Scalable Fault-Tolerant Data Feeds in AsterixDB

Abstract: In this paper we describe the support for data feed ingestion in AsterixDB, an open-source Big Data Management System (BDMS) that provides a platform for storage and analysis of large volumes of semi-structured data. Data feeds are a mechanism for having continuous data arrive into a BDMS from external sources and incrementally populate a persisted dataset and associated indexes. The need to persist and index "fast-flowing" high-velocity data (and support ad hoc analytical queries) is ubiquitous. However, the state of the art today involves 'gluing' together different systems. AsterixDB is different in being a unified system with "native support" for data feed ingestion. We discuss the challenges and present the design and implementation of the concepts involved in modeling and managing data feeds in AsterixDB. AsterixDB allows the runtime behavior, allocation of resources and the offered degree of robustness to be customized to suit the high-level application(s) that wish to consume the ingested data. Initial experiments that evaluate scalability and fault-tolerance of AsterixDB data feeds facility are reported.