Big datasets are growing exponentially, but our needs to get quick interactive responses to our queries remain ever as important. This talk will feature an overview of various components in BlinkDB used to incrementally process massive amounts of data on clusters of tens, hundreds or thousands of machines while returning approximate answers. More precisely, this new execution model enables SparkSQL to present the user with meaningful approximate results (with error bars) that are continuously refined and updated, at a speed comfortable to the user, while it crunches larger and larger fractions of the whole dataset in the background. This not only alleviates the need for pre-processing the data in advance for a wide range of queries, but also enables the users to observe the progress of a query and control its execution on the fly– enabling a smooth time/accuracy trade-off.

1. Approximate Queries onVery
Large Data
UC Berkeley
Sameer Agarwal
Joint work with Ariel Kleiner, Henry Milner, Barzan Mozafari, AmeetTalwalkar,
Michael Jordan, Samuel Madden, Ion Stoica
M I T 1

2. About Me
1. Software Engineer at Databricks in San Francisco, CA
2. PhD in Databases from University of California,
Berkeley 2014.
3. Actively work as part of the open source community
and the AMPLab to create BDAS (Berkeley Data
Analytics Stack) that constitutes Apache Spark,
Tachyon, BlinkDB, Mesos etc.

3. Hard Disks
½ - 1 Hour 1 - 5 Minutes 1 second
?
Memory
10TB on 100 machines
Query Execution on Samples

4. ID City Buff Ratio
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10
Query Execution on Samples
What is the average buffering ratio
in the table?
0.2325

5. ID City Buff Ratio
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10
Query Execution on Samples
What is the average buffering ratio
in the table?
ID City Buff Ratio Sampling Rate
2 NYC 0.13 1/4
6 Berkeley 0.25 1/4
8 NYC 0.19 1/4
Uniform
Sample
0.19
0.2325

6. ID City Buff Ratio
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10
Query Execution on Samples
What is the average buffering ratio
in the table?
ID City Buff Ratio Sampling Rate
2 NYC 0.13 1/4
6 Berkeley 0.25 1/4
8 NYC 0.19 1/4
Uniform
Sample
0.19 +/- 0.05
0.2325

7. ID City Buff Ratio
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10
Query Execution on Samples
What is the average buffering ratio
in the table?
ID City Buff Ratio Sampling Rate
2 NYC 0.13 1/2
3 Berkeley 0.25 1/2
5 NYC 0.19 1/2
6 Berkeley 0.09 1/2
8 NYC 0.18 1/2
12 Berkeley 0.49 1/2
Uniform
Sample
$0.22 +/- 0.02
0.2325
0.19 +/- 0.05

8. Speed/Accuracy Trade-offError
30 mins
Time to
Execute on
Entire Dataset
Interactive
Queries
2 sec
ExecutionTime (Sample Size)

9. Sampling Vs. No Sampling
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1 10-1 10-2 10-3 10-4 10-5
Fraction of full data
QueryResponseTime(Seconds)
103
1020
18 13 10 8
10x as response time
is dominated by I/O

10. Sampling Vs. No Sampling
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1 10-1 10-2 10-3 10-4 10-5
Fraction of full data
QueryResponseTime(Seconds)
103
1020
18 13 10 8
(0.02%)
(0.07%) (1.1%) (3.4%) (11%)
Error Bars

11. Sampling Error
Typically, error depends on sample size (n)
and not on original data size, i.e., error is
proportional to (1/sqrt(n))*

12. Sampling Error
Typically, error depends on sample size (n)
and not on original data size, i.e., error is
proportional to (1/sqrt(n))*
* Conditions Apply

13. Sampling Error
Typically, error depends on sample size (n)
and not on original data size, i.e., error is
proportional to (1/sqrt(n))*
* Conditions Apply

14. Speed/Accuracy Trade-off
SELECT avg(sessionTime)
FROMTable
WHERE city=‘San Francisco’
WITHIN 1 SECONDS 234.23 ± 15.32

15. Speed/Accuracy Trade-off
SELECT avg(sessionTime)
FROMTable
WHERE city=‘San Francisco’
WITHIN 2 SECONDS 234.23 ± 15.32
239.46 ± 4.96

16. Speed/Accuracy Trade-off
SELECT avg(sessionTime)
FROMTable
WHERE city=‘San Francisco’
WITHIN 1 SECONDS
AVG, COUNT, SUM,
STDEV, PERCENTILE etc.

17. Speed/Accuracy Trade-off
SELECT avg(sessionTime)
FROMTable
WHERE city=‘San Francisco’
WITHIN 1 SECONDS
FILTERS, GROUP BY clauses

18. Speed/Accuracy Trade-off
SELECT avg(sessionTime)
FROMTable
WHERE city=‘San Francisco’
LEFT OUTER JOIN logs2
ON very_big_log.id = logs.id
WITHIN 1 SECONDS JOINS, Nested
Queries etc.

19. Speed/Accuracy Trade-off
SELECT my_function(sessionTime)
FROMTable
WHERE city=‘San Francisco’
LEFT OUTER JOIN logs2
ON very_big_log.id = logs.id
WITHIN 1 SECONDS
ML Primitives,
User Defined Functions

20. Speed/Accuracy Trade-off
SELECT avg(sessionTime)
FROMTable
WHERE city=‘San Francisco’
ERROR 0.1 CONFIDENCE 95.0%

21. What is BlinkDB?
A framework built on Spark that …
- creates and maintains a variety of uniform and
stratified samples from underlying data
- returns fast, approximate answers with error bars
by executing queries on samples of data
- verifies the correctness of the error bars that it
returns at runtime

22. What is BlinkDB?
A framework built on Spark that …
- creates and maintains a variety of uniform and
stratified samples from underlying data
- returns fast, approximate answers with error bars
by executing queries on samples of data
- verifies the correctness of the error bars that it
returns at runtime

23. Uniform Samples
2
4
1
3

24. Uniform Samples
2
4
1
3
U

25. Uniform Samples
2
4
1
3
U
ID City Data
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10

26. Uniform Samples
2
4
1
3
U
1. FILTER rand() < 1/3
2. Adds per-row weights
3. In-memory Shuffle
ID City Data
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10

27. Uniform Samples
2
4
1
3
U
ID City Data Weight
2 NYC 0.13 1/3
8 NYC 0.25 1/3
6 Berkeley 0.09 1/3
11 NYC 0.19 1/3
ID City Data
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10
Doesn’t change
Spark RDD
Semantics

28. Stratified Samples
2
4
1
3

29. Stratified Samples
2
4
1
3
S

30. Stratified Samples
2
4
1
3
S
ID City Data
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10

31. Stratified Samples
2
4
1
3
ID City Data
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10
S1
ID City Data
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10
SPLIT

32. Stratified Samples
2
4
1
3
S1
ID City Data
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10
S2
City Count
NYC 7
Berkeley 5
GROUP

33. Stratified Samples
2
4
1
3
S1
ID City Data
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10
S2
City Count Ratio
NYC 7 2/7
Berkeley 5 2/5
GROUP

34. Stratified Samples
2
4
1
3
S1
ID City Data
1 NYC 0.78
2 NYC 0.13
3 Berkeley 0.25
4 NYC 0.19
5 NYC 0.11
6 Berkeley 0.09
7 NYC 0.18
8 NYC 0.15
9 Berkeley 0.13
10 Berkeley 0.49
11 NYC 0.19
12 Berkeley 0.10
S2
City Count Ratio
NYC 7 2/7
Berkeley 5 2/5
S2 JOIN

35. Stratified Samples
2
4
1
3
S1
S2
S2
U
ID City Data Weight
2 NYC 0.13 2/7
8 NYC 0.25 2/7
6 Berkeley 0.09 2/5
12 Berkeley 0.49 2/5
Doesn’t change
Shark RDD
Semantics

36. What is BlinkDB?
A framework built on Spark that …
- creates and maintains a variety of uniform and
stratified samples from underlying data
- returns fast, approximate answers with error bars
by executing queries on samples of data
- verifies the correctness of the error bars that it
returns at runtime

37. Error Estimation
Closed Form Aggregate Functions
- Central LimitTheorem
- Applicable to AVG, COUNT, SUM,
VARIANCE and STDEV

38. Error Estimation
Closed Form Aggregate Functions
The following results are (asymptotically in sample
rectly useful, since they depend on unknown properties
tribution. In all cases we just plug in the sample values.
of µ we use 1
n
Pn
i=1 Xi where Xi is the ith sample value.
Note that for estimators other than sum and count,
(p = 1). Filtering will increase variance a bit, or potentia
selective queries (p = 0). I can compute the filtering-adju
1. Count: N(np, n(1 p)p)
2. Sum: N(npµ, np( 2
+ (1 p)µ2
))
3. Mean: N(µ, 2
/n)
4. Variance: N( 2
, (µ4
4
)/n)
5. Stddev: N( , (µ4
4
)/(4 2
n))

39. Error Estimation
Closed Form Aggregate Functions
A
1
2
Sample
AVG
SUM
COUNT
STDEV
VARIANCE
A
1
2
Sample
A
±ε
A

40. Error Estimation
Generalized Aggregate Functions
- Statistical Bootstrap
- Applicable to complex and nested queries, UDFs,
joins etc.

41. Error Estimation
Generalized Aggregate Functions
Sample
A
Sample
AA1A2A100
…
…
B
±ε

42. What is BlinkDB?
A framework built on Spark that …
- creates and maintains a variety of random and
stratified samples from underlying data
- returns fast, approximate answers with error bars
by executing queries on samples of data
- verifies the correctness of the error bars that it
returns at runtime

43. ErrorVerificationError
Sample Size
More Data à Higher Accuracy
300 Data Points à 97% Accuracy
[KDD’13] [SIGMOD’14]

44. What is BlinkDB?
A framework built on Spark that …
- creates and maintains a variety of random and
stratified samples from underlying data
- returns fast, approximate answers with error bars
by executing queries on samples of data
- verifies the correctness of the error bars that it
returns at runtime

45. What is BlinkDB?
A framework built on Spark that …
- creates and maintains a variety of uniform and
stratified samples from underlying data
- returns fast, approximate answers with error bars
by executing queries on samples of data
- verifies the correctness of the error bars that it
returns at runtime
[Offline Process]

46. What is BlinkDB?
A framework built on Spark that …
- creates and maintains a variety of uniform and
stratified samples from underlying data
- returns fast, approximate answers with error bars
by executing queries on samples of data
- verifies the correctness of the error bars that it
returns at runtime
[Online Process]

47. TABLE
SamplingModule
Original
Data
Offline-sampling:
Creates an optimal set
of samples on native
tables and materialized
views based on query
history and workload
characteristics
BlinkDB Architecture
47

48. TABLE
SamplingModule
In-Memory
Samples
On-Disk
Samples
Original
Data
Sample Placement:
Samples striped over
100s or 1,000s of
machines both on
disks and in-memory.
BlinkDB Architecture
48

49. SELECT
foo (*)
FROM TABLE
WITHIN 2
Query Plan
HiveQL/SQL
Query
Sample Selection
TABLE
SamplingModule
In-Memory
Samples
On-Disk
Samples
Original
Data
BlinkDB Architecture
49

50. SELECT
foo (*)
FROM TABLE
WITHIN 2
Query Plan
HiveQL/SQL
Query
Sample Selection
TABLE
SamplingModule
In-Memory
Samples
On-Disk
Samples
Original
Data
Online sample
selection to pick best
sample(s) based on
query latency and
accuracy
requirements
BlinkDB Architecture
50

51. TABLE
SamplingModule
In-Memory
Samples
On-Disk
Samples
Original
Data
Hive/Spark/Presto
SELECT
foo (*)
FROM TABLE
WITHIN 2
New Query Plan
HiveQL/SQL
Query
Sample Selection
Error Bars &
Confidence Intervals
Result
182.23 ± 5.56
(95% confidence)
Parallel query
execution on multiple
samples striped across
multiple machines.
BlinkDB Architecture
51

52. BlinkDB is Fast!
- 5 Queries, 5 machines
- 20 GB samples (0.001%-1% of original data)
- 1-5% Error

53. ResponseTime(s)
Query Execution
Overall Query Execution

54. Overall Query Execution
ResponseTime(s)
Error Estimation
Overhead

55. Overall Query Execution
ResponseTime(s)
ErrorVerification
Overhead

56. Coming Soon: Native Spark Integration

57. BlinkDB Prototype
1. Alpha 0.2.0 released and available at http://blinkdb.org
2. Allows you to create samples on native tables and materialized
views
3. Adds approximate aggregate functions with statistical closed
forms to HiveQL
4. Compatible with Apache Hive, Spark and Facebook’s Presto
(storage, serdes, UDFs, types, metadata)

58. http://blinkdb.org
Native Spark Integration Coming Soon!