OJAI Distributed Query Service

OJAI queries either directly access HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric Database JSON or leverage the OJAI Distributed Query Service. The OJAI Distributed Query Service provides distributed query support for HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric Database JSON, powered by Apache Drill. The data-fabric client automatically determines whether OJAI queries benefit from using the OJAI Distributed Query Service, when the service is available. This section describes the architecture, including the code paths and components involved. It also discusses queries that originate from Drill SQL, which leverage the full functionality of Drill.

The following diagram summarizes the different code paths and the components involved for processing HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric Database JSON queries.



Data Fabric automatically chooses which code path to use.

The following table summarizes the functionality that each code path supports:

Simple OJAI Queries OJAI Queries Requiring OJAI Distributed Query Service Analytical Drill Queries
  • Can use single secondary index
  • Configurable limit on sorts
  • Serial query execution
  • Can use multiple secondary indexes
  • No imposed limit on sort size
  • Parallel query execution
  • Query optimization for operational queries
  • Can use multiple secondary indexes
  • No imposed limit on sort size
  • Parallel query execution
  • Query optimization for analytical queries
Simple OJAI Queries

The right path in the preceding image represents simple queries issued through an OJAI application. These queries can leverage a single index and operate on smaller data sets that do not benefit from parallel query execution.

Queries in this code path do not use the OJAI Distributed Query Service. If the OJAI Distributed Query Service is not installed, all OJAI queries use this code path. When queries run through this code path, sorts on large data sets may fail if the result size exceeds the size of a configurable parameter. See Querying in OJAI Applications for more details.

OJAI Queries Requiring OJAI Distributed Query Service

The middle path represents more complex queries issued through an OJAI application. These queries use the enhanced functionality available in the OJAI Distributed Query Service. This includes sorting large data sets and distributed, parallel query execution. When the Distributed Query Service is installed, the data-fabric client decides whether a query benefits from the service and automatically redirects the query to the service.

The OJAI Distributed Query Service is a lightweight subset of the full Drill query engine that is well suited for the typical queries issued by OJAI. It excludes the more advanced functionality needed by analytical queries.

The OJAI Distributed Query Service also provides more sophisticated index selection, including leveraging multiple indexes in a single query. It uses a cost based optimizer to select the indexes that provide the best performance.

Analytical Drill Queries

The left path represents SQL queries issued by BI and SQL tools to Drill. This path leverages Drill’s analytical capabilities. It can optimize and process complex queries on large data sets in parallel and provide interactive query response times.

The optimizer used by Drill is a superset of the optimizer used by the OJAI Distributed Query Service. It is also a cost based optimizer, but includes more comprehensive optimization techniques needed by complex analytical queries.

For more information about how secondary index selection and execution works in HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric Database JSON, see Selection and Execution of Secondary Indexes.

NOTE Prior to data-fabric version 6.0.1, the OJAI Distributed Query Service was named the OJAI Query Service.