Slides from OSDC 2012: Navigating the Incubator at the Apache Software Foundation

Last week I was at OSDC in Sydney. It was my first time there, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting a new segment of the Australian tech. crowd.

I gave a talk on the Apache Software Foundation, and particularly how the Incubator functions (based on a similar talk from ApacheCon NA 2011). The slides are up on Slideshare now:

Apache Archiva 1.3.3 released: performance improvements!

If you’re using Archiva for your repository management needs, you should definitely upgrade to the latest release. Download it now!

The 1.3.x series has focused on the biggest offenders in memory usage and performance problems, and Archiva 1.3.3 brings the biggest improvements yet:

• Full scans should take about 1/3rd of the time and consume far less memory
• Removed one-off memory hits at the end of a scan
• File descriptor use during concurrent deployments are better managed

In addition, a new system status page is available for assessing the cause of potential performance issues at runtime, giving better insight into how to tune memory or scanning settings appropriately.

This work is in advance of the upcoming Archiva 1.4 release which has revived the internals more significantly, with further performance improvements and a series of new features.

It’s also worth noting that we dropped support for Archiva 1.1.x and Archiva 1.2.x in November, so there’s no reason left to remain on older versions.

I’d like to thank YourKit, who provided a free license for their profiler, which was of great assistance in tracking down these issues. I’ve used it on occasion for a number of years, and it is one of the easiest tools to use that I’ve ever encountered.

The full set of issues resolved follow:

• [MRM-1097] – Error 500 "too many open files"
• [MRM-1369] – Editing user roles in archiva clobbers continuum redback roles
• [MRM-1396] – Purge task problem : Not enough parts to the path
• [MRM-1421] – Archiva repository purge incorrectly purges based on file timestamps even when the snapshot timestamp is known
• [MRM-1443] – repository statistics collection can cause server to hang
• [MRM-1416] – upgrade to Redback 1.2.5
• [MRM-1439] – improve indexing performance
• [MRM-1440] – system status page
• [MRM-1441] – monitor repository scanning progress
• [MRM-1442] – track time spent in each consumer during a scan, to help diagnose poor scanning performance
• [MRM-1445] – disable referrer check by default

BarCamp Apache Sydney is this Saturday!

Great news – we seem to be getting quite a few last minute registrations for the BarCamp. There’s still time to sign up, or invite a colleague, if you’re coming along!

Here’s the details in a nutshell…

BarCamp

Date: Saturday, 11th December
Time: Registration is at 9:30am, for a 10am start.
Venue: The Darlington Centre, University of Sydney, at 174 City Road, Darlington
Cost: free
Food: coffee, snacks and lunch provided by the sponsors
Other: free wifi available
Sign up and details: http://barcamp.org/BarCampApacheSydney

Pre-BarCamp Dinner and Drinks

Date: Friday, 10th December
Time: Meeting at 7:30pm, reservation is for 8:30pm
Venue: Sumalee Thai, in The Bank Hotel, Newtown
Cost: $30pp for a variety of dishes, includes a vegetarian option
Sign up: indicate it on the wiki or the barcamp-sydney Google group

See you there!

Will you be at BarCamp Apache Sydney, December 11?

In case you’ve missed it, we’ve announced a BarCamp that will be running at the University of Sydney on Saturday 11th December, with a meal the night beforehand. It is a free event, so you just need to signup on the BarCamp wiki at http://barcamp.org/BarCampApacheSydney. You should also join the barcamp-sydney google group for updates.

The venue is The Darlington Centre, University of Sydney, at 174 City Road, Darlington. Registration is at 9:30am, for a 10am start.

The BarCamp is being run in conjunction with the Apache Software Foundation, and several Apache committers will be there proposing talks. However it is still run like a normal BarCamp, and given we haven’t had one in Sydney in the last year we’re expecting a diverse turn out. If you’re interested in BarCamps, want to know more about how the ASF develops software, or want to learn more about a particular Apache project, we hope you’ll join us! Even better, bring a topic to talk about of your own.

We’ve ensured that wifi, snacks and some other goodies will be provided on the day and are looking into options for lunch, depending on sponsorship levels.

If you’re not familiar with the format, you can find out more on the BarCamp site:

• About BarCamp
• What to Expect

MaestroDev is pleased to be joining University of Sydney, Apache Software Foundation, Alfresco and IBM as sponsors of the event. If your company is interested in sponsoring the event, please let one of the organisers know via the details at the bottom of the BarCamp page.

Please help us to get the word out about the event. Hope to see you there!

Last chance to register for Training and Receive Maven Book Free

Packt Publishing, the publishers of Apache Maven 2: Effective Implementation, will be present at ApacheCon North America, coming up on November 1 – 5, 2010. They’ll have an exhibitors table with information about their books on Apache projects such as OFBiz, Tomcat, MyFaces, jMeter, Maven, and more.

They’ve generously offered to sponsor free copies of the Maven book for attendees to the Maven training course on November 1. However, this could be extended until today only, so that the correct number can be ordered. Please register now!

One of the attractions of writing for Packt was their involvement in open source, such as through their Open Source Royalties program, and their Open Source Awards. I’m glad to see that they’ll be at ApacheCon.