[discuss] Future of the geode-redis module

[Alexander Murmann]

Hi Geode community!

A while ago engineers from VMware started to improve the geode-redis module 
that has been in Geode for several years, but never had been completed. This 
involved adding more tests for existing functionality, as well as adding 
support for more commands.

VMware will not continue this investment in the geode-redis module. While the 
geode-redis module is in a much better place than two years ago there still is 
a lot of work left to make it a viable option for most of our users and the 
module is still in an experimental state.

For the community this poses the question of what we want to do with the 
existing code. This work now has been started and stopped twice. All code comes 
with a maintenance burden which adds 
up. 
Dependencies might need to be updated; flaky tests fixed and it brings 
cognitive overhead for us and our users. Unless someone else in the community 
steps up to take on the task of maintaining the geode-redis module, I propose 
to remove the code from our develop branch and give everyone more bandwidth to 
use elsewhere.

Thank you all in advance for your thoughts

Re: [discuss] Future of the geode-redis module

[Donal Evans]

I agree with this proposal.

As someone who has contributed a great deal of time and effort to the 
geode-for-redis module in the past year or so, it's sad to see it go, but 
realistically, the last thing that Geode needs is more unmaintained code. Our 
track record for removing dead or deprecated code is pretty poor, so removing 
this before it gets a chance to add to the burden seems like a sensible idea. 
In addition to this, the tests in the geode-for-redis module contribute 
significantly to the total run time of CI pipeline jobs, particularly the 
acceptance tests, in which geode-for-redis tests account for over 50% of the 
total run time.

From: Alexander Murmann 
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2022 5:15 PM
To: geode 
Subject: [discuss] Future of the geode-redis module

Hi Geode community!

A while ago engineers from VMware started to improve the geode-redis module 
that has been in Geode for several years, but never had been completed. This 
involved adding more tests for existing functionality, as well as adding 
support for more commands.

VMware will not continue this investment in the geode-redis module. While the 
geode-redis module is in a much better place than two years ago there still is 
a lot of work left to make it a viable option for most of our users and the 
module is still in an experimental state.

For the community this poses the question of what we want to do with the 
existing code. This work now has been started and stopped twice. All code comes 
with a maintenance burden which adds 
up.
 Dependencies might need to be updated; flaky tests fixed and it brings 
cognitive overhead for us and our users. Unless someone else in the community 
steps up to take on the task of maintaining the geode-redis module, I propose 
to remove the code from our develop branch and give everyone more bandwidth to 
use elsewhere.

Thank you all in advance for your thoughts

Re: [discuss] Future of the geode-redis module

[Owen Nichols]

Well said, Donal.

As a past Release Manager, geode-for-redis impacted release timelines for 1.13, 
1.14, and most recently 1.15.  I support this proposal in hopes that refocusing 
on core Geode makes future releases a little more predictable.

Now might also be a good time to review other features in Geode that are marked 
@Experimental, such as manageability REST API, JDBC connector, micrometer, 
SSLParameterExtension, GfshCommand, or AutoBalancer.  I hope this proposal 
encourages more proposals to either shelve or promote some of these other 
experiments.

From: Donal Evans 
Date: Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 9:10 PM
To: dev@geode.apache.org 
Subject: Re: [discuss] Future of the geode-redis module
I agree with this proposal.

As someone who has contributed a great deal of time and effort to the 
geode-for-redis module in the past year or so, it's sad to see it go, but 
realistically, the last thing that Geode needs is more unmaintained code. Our 
track record for removing dead or deprecated code is pretty poor, so removing 
this before it gets a chance to add to the burden seems like a sensible idea. 
In addition to this, the tests in the geode-for-redis module contribute 
significantly to the total run time of CI pipeline jobs, particularly the 
acceptance tests, in which geode-for-redis tests account for over 50% of the 
total run time.

From: Alexander Murmann 
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2022 5:15 PM
To: geode 
Subject: [discuss] Future of the geode-redis module

Hi Geode community!

A while ago engineers from VMware started to improve the geode-redis module 
that has been in Geode for several years, but never had been completed. This 
involved adding more tests for existing functionality, as well as adding 
support for more commands.

VMware will not continue this investment in the geode-redis module. While the 
geode-redis module is in a much better place than two years ago there still is 
a lot of work left to make it a viable option for most of our users and the 
module is still in an experimental state.

For the community this poses the question of what we want to do with the 
existing code. This work now has been started and stopped twice. All code comes 
with a maintenance burden which adds 
up.
 Dependencies might need to be updated; flaky tests fixed and it brings 
cognitive overhead for us and our users. Unless someone else in the community 
steps up to take on the task of maintaining the geode-redis module, I propose 
to remove the code from our develop branch and give everyone more bandwidth to 
use elsewhere.

Thank you all in advance for your thoughts