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GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series

GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series

From:
David Winslow
Date:
2011-05-05 @ 20:52
Hi all,

We've already mentioned this in passing to some folks on this mailing list,
but just to officially publicize it: we are no longer planning any further
releases from the GeoNode 1.0 series.  The PSC has discussed this and the
next release will be 1.1-beta.

The main reason for this decision is that investigations into the stability
of GeoNode have reached a point where the most promising options open to us
are reliant on the 2.1.x release series of GeoServer (two examples being the
GWC integration which greatly decreases GeoNode's resource consumption, and
the control-flow module which also reduces resource consumption (in a
different way.) However, the features already implemented on the 1.1 release
series are already compelling:

   - GeoServer 2.1 (many improvements including better raster handling and
   tight GeoWebCache integration)
   - UI Improvements (previously intended as the main improvement for the
   1.0.1 release.)
   - Improved GeoNode security system (caching, more reliable technique for
   overriding GeoServer's builtin security)
   - Performance improvements in the gsconfig Python module used for syncing
   the Django and GeoServer layer info
   - Cookie-awareness for OWSLib (a cookie workaround is already implemented
   in GeoNode, but if the patch submitted to OWSLib is accepted in time then we
   will be using "native" cookie support)
   - The upload functionality in GeoNode will be "refactored" providing
   better reliability and, importantly, error reporting to assist
   troubleshooting.  Thanks to the Risiko team for these improvements.
   - Upload-to-PostGIS functionality in the upload form (gsconfig already
   has support for this and we expect a patch for the GeoNode code that uses it
   before the beta release. Thanks to the Worldmap team for this.)
   - Improved Unit and Integration testing suites for the Django components
   of GeoNode, including a Continuous
Integration<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_integration>server
to ensure that all changes that go into the GeoNode core are tested,
   regardless of potentially forgetful developers.

We would like to put the release out after the upcoming roadmapping summit
to be held in Washington DC.  It is tentatively scheduled for May 27.
 Ariel, Seb, and I will be sprinting on "sprucing up" the synth branch in
anticipation of the release during the week of May 16 (right before the
summit.)

In the interim, there are some configuration changes that can be made on
GeoNode 1.0 installations to improve their stability, although even with
these changes we have seen some outages.  We'll provide a more detailed
writeup soon but in short:

   - There is a patch available which greatly improves the way that the
   Django component communicates with GeoNetwork.
   - Constraining the number of concurrent requests GeoServer will attempt
   to serve simultaneously will help to avoid OOM exceptions.
   - Some additional configuration can greatly improve the *speed* with
   which GeoServer handles requests, allowing it to have fewer concurrent
   requests (each request spends less time being handled so fewer of them must
   be handled at a time for the same request volume.)

There is also an experimental branch of gsconfig.py which reduces
*internal* traffic
within GeoNode.  This is a drop-in replacement for the gsconfig module
included with GeoNode 1.0, but is not as well-tested (unit test coverage is
the same but it hasn't been tested much "in the field").  I would be
interested in reports from any users who try this out.  It is a 100%
reversible modification so if it doesn't work for you it is straightforward
to switch back.

Again, we will be providing detailed instructions for applying these
changes; they just have not yet been written up.

--
David Winslow
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org

Re: [geonode] GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series

From:
Spanring, Christian
Date:
2011-05-06 @ 13:45
Thanks David, that sounds fantastic!

One quick question: will GeoNode 1.1 still depend on a custom build of 
GeoServer (as 1.0) or will 1.1 be able to use a regular GeoServer 2.1 
build?

Christian

From: geonode@librelist.com [mailto:geonode@librelist.com] On Behalf Of 
David Winslow
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2011 4:53 PM
To: geonode@librelist.com
Subject: [geonode] GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series

Hi all,

We've already mentioned this in passing to some folks on this mailing 
list, but just to officially publicize it: we are no longer planning any 
further releases from the GeoNode 1.0 series.  The PSC has discussed this 
and the next release will be 1.1-beta.

The main reason for this decision is that investigations into the 
stability of GeoNode have reached a point where the most promising options
open to us are reliant on the 2.1.x release series of GeoServer (two 
examples being the GWC integration which greatly decreases GeoNode's 
resource consumption, and the control-flow module which also reduces 
resource consumption (in a different way.) However, the features already 
implemented on the 1.1 release series are already compelling:

 *   GeoServer 2.1 (many improvements including better raster handling and
tight GeoWebCache integration)
 *   UI Improvements (previously intended as the main improvement for the 
1.0.1 release.)
 *   Improved GeoNode security system (caching, more reliable technique 
for overriding GeoServer's builtin security)
 *   Performance improvements in the gsconfig Python module used for 
syncing the Django and GeoServer layer info
 *   Cookie-awareness for OWSLib (a cookie workaround is already 
implemented in GeoNode, but if the patch submitted to OWSLib is accepted 
in time then we will be using "native" cookie support)
 *   The upload functionality in GeoNode will be "refactored" providing 
better reliability and, importantly, error reporting to assist 
troubleshooting.  Thanks to the Risiko team for these improvements.
 *   Upload-to-PostGIS functionality in the upload form (gsconfig already 
has support for this and we expect a patch for the GeoNode code that uses 
it before the beta release. Thanks to the Worldmap team for this.)
 *   Improved Unit and Integration testing suites for the Django 
components of GeoNode, including a Continuous 
Integration<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_integration> server to
ensure that all changes that go into the GeoNode core are tested, 
regardless of potentially forgetful developers.
We would like to put the release out after the upcoming roadmapping summit
to be held in Washington DC.  It is tentatively scheduled for May 27.  
Ariel, Seb, and I will be sprinting on "sprucing up" the synth branch in 
anticipation of the release during the week of May 16 (right before the 
summit.)

In the interim, there are some configuration changes that can be made on 
GeoNode 1.0 installations to improve their stability, although even with 
these changes we have seen some outages.  We'll provide a more detailed 
writeup soon but in short:

 *   There is a patch available which greatly improves the way that the 
Django component communicates with GeoNetwork.
 *   Constraining the number of concurrent requests GeoServer will attempt
to serve simultaneously will help to avoid OOM exceptions.
 *   Some additional configuration can greatly improve the speed with 
which GeoServer handles requests, allowing it to have fewer concurrent 
requests (each request spends less time being handled so fewer of them 
must be handled at a time for the same request volume.)
There is also an experimental branch of gsconfig.py which reduces internal
traffic within GeoNode.  This is a drop-in replacement for the gsconfig 
module included with GeoNode 1.0, but is not as well-tested (unit test 
coverage is the same but it hasn't been tested much "in the field").  I 
would be interested in reports from any users who try this out.  It is a 
100% reversible modification so if it doesn't work for you it is 
straightforward to switch back.

Again, we will be providing detailed instructions for applying these 
changes; they just have not yet been written up.

--
David Winslow
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org

________________________________
Please be advised that the Massachusetts Secretary of State considers 
e-mail to be a public record, and therefore subject to the Massachusetts 
Public Records Law, M.G.L. c. 66 § 10.

Re: [geonode] GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series

From:
David Winslow
Date:
2011-05-06 @ 13:53
Yes, we need to use a custom build of GeoServer in order to allow GeoServer
to respect Django's user system instead of its own.  If you want to talk
about how to make GeoNode work with an uncustomized GeoServer we can have
that discussion, but I am not convinced it is a big problem: apart from
ignoring the security/ subdirectory of the datadir, GeoNode's GeoServer
reads the same configuration files.  If you do need an unmodified GeoServer,
could you explain a bit more about why that's the case?

--
David Winslow
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org/

On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 9:45 AM, Spanring, Christian <CSpanring@mapc.org>wrote:

>  Thanks David, that sounds fantastic!
>
>
>
> One quick question: will GeoNode 1.1 still depend on a custom build of
> GeoServer (as 1.0) or will 1.1 be able to use a regular GeoServer 2.1 build?
>
>
>
> Christian
>
>
>
> *From:* geonode@librelist.com [mailto:geonode@librelist.com] *On Behalf Of
> *David Winslow
> *Sent:* Thursday, May 05, 2011 4:53 PM
> *To:* geonode@librelist.com
> *Subject:* [geonode] GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> We've already mentioned this in passing to some folks on this mailing list,
> but just to officially publicize it: we are no longer planning any further
> releases from the GeoNode 1.0 series.  The PSC has discussed this and the
> next release will be 1.1-beta.
>
>
>
> The main reason for this decision is that investigations into the stability
> of GeoNode have reached a point where the most promising options open to us
> are reliant on the 2.1.x release series of GeoServer (two examples being the
> GWC integration which greatly decreases GeoNode's resource consumption, and
> the control-flow module which also reduces resource consumption (in a
> different way.) However, the features already implemented on the 1.1 release
> series are already compelling:
>
>    - GeoServer 2.1 (many improvements including better raster handling and
>    tight GeoWebCache integration)
>    - UI Improvements (previously intended as the main improvement for the
>    1.0.1 release.)
>    - Improved GeoNode security system (caching, more reliable technique
>    for overriding GeoServer's builtin security)
>    - Performance improvements in the gsconfig Python module used for
>    syncing the Django and GeoServer layer info
>    - Cookie-awareness for OWSLib (a cookie workaround is already
>    implemented in GeoNode, but if the patch submitted to OWSLib is accepted in
>    time then we will be using "native" cookie support)
>    - The upload functionality in GeoNode will be "refactored" providing
>    better reliability and, importantly, error reporting to assist
>    troubleshooting.  Thanks to the Risiko team for these improvements.
>    - Upload-to-PostGIS functionality in the upload form (gsconfig already
>    has support for this and we expect a patch for the GeoNode code that uses it
>    before the beta release. Thanks to the Worldmap team for this.)
>    - Improved Unit and Integration testing suites for the Django
>    components of GeoNode, including a Continuous 
Integration<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_integration>server to 
ensure that all changes that go into the GeoNode core are tested,
>    regardless of potentially forgetful developers.
>
>  We would like to put the release out after the upcoming roadmapping
> summit to be held in Washington DC.  It is tentatively scheduled for May 27.
>  Ariel, Seb, and I will be sprinting on "sprucing up" the synth branch in
> anticipation of the release during the week of May 16 (right before the
> summit.)
>
>
>
> In the interim, there are some configuration changes that can be made on
> GeoNode 1.0 installations to improve their stability, although even with
> these changes we have seen some outages.  We'll provide a more detailed
> writeup soon but in short:
>
>    - There is a patch available which greatly improves the way that the
>    Django component communicates with GeoNetwork.
>    - Constraining the number of concurrent requests GeoServer will attempt
>    to serve simultaneously will help to avoid OOM exceptions.
>    - Some additional configuration can greatly improve the *speed* with
>    which GeoServer handles requests, allowing it to have fewer concurrent
>    requests (each request spends less time being handled so fewer of them must
>    be handled at a time for the same request volume.)
>
>  There is also an experimental branch of gsconfig.py which reduces *
> internal* traffic within GeoNode.  This is a drop-in replacement for the
> gsconfig module included with GeoNode 1.0, but is not as well-tested (unit
> test coverage is the same but it hasn't been tested much "in the field").  I
> would be interested in reports from any users who try this out.  It is a
> 100% reversible modification so if it doesn't work for you it is
> straightforward to switch back.
>
>
>
> Again, we will be providing detailed instructions for applying these
> changes; they just have not yet been written up.
>
>
>
> --
>
> David Winslow
>
> OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
>
> ------------------------------
> Please be advised that the Massachusetts Secretary of State considers
> e-mail to be a public record, and therefore subject to the Massachusetts
> Public Records Law, M.G.L. c. 66 § 10.
>

Re: [geonode] GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series

From:
Spanring, Christian
Date:
2011-05-06 @ 14:09
We do not need an unmodified version of GeoServer as far as I know. I was 
just curious if we can get GeoServer, including updates, etc., from 
geoserver.org or if we should use the GeoNode build.

Thanks,
Christian

From: geonode@librelist.com [mailto:geonode@librelist.com] On Behalf Of 
David Winslow
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 9:54 AM
To: geonode@librelist.com
Subject: Re: [geonode] GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series

Yes, we need to use a custom build of GeoServer in order to allow 
GeoServer to respect Django's user system instead of its own.  If you want
to talk about how to make GeoNode work with an uncustomized GeoServer we 
can have that discussion, but I am not convinced it is a big problem: 
apart from ignoring the security/ subdirectory of the datadir, GeoNode's 
GeoServer reads the same configuration files.  If you do need an 
unmodified GeoServer, could you explain a bit more about why that's the 
case?

--
David Winslow
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org/
On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 9:45 AM, Spanring, Christian 
<CSpanring@mapc.org<mailto:CSpanring@mapc.org>> wrote:
Thanks David, that sounds fantastic!

One quick question: will GeoNode 1.1 still depend on a custom build of 
GeoServer (as 1.0) or will 1.1 be able to use a regular GeoServer 2.1 
build?

Christian

From: geonode@librelist.com<mailto:geonode@librelist.com> 
[mailto:geonode@librelist.com<mailto:geonode@librelist.com>] On Behalf Of 
David Winslow
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2011 4:53 PM
To: geonode@librelist.com<mailto:geonode@librelist.com>
Subject: [geonode] GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series

Hi all,

We've already mentioned this in passing to some folks on this mailing 
list, but just to officially publicize it: we are no longer planning any 
further releases from the GeoNode 1.0 series.  The PSC has discussed this 
and the next release will be 1.1-beta.

The main reason for this decision is that investigations into the 
stability of GeoNode have reached a point where the most promising options
open to us are reliant on the 2.1.x release series of GeoServer (two 
examples being the GWC integration which greatly decreases GeoNode's 
resource consumption, and the control-flow module which also reduces 
resource consumption (in a different way.) However, the features already 
implemented on the 1.1 release series are already compelling:

 *   GeoServer 2.1 (many improvements including better raster handling and
tight GeoWebCache integration)
 *   UI Improvements (previously intended as the main improvement for the 
1.0.1 release.)
 *   Improved GeoNode security system (caching, more reliable technique 
for overriding GeoServer's builtin security)
 *   Performance improvements in the gsconfig Python module used for 
syncing the Django and GeoServer layer info
 *   Cookie-awareness for OWSLib (a cookie workaround is already 
implemented in GeoNode, but if the patch submitted to OWSLib is accepted 
in time then we will be using "native" cookie support)
 *   The upload functionality in GeoNode will be "refactored" providing 
better reliability and, importantly, error reporting to assist 
troubleshooting.  Thanks to the Risiko team for these improvements.
 *   Upload-to-PostGIS functionality in the upload form (gsconfig already 
has support for this and we expect a patch for the GeoNode code that uses 
it before the beta release. Thanks to the Worldmap team for this.)
 *   Improved Unit and Integration testing suites for the Django 
components of GeoNode, including a Continuous 
Integration<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_integration> server to
ensure that all changes that go into the GeoNode core are tested, 
regardless of potentially forgetful developers.
We would like to put the release out after the upcoming roadmapping summit
to be held in Washington DC.  It is tentatively scheduled for May 27.  
Ariel, Seb, and I will be sprinting on "sprucing up" the synth branch in 
anticipation of the release during the week of May 16 (right before the 
summit.)

In the interim, there are some configuration changes that can be made on 
GeoNode 1.0 installations to improve their stability, although even with 
these changes we have seen some outages.  We'll provide a more detailed 
writeup soon but in short:

 *   There is a patch available which greatly improves the way that the 
Django component communicates with GeoNetwork.
 *   Constraining the number of concurrent requests GeoServer will attempt
to serve simultaneously will help to avoid OOM exceptions.
 *   Some additional configuration can greatly improve the speed with 
which GeoServer handles requests, allowing it to have fewer concurrent 
requests (each request spends less time being handled so fewer of them 
must be handled at a time for the same request volume.)
There is also an experimental branch of gsconfig.py which reduces internal
traffic within GeoNode.  This is a drop-in replacement for the gsconfig 
module included with GeoNode 1.0, but is not as well-tested (unit test 
coverage is the same but it hasn't been tested much "in the field").  I 
would be interested in reports from any users who try this out.  It is a 
100% reversible modification so if it doesn't work for you it is 
straightforward to switch back.

Again, we will be providing detailed instructions for applying these 
changes; they just have not yet been written up.

--
David Winslow
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org

________________________________
Please be advised that the Massachusetts Secretary of State considers 
e-mail to be a public record, and therefore subject to the Massachusetts 
Public Records Law, M.G.L. c. 66 § 10.

Re: [geonode] GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series

From:
Gabriel Roldán
Date:
2011-05-06 @ 16:47
On Fri, 2011-05-06 at 10:09 -0400, Spanring, Christian wrote:
> We do not need an unmodified version of GeoServer as far as I know. I
> was just curious if we can get GeoServer, including updates, etc.,
> from geoserver.org or if we should use the GeoNode build.
Ok. GeoNode builds on top of the regular geoserver build, which is
deployed to the maven repository every time the geoserver continuous
integration server builds it (pretty much every time a commit is made).
So what you get in geonode is what's current in GeoServer.
Or should be.
The current situation for the synth branch is that GeoNode needs some
enhancements to the gwc module that are not part of the GeoServer 2.1.0
release, so we're depending on a custom branch that's vanilla geoserver
2.1.x plus the enhancements for the gwc branch.

The situation will be reverted to depend on vanilla geoserver 2.1.x
branch once it's open for new developments again (i.e. after the 2.1.0
release of geoserver, which should be next week).

Does that answer your question?

Cheers,
Gabriel
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Christian
> 
>  
> 
> From: geonode@librelist.com [mailto:geonode@librelist.com] On Behalf
> Of David Winslow
> Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 9:54 AM
> To: geonode@librelist.com
> Subject: Re: [geonode] GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series
> 
> 
>  
> 
> Yes, we need to use a custom build of GeoServer in order to allow
> GeoServer to respect Django's user system instead of its own.  If you
> want to talk about how to make GeoNode work with an uncustomized
> GeoServer we can have that discussion, but I am not convinced it is a
> big problem: apart from ignoring the security/ subdirectory of the
> datadir, GeoNode's GeoServer reads the same configuration files.  If
> you do need an unmodified GeoServer, could you explain a bit more
> about why that's the case?
> 
>  
> 
> 
> --
> 
> 
> David Winslow
> 
> 
> OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org/
> 
> On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 9:45 AM, Spanring, Christian
> <CSpanring@mapc.org> wrote:
> 
> Thanks David, that sounds fantastic!
> 
>  
> 
> One quick question: will GeoNode 1.1 still depend on a custom build of
> GeoServer (as 1.0) or will 1.1 be able to use a regular GeoServer 2.1
> build?
> 
>  
> 
> Christian
> 
>  
> 
> From: geonode@librelist.com [mailto:geonode@librelist.com] On Behalf
> Of David Winslow
> Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2011 4:53 PM
> To: geonode@librelist.com
> Subject: [geonode] GeoNode stability and the 1.1 release series
> 
> 
>  
> 
> Hi all,
> 
>  
> 
> 
> We've already mentioned this in passing to some folks on this mailing
> list, but just to officially publicize it: we are no longer planning
> any further releases from the GeoNode 1.0 series.  The PSC has
> discussed this and the next release will be 1.1-beta.
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> The main reason for this decision is that investigations into the
> stability of GeoNode have reached a point where the most promising
> options open to us are reliant on the 2.1.x release series of
> GeoServer (two examples being the GWC integration which greatly
> decreases GeoNode's resource consumption, and the control-flow module
> which also reduces resource consumption (in a different way.) However,
> the features already implemented on the 1.1 release series are already
> compelling:
> 
> 
>       * GeoServer 2.1 (many improvements including better raster
>         handling and tight GeoWebCache integration)
>       * UI Improvements (previously intended as the main improvement
>         for the 1.0.1 release.)
>       * Improved GeoNode security system (caching, more reliable
>         technique for overriding GeoServer's builtin security)
>       * Performance improvements in the gsconfig Python module used
>         for syncing the Django and GeoServer layer info
>       * Cookie-awareness for OWSLib (a cookie workaround is already
>         implemented in GeoNode, but if the patch submitted to OWSLib
>         is accepted in time then we will be using "native" cookie
>         support)
>       * The upload functionality in GeoNode will be "refactored"
>         providing better reliability and, importantly, error reporting
>         to assist troubleshooting.  Thanks to the Risiko team for
>         these improvements.
>       * Upload-to-PostGIS functionality in the upload form (gsconfig
>         already has support for this and we expect a patch for the
>         GeoNode code that uses it before the beta release. Thanks to
>         the Worldmap team for this.)
>       * Improved Unit and Integration testing suites for the Django
>         components of GeoNode, including a Continuous Integration
>         server to ensure that all changes that go into the GeoNode
>         core are tested, regardless of potentially forgetful
>         developers.
> We would like to put the release out after the upcoming roadmapping
> summit to be held in Washington DC.  It is tentatively scheduled for
> May 27.  Ariel, Seb, and I will be sprinting on "sprucing up" the
> synth branch in anticipation of the release during the week of May 16
> (right before the summit.)
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> In the interim, there are some configuration changes that can be made
> on GeoNode 1.0 installations to improve their stability, although even
> with these changes we have seen some outages.  We'll provide a more
> detailed writeup soon but in short:
> 
> 
>       * There is a patch available which greatly improves the way that
>         the Django component communicates with GeoNetwork.
>       * Constraining the number of concurrent requests GeoServer will
>         attempt to serve simultaneously will help to avoid OOM
>         exceptions.
>       * Some additional configuration can greatly improve the
>         speed with which GeoServer handles requests, allowing it to
>         have fewer concurrent requests (each request spends less time
>         being handled so fewer of them must be handled at a time for
>         the same request volume.)
> There is also an experimental branch of gsconfig.py which reduces
> internal traffic within GeoNode.  This is a drop-in replacement for
> the gsconfig module included with GeoNode 1.0, but is not as
> well-tested (unit test coverage is the same but it hasn't been tested
> much "in the field").  I would be interested in reports from any users
> who try this out.  It is a 100% reversible modification so if it
> doesn't work for you it is straightforward to switch back.
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> Again, we will be providing detailed instructions for applying these
> changes; they just have not yet been written up.
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> --
> 
> 
> David Winslow
> 
> 
> OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
> 
> 
>  
> 
>                                    
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Please be advised that the Massachusetts Secretary of State considers
> e-mail to be a public record, and therefore subject to the
> Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c. 66 § 10.
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 

-- 
Gabriel Roldan
groldan@opengeo.org
Expert service straight from the developers