wording is a little vague to me, does that
include things like amazon.com and google reader? Or is it limited to
things like Firefox, and desktop applications?

I think ultimately the only thing that is a must for HBase is either a
need or a future need for large data. You could use HBase on a single
node in production, but that is defeating the point. So unless you
have enough data to justify multi machine deployments, perhaps flat
files?

-ryan

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 2:48 PM, Something Something
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Is it advisable to use HBase as a backend for a GUI app or is HBase more for
> storing huge amounts of data used mainly for data analysis in
> non-online/batch mode?  In other words, after storing data on HBase do most
> people extract the summary and store it in a SQL database for quick
> retrieval by GUI?  Or is 'SQL' a really bad word on this mailing list ;)
>

By GUI app, I meant, a browser based application that's written in GWT.  For
example, let's say an application that allows users to view logs such as,
application server logs or 'click tracking logs' etc.  These logs are HUGE,
so our requirement is to allow users to view a month worth of data - which
is still HUGE!  The application would allow users to 'slice and dice' data
the way they want, so it will have various filters.  Should we access HBase
directly from the backend in real time?  Anyone has any performance related
experiences to share?

Thanks again for your time.

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 2:53 PM, Ryan Rawson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> I think the answer is 'it depends'. What exactly is a "GUI app"
> anyways these days? The wording is a little vague to me, does that
> include things like amazon.com and google reader? Or is it limited to
> things like Firefox, and desktop applications?
>
> I think ultimately the only thing that is a must for HBase is either a
> need or a future need for large data. You could use HBase on a single
> node in production, but that is defeating the point. So unless you
> have enough data to justify multi machine deployments, perhaps flat
> files?
>
> -ryan
>
> On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 2:48 PM, Something Something
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Is it advisable to use HBase as a backend for a GUI app or is HBase more
> for
> > storing huge amounts of data used mainly for data analysis in
> > non-online/batch mode?  In other words, after storing data on HBase do
> most
> > people extract the summary and store it in a SQL database for quick
> > retrieval by GUI?  Or is 'SQL' a really bad word on this mailing list ;)
> >
>

Well, at SU we access hbase directly from our website, so it is
possible.  We get great response times to our queries, but that doesnt
mean you will get great response times to your queries.

Perhaps you should build a POC and see where that goes?

-ryan

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 3:22 PM, Something Something
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> By GUI app, I meant, a browser based application that's written in GWT.  For
> example, let's say an application that allows users to view logs such as,
> application server logs or 'click tracking logs' etc.  These logs are HUGE,
> so our requirement is to allow users to view a month worth of data - which
> is still HUGE!  The application would allow users to 'slice and dice' data
> the way they want, so it will have various filters.  Should we access HBase
> directly from the backend in real time?  Anyone has any performance related
> experiences to share?
>
> Thanks again for your time.
>
> On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 2:53 PM, Ryan Rawson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> I think the answer is 'it depends'. What exactly is a "GUI app"
>> anyways these days? The wording is a little vague to me, does that
>> include things like amazon.com and google reader? Or is it limited to
>> things like Firefox, and desktop applications?
>>
>> I think ultimately the only thing that is a must for HBase is either a
>> need or a future need for large data. You could use HBase on a single
>> node in production, but that is defeating the point. So unless you
>> have enough data to justify multi machine deployments, perhaps flat
>> files?
>>
>> -ryan
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 2:48 PM, Something Something
>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> > Is it advisable to use HBase as a backend for a GUI app or is HBase more
>> for
>> > storing huge amounts of data used mainly for data analysis in
>> > non-online/batch mode?  In other words, after storing data on HBase do
>> most
>> > people extract the summary and store it in a SQL database for quick
>> > retrieval by GUI?  Or is 'SQL' a really bad word on this mailing list ;)
>> >
>>
>

Sounds like we are doing the same thing. I am hitting an HBase backend from an Ajax frontend (via Spring MVC) to access our log files to generate the same type of reports. Most of the time I get sub-second response. Longest is around 8 seconds. This was my first try at HBase and my next rev. will be much better.

-Pete

PS At least you could use your name.

---- Something Something <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

============Is it advisable to use HBase as a backend for a GUI app or is HBase more for
storing huge amounts of data used mainly for data analysis in
non-online/batch mode?  In other words, after storing data on HBase do most
people extract the summary and store it in a SQL database for quick
retrieval by GUI?  Or is 'SQL' a really bad word on this mailing list ;)

--

1. If a man is standing in the middle of the forest talking, and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?

2. Behind every great woman... Is a man checking out her ass

3. I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.*

4. Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock.*

5. A process is what you need when all your good people have left.
*Will Rogers

+1 for PS

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 6:32 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Sounds like we are doing the same thing. I am hitting an HBase backend from
> an Ajax frontend (via Spring MVC) to access our log files to generate the
> same type of reports. Most of the time I get sub-second response. Longest is
> around 8 seconds. This was my first try at HBase and my next rev. will be
> much better.
>
> -Pete
>
> PS At least you could use your name.
>
> ---- Something Something <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> ============> Is it advisable to use HBase as a backend for a GUI app or is HBase more
> for
> storing huge amounts of data used mainly for data analysis in
> non-online/batch mode?  In other words, after storing data on HBase do most
> people extract the summary and store it in a SQL database for quick
> retrieval by GUI?  Or is 'SQL' a really bad word on this mailing list ;)
>
> --
>
> 1. If a man is standing in the middle of the forest talking, and there is
> no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?
>
> 2. Behind every great woman... Is a man checking out her ass
>
> 3. I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.*
>
> 4. Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock.*
>
> 5. A process is what you need when all your good people have left.
>
>
> *Will Rogers
>
>
>

Thanks everybody for the replies.  Sounds very reassuring.  We will continue
with our plan of accessing HBase directly from GWT for our POC.

Javamann - I like to be anonymous so I don't feel bad about asking dumb
questions ;)

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 3:41 PM, Dani Rayan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> +1 for PS
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 6:32 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> Sounds like we are doing the same thing. I am hitting an HBase backend
>> from an Ajax frontend (via Spring MVC) to access our log files to generate
>> the same type of reports. Most of the time I get sub-second response.
>> Longest is around 8 seconds. This was my first try at HBase and my next rev.
>> will be much better.
>>
>> -Pete
>>
>> PS At least you could use your name.
>>
>> ---- Something Something <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>> ============>> Is it advisable to use HBase as a backend for a GUI app or is HBase more
>> for
>> storing huge amounts of data used mainly for data analysis in
>> non-online/batch mode?  In other words, after storing data on HBase do
>> most
>> people extract the summary and store it in a SQL database for quick
>> retrieval by GUI?  Or is 'SQL' a really bad word on this mailing list ;)
>>
>> --
>>
>> 1. If a man is standing in the middle of the forest talking, and there is
>> no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?
>>
>> 2. Behind every great woman... Is a man checking out her ass
>>
>> 3. I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.*
>>
>> 4. Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a
>> rock.*
>>
>> 5. A process is what you need when all your good people have left.
>>
>>
>> *Will Rogers
>>
>>
>>
>

There are no dumb questions, just dumb answers.

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Something Something <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Javamann - I like to be anonymous so I don't feel bad about asking dumb
> questions ;)
>

Just to add on what others said, at StumbleUpon we typically see a
99th percentile lower than 100ms for simple get/put operations.

OpenTSDB also uses HBase with an interactive GWT interface and relies
on sub-second response times for queries involving many thousands of
rows.

--
Benoit "tsuna" Sigoure
Software Engineer @ www.StumbleUpon.com