A big data job is split up into X partitions. The partitions are stored in a database. Status on each partition is also stored in the database and is used to ensure that each partition is only processed once by a single server.
I've got X servers, each with a unique id (int), each polling the database for the next Y partitions (pre-read and buffer, then loop and process the pre-read partitions, continue until no more partitions remain).
I can see in the log that I get many clashes, eg multiple servers trying to process the same partition and failing, when trying to take ownership (as it has already been taken by another server)
All these fails are waste of time, network round trips and compute power.
I'm looking for ideas on how to split the partitions among the servers when reading the partitions.
Each partition has the following attributes:
- Id - string[13]
- Sequence - long (incrementing counter)
- Create time - timestamp
Any ideas on how to best implement a non-clashing read algorithm ?
Keep in mind:
- Number of partitions are unknown
- Number of servers are known, but may increase/decrease
- I can modify/add attributes to the partition if they can help minimize clashes
- X Partition should not have affinity to Y Server, any server should be able to process any partition
My Idea: I've been playing around with the idea of using the server id to offset their read, eg server 1 reads 0-1000 records, server 2 reads 1001-2000 records and so forth, however too many issues occur, there might not be partitions enough to divide on X servers, or the servers may be started at different times reading the same partitions even with an offset according to their server id.