Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop Reviews and Pricing

Architect at a marketing services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Nov 12, 2012

Cloudera Manager Hadoop Cluster Installation Evaluation

I decided to give Cloudera's Manager software a try, and was pleasantly surprised at how simple it becomes to deploy a substantial Hadoop cluster.

I began by creating an automated kickstart installer for RHEL 6.2 (booting off a custom isolinux image created for this purpose), with all of the required packages, so that from server power on to creating a 20+ node cluster takes less than 15 minutes. The limitation for the number of concurrent node installs is based on network and disk i/o bottlenecks on the deployment server. If you wanted to PXE boot the cluster in a production environment, you would want a bank of servers behind a load balancer, optimally.

Once the Manager is installed on the master node, you simply log into the administration webpage, and from there, add all of the hosts to deploy the cluster on. One nice discovery was that it takes advantage of regular expressions for host names or IP addresses, so you can literally create a cluster containing hundreds of nodes with a trivial amount of effort.

Once the software is deployed, you can select the roles for each of the servers. It's an incredibly painless deployment. That being said, it is not without its flaws.

One of the primary flaws is that all of the configuration and log files are in non-standard locations, and are split in non-standard ways. It's obvious from the way that the files are arranged that it simplifies programmatic deployment. It also makes it a bit harder for a human who is used to standard Hadoop deployments to figure out where everything is located.

And finally, I discovered a bug with one of the packaged software products, Oozie. One of the resource files, oozie-bundle-0.1.xsd contains an invalid regular expression on line 22. I haven't tracked down the behavior, but for some reason JDK 1.6.30 will parse that invalid regex, but JDK 1.7U2 will exit with errors. Naturally, I was running JDK 1.7U2, so it took me a little extra time to debug the problem.

Overall, I quite liked Cloudera's Manager. It's certainly one of the better cluster deployment products I've seen.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user217290Senior DBA Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

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Apr 1, 2015

Can I have Cloudera's Manager software for free to test and deploy it on a sandBox to work on a POC purposes.

reviewer1724670

Engineering Manager/Solution architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Jan 20, 2022

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Preferred solution for on-prem

Pros and Cons

"Cloudera is a very manageable solution with good support."

"The initial setup of Cloudera is difficult."

What is our primary use case?

We are a distributor for Hadoop. Our customers choose whether they would like to use Cloudera or another product.

Cloudera Distribution is deployed on-premise as well as on bare metal servers in AWS.

What is most valuable?

Cloudera is a very manageable solution with good support.

What needs improvement?

When you compare Cloudera with EMR, EMR has a lot of administrative features, so you don't need to manage the solution. Cloudera is not as easy, as it requires more DevOps resources than other solutions.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been offering this solution for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cloudera Distribution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable solution. We have clients that have a large installation of Cloudera.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support from Cloudera is fine.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Cloudera is difficult. After you have installed it once, it is not difficult to reproduce.

What about the implementation team?

For a POC deployment, we required only one DevOps. On larger-scale implementation, we also require a data engineer.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cloudera requires a license to use.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at EMR, however Cloudera is better when using OnPrem.

What other advice do I have?

Cloudera is one of the best solutions for on-prem.

I would rate this solution an 8 out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner

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it_user374058

Vice President - Big Data and Delivery at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Nov 22, 2016

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Cloudera Manager is a good tool to administer. Sometimes it gets confusing to follow a single path for installation.

What is most valuable?

Cloudera Manager for administering the Hadoop cluster
Cloudera specific solutions like Impala
Extensive documentation
Good user community

How has it helped my organization?

Implementing a Hadoop cluster has become relatively straight-forward using CDH. Administering it is also less complex. As a result, efforts spent in these areas are less than anticipated.

What needs improvement?

Some of the UI features seem confusing e.g. charts on the CM Services page
Sometimes it gets confusing to follow a single path for installation due to multiple recommended approaches e.g. parcels vs packages

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using it for the last two years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Following a single path for installation becomes confusing due to multiple recommended approaches e.g. parcels vs packages.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Flume seems unstable and has to be restarted quite often.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

None as such

How are customer service and technical support?

We are mostly using Cloudera Express so we did not use their technical support. However, the Cloudera community is an active place and Cloudera representatives participate actively in understanding and resolving issues.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Cloudera is a prominent player in the Hadoop space and we did not have a need to adopt a different solution. However, we are also looking to work on Hadoop and MapR

How was the initial setup?

Following a single path for installation was initially confusing due to multiple recommended approaches e.g. parcels vs. packages. However, after a while, we managed to master it. However, knoweldge of Cloudera Manager and Hadoop architecture is a must.

What about the implementation team?

We have our own team of consultants who are proficient in implementing it. The high level steps about the implementation remain the same; however, it is the environment specific issues which are challenging.

What was our ROI?

We haven't really measured ROI.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Licensing price on per node basis for Cloudera seems to be pretty steep (based on the inputs we have received from Cloudera).

What other advice do I have?

It is user friendly and installation is pretty straightforward. Cloudera Manager is a good tool to administer it. However, configuration for specific requirements is sometimes pretty complex.

You should have a team which is knowledgeable in Hadoop. Do keep in mind that the product is still maturing so there are good chances that you will come across unexpected issues now and then.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We're Cloudera partners and regularly install CDH

Sumit Chaudhuri

Lead Consultant - Product Development at FIS (http://www.fisglobal.com/)

Jul 15, 2019

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We use this solution to use big data for our analyses

What is our primary use case?

Our core product is an insurance product and the actuarial module is quite complex. SMEs so far collect data from various sources into Excel sheets and through macros do the analytics which is a very crude form of doing the analysis. So we thought to use big data for such analysis.

How has it helped my organization?

That is still in PUC stage, as I have mentioned our analyst used to do the actuarial on a spreadsheet but after Hadoop implementation they are getting confidence that now analysis is more appropriate and fast. Now exploring cloud implementation as well.

What is most valuable?

Keeping multi copies of the file and tools of map reduce like PIG, HIVE due to their flexibility it is easy to develop the application with less or almost no knowledge of Java and Sql. And capability to handle huge data size.

What needs improvement?

As such in the product side, I don't have much to comment. But like other upcoming technologies like RPA, AI, GO etc they have ample training materials with variety of USE Cases, which users can understand and aligned with their current requirements. On same ground I didn't see much training materials from Cloudera.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Seems quite stable, as such didn't face any issue.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very stable, didn't face any performance issue.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No when we were heard of Hadoop, we tried on that only. I mean tried to migrate from spreadsheets to Hadoop.

How was the initial setup?

Very straight forward. Typical Windows type installation...Next, next, next clicks.

What about the implementation team?

In-house.

What was our ROI?

Other department handles all these so I can't comment on that.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Not really.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user364431

Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Jan 5, 2016

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The Cloudera Hadoop manager eased the work of orchestrating scripts.

Valuable Features

Very solid. Excellent user experience. good documentation. The Cloudera Manager is definitely a deal breaker. Packaging for Ubuntu is great for all the components.

Improvements to My Organization

Before the introduction of Cloudera Manager (that actually works), all the orchestration was done with scripts and Chef, and inexperienced team members had difficulties to participate in maintenance. The Cloudera Hadoop manager eased the work.

Room for Improvement

More customization, better documentation for the API (basically it's the same for all Cloudera Hadoop components).

Use of Solution

I've used it for two years.

Deployment Issues

No issues encountered.

Stability Issues

No issues encountered.

Scalability Issues

No issues encountered.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Didn't use dedicated service or support. The documentation is a bit of a mess, but it is decent and sufficient.

Initial Setup

Straightforward. The CDH VirtualBox with preconfigured environment helps for demonstration purposes

Implementation Team

We did it in-house.

Other Advice

Do a comparisomn with Hortonworks as it's always good to compare to another major vendor

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user347565

Lead Bigdata Developer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Nov 28, 2015

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We used it to build an enterprise data hub, but Apache Kudu needs improvement.

Valuable Features:

The most valuable feature for me are--

Sentry - provides granular-level security
Impala - open-source, MPP database

Improvements to My Organization:

We used it to build an enterprise data hub.

Room for Improvement:

Apache Kudu needs improvement. It's a real-time updatable database.

Implementation Team:

We used a vendor team to implement the solution.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

reviewer1476813

Chief Executive Officer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

Jan 8, 2021

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Overall operational, stable but price could be better

Pros and Cons

"The product as a whole is good."

"There are better solutions out there that have more features than this one."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for the data warehousing.

What is most valuable?

The product as a whole is good.

What needs improvement?

There are better solutions out there that have more features than this one.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have just started using the solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I do not know of any issues with the stability of the solution.

What about the implementation team?

I have an internal team that does maintenance for the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price could be better for the product.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

EricLin

Chairman at Athemaster co.,ltd.

Apr 4, 2020

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Performs cost analysis tasks for our customers in the financial industry

Pros and Cons

"The most valuable feature is Kubernetes."

"The price of this solution could be lowered."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and this is one of the systems that we implement for our clients.

Our clients for this product are in the financial industry and they use it to perform cost analysis tasks.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is Kubernetes.

What needs improvement?

The price of this solution could be lowered.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop can be scaled. Our customers are enterprise-level companies and they have about 100 users for this solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

We offer technical support for this solution to our customers.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not use another solution prior to this one.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Cloudera really has no competition.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: reseller

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What is our primary use case?

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What needs improvement?

For how long have I used the solution?

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

What about the implementation team?

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

What is our primary use case?

What is most valuable?

What needs improvement?

For how long have I used the solution?

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

How are customer service and technical support?

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How was the initial setup?

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

What other advice do I have?

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?