What is Spark?

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SystemDesign.us Blog
4 min readNov 20, 2022

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Spark is a powerful open source data processing engine that is capable of handling large data sets. It is designed to be fast and efficient, and it offers a variety of features that make it easy to use. Spark is written in Scala and runs on the JVM. It can be used with Hadoop, Mesos, or standalone.

Spark offers a rich set of libraries for data processing, including support for SQL, machine learning, and graph processing. It also includes a web interface for submitting jobs and monitoring progress. Spark can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid environments.

Spark has been used by organizations such as Yahoo!, Netflix, and Uber. It has also been adopted by the Apache Foundation as a top-level project.

Spark is a versatile tool that can be used for a variety of data processing tasks. It is well suited for ETL, machine learning, and ad-hoc query processing. In this article, we will take a closer look at Spark and its features.

Spark Core

Spark Core is the heart of the Spark platform. It provides an efficient engine for data processing and includes a wide range of libraries for different workloads.

Spark Core contains the basic functionality of Spark, including support for distributed task scheduling, memory management, and fault tolerance. It also provides APIs in Java, Scala, and Python.

Spark SQL

Spark SQL is a library that allows you to query data stored in Spark using a SQL-like syntax. It supports a wide variety of data sources, including Hive, JSON, and Parquet. Spark SQL also includes a cost-based optimizer that can optimize queries for performance.

Spark MLlib

Spark MLlib is a library of machine learning algorithms that can be used with Spark. It includes support for classification, regression, clustering, and collaborative filtering. Spark MLlib also provides APIs for creating and tuning machine learning models.

Spark GraphX

Spark GraphX is a library for graph processing. It includes support for constructing graphs, finding shortest paths, and computing graph analytics. Spark GraphX also provides APIs for creating and manipulating graphs.

Spark Streaming

Spark Streaming is a library for processing real-time streaming data. It can be used with a variety of data sources, including Kafka, Flume, and Kinesis. Spark Streaming also provides APIs for windowing, state management, and fault tolerance.

Spark Architecture

https://spark.apache.org/docs/3.3.0/cluster-overview.html

Spark is a distributed system that consists of a driver and executors. The driver is the process that runs the user code and coordinates the execution of tasks on the executors. The executors are responsible for running the tasks and returning the results to the driver.

Spark applications can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid environments. When deployed on-premises, Spark can run on a single node or a cluster of nodes. In the cloud, Spark can be deployed on a managed service such as Amazon EMR or Databricks.

When running on a cluster, Spark uses a master/slave architecture. The master node manages the overall execution of jobs and schedules tasks to run on the slave nodes. The slave nodes execute the tasks and return the results to the master node.

Spark can be configured to use a variety of storage systems, including HDFS, S3, and Cassandra. It can also be configured to use a variety of resource managers, including YARN, Mesos, and Kubernetes.

Components of Spark Architecture

Driver: It is the process that runs the user code and coordinates the execution of tasks on executors.

Executor: It is a process that runs tasks and returns results to the driver.

Spark Applications: Spark applications can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid environments.

Master Node: It manages the overall execution of jobs and schedules tasks to run on slave nodes.

Slave Node: It executes the tasks and returns the results to the master node.

Spark Libraries: Spark includes a number of libraries for different workloads, such as SQL, machine learning, graph processing, and stream processing.

Spark APIs: Spark provides APIs in Java, Scala, and Python.

Spark Features

Spark offers a number of features that make it an attractive option for data processing. Spark is fast because it uses in-memory computations and it supports lazy evaluation. This means that Spark will not compute a result until it is needed.

Spark also offers support for a wide range of data sources and file formats. This includes support for Hive, Parquet, JSON, and CSV. Spark can also be used with a variety of databases, including MySQL, Postgres, and MongoDB.

Spark includes a number of libraries for different workloads. This includes support for SQL, machine learning, graph processing, and stream processing. Spark also provides APIs in Java, Scala, and Python.

Spark is a versatile tool that can be used for a variety of data processing tasks. It is well suited for ETL, machine learning, and ad-hoc query processing. In this article, we have taken a closer look at Spark and its features. We have also seen how Spark can be used for data processing. Thanks for reading!

Conclusion

Spark is a powerful open source data processing engine that offers a variety of features and libraries for different workloads. In this article, we have looked at the core components of Spark and its main features. You can use Spark to build ETL pipelines, machine learning models, or real-time streaming applications

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