Ferry is a Python-based, open-source tool to help developers share and run big data applications. Users can provision Hadoop, Cassandra, GlusterFS, and Open MPI clusters locally on their machine using YAML and afterwards distribute their applications via Dockerfiles. These capabilities are useful for data scientists experimenting with big data technologies, developers that need an accessible big data development environment, or for developers simply interested in sharing their big data applications. In this presentation, I’ll introduce you to Docker, show you how to create a simple big data application in Ferry, and discuss ways the Python community can contribute to the open-source project. I’ll also discuss future directions for Ferry with a focus on better application sharing and operational deployments.

1. Ferry - Share & Deploy Big
Data Applications with Docker
James Horey

2. • Writing a simple application with Bokeh
• Packaging our application with Docker
• Orchestrating our application with Ferry
Technical material can be found at:
https://github.com/jhorey/pydata

3. Bokeh

4. U.S. Census
http://api.census.gov/data/2011/acs5?get=DP03_0062E&for=county:*&in=state:06
Median income All counties California

5. Download some data

6. Let’s install Bokeh
$ pip install bokeh
>> Downloading/unpacking bokeh
>> SystemError: Cannot compile 'Python.h'. Perhaps you need
to install python-dev|python-devel.
$ apt-get install python-dev & pip install bokeh
>> "gcc: error trying to exec 'cc1plus': execvp: No such file
or directory
$ apt-get install g++
$ pip install bokeh
RuntimeError: bokeh sample data directory does not exist, please
execute bokeh.sampledata.download()
$ python
>>> import bokeh.sampledata

7. A simple application
$ python plot.py Kentucky
Louisville

8. Let’s share
#!/bin/bash
!
# Make sure we have ‘pip’ installed
apt-get install python-pip
!
# Install packages in right order
apt-get —-yes install g++ python-dev
pip install bokeh
!
# Now download the data
python geography.py data/
python population economic Kentucky
data/
!
# Start the web server
python webserver data/
• Your script didn’t work
• Oh, I was supposed to run this as
sudo?
• Ok, it still didn’t work
• I get this funny error
• Oh yeah, I’m running Redhat
• Ok I’m at my desk, just use my
computer

9. • Encapsulates applications in isolated containers
• Makes it easy and safe to distribute applications
• Easy to get started

10. Our Dockerfile
Start from a
clean Precise
image
Install stuff
Add our files
Run this when
starting
$ docker build -t ferry/pydata .
$ docker push ferry/pydata

11. Sharing made simple
$ docker pull ferry/pydata
$ docker run -p 8000:8000 -name p1 —d ferry/pydata
p1
Kernel
Hardware

12. Sharing made simple
$ docker pull ferry/pydata
$ docker run -p 8000:8000 -name p1 —d ferry/pydata
$ docker run -p 8001:8000 -name p2 —d ferry/pydata
$ docker run -p 8002:8000 -name p3 —d ferry/pydata
p1 p2 p3
Kernel
Hardware
• Containers share basic kernel
and H.W. capabilities
• No virtualization
• Containers are isolated
• Access via port forwarding
You can run these commands now!

13. • Highly scalable and fault-tolerant
• Great for storing streaming data (sensors,
messages)
CREATE KEYSPACE census WITH REPLICATION = {
'class' : 'SimpleStrategy',
'replication_factor' : 1 };
!
USE census;
!
CREATE TABLE acs_economic_data (
state_cd TEXT,
state_name TEXT,
county_cd TEXT,
county_name TEXT,
median INT,
mean INT,
capita INT,
PRIMARY KEY(count_cd, state_cd)
);

14. Orchestration
Web DB
Web + DB
• Simple
• Full control
• More work for you
• Simpler Dockerfile
• More extensible
• How to orchestrate?

15. • Specify the containers that constitute your
application in YAML
• Support for Hadoop, Cassandra, GlusterFS, and
OpenMPI
• It’s a little bit like pip for your Docker-based
runtime environment
Ferry
http://ferry.opencore.io

16. Our Application
backend:
- storage:
personality: "cassandra"
instances: 1
connectors:
- personality: "ferry/pydata-cassandra"
ports: ["8000:8000"]
# The cassandra-client base comes with the various drivers
# pre-installed.
FROM ferry/cassandra-client
NAME ferry/pydata-cassandra
!
# Place the start scripts in the events directories so they
# are started when the connector is brought up.
ADD ./scripts/startcas.sh /service/runscripts/start/
ADD ./scripts/restartcas.sh /service/runscripts/restart/
RUN chmod a+x /service/runscripts/start/startcas.sh
RUN chmod a+x /service/runscripts/restart/restartcas.sh
+

17. Easy to share (again)
$ ferry start cassandra.yml
sa-df8d0aa6
$ ferry ps
UUID Storage Compute Connectors Status Base Time
---- ------- ------- ---------- ------ ---- ----
sa-df8d0aa6 se-54ed4e93 se-a5350a8d running cassandra.yml
$ ferry ssh sa-df8d0aa6
root@client-se-a5350a8d:~# ps -eaf | grep python
root 144 1 0 19:49 ? 00:00:00 python /home/ferry/
pydata/bokeh/webserver.py /home/ferry/pydata/data

18. What’s it doing?
$ ferry start cassandra.yml
Web C* C*
root@client-se-a5350a8d:~# env | grep BACK
BACKEND_STORAGE_TYPE=cassandra
BACKEND_STORAGE_IP=10.1.0.12
Generate!
Config

19. What’s it doing?
$ ferry start yarn
Client
Y Y
root@client-se-b597cb21:~# env | grep BACK
BACKEND_STORAGE_TYPE=gluster
BACKEND_STORAGE_IP=10.1.0.18
BACKEND_COMPUTE_TYPE=yarn
BACKEND_COMPUTE_IP=10.1.0.15
G G

20. What’s it doing?
$ ferry stop sa-c6cbb572
Client
Y Y
G G

21. Next steps
$ ferry share sa-df8d0aa6
w c* c*
Hardware
w c* c*
Hardware
w c* c*
Hardware

22. Next steps
$ ferry deploy sa-df8d0aa6
w c* c*
Hardware
w
c* c*
Hardware
Hardware Hardware
VPCEC2
S3

23. • Even simple applications can be complicated to
install and run
• Docker helps quite a bit with this
• Ferry helps build out big data applications

24. Thank you!
!
James
jlh@opencore.io
!
Ferry
ferry.opencore.io
@open_core_io