# IndexTank vs Elasticsearch **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [December 22, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indextank-vs-elasticsearch/6218 "2011-12-22T12:45:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Damien\_Hardy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Damien\_Hardy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Damien_Hardy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indextank-vs-elasticsearch/6218/1 "2011-12-22T12:45:07Z")
Hello, Linkedin released indextank. It look like pretty much with Elasticsearch in its features What thinking about this new actor ? > **[LinkedIn Open Sources IndexTank: What Is IndexTank and How Does It Compare to...](http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/14584603231/linkedin-open-sources-indextank-what-is-indextank#_=_)** > > Today LinkedIn has announced that they are open sourcing the technology behind IndexTank, a company they acquired back in October. IndexTank was offering a hosted, scalable full-text search API. > The... Cheers, -- Damien ---
**Author:** ![Clinton\_Gormley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indextank-vs-elasticsearch/6218/2 "2011-12-22T12:59:36Z")
> Linkedin released indextank. It look like pretty much with > Elasticsearch in its features > > What thinking about this new actor ? > [LinkedIn Open Sources IndexTank: What Is IndexTank... • myNoSQL](http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/14584603231/linkedin-open-sources-indextank-what-is-indextank-an) All I know about indextank comes from a few pages on the web. It looks like quite a nice SaaS service, and easy to start using, but I think the feature set of ES is a good deal richer. just my 0.02€ clint ---
**Author:** ![Lukas\_Vlcek1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/lukas_vlcek1/32/819_2.png) [@Lukas\_Vlcek1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Lukas_Vlcek1)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indextank-vs-elasticsearch/6218/3 "2011-12-22T15:06:49Z")
Hi, I think it looks interesting, but it is quite hard to say how exactly it compares to elasticsearch right now. It reminds me when elasticsearch was made available and many people started asking how it compares to SolrCloud, which is legitimate question but it is hard to answer if you want to talk about it only from the highlevel API POW because then they might look quite similar. In my opinion the "devil" is in details, which in this case means detail understanding of underlying design. Fortunately, IndexTank sources are now available, on the other hand I was not able to find a single unit test in the indextank-engine, so hard to say... apart from this one would have to either compile and try it out to do the comparison or ask on some forum or ML (but not sure if there is any at this point). Based on [http://indextank.com/\_static/papers/IndexTank%20WhitePaper%20Technical.pdf](http://indextank.com/_static/papers/IndexTank%20WhitePaper%20Technical.pdf) it seems that IndexTank could have some interesting features, especially it seems it has some kind of fast (possibly distributed?) in-memory storage for portion of document data (they call it document variables) which they can update frequently and made available for search, scoring calculations and faceting. Personally, I think elasticsearch will get similar feature as well one day and the fact that IndexTank already built something like that means that elasticsearch can learn from this lesson and may be deliver something similar (or even better). But this is probably not a trivial function to build, especially in distributed search engines and current documentation of IndexTank does not uncover a lot of design details. From the documentations that is available, I was not able to understand how exactly IndexTank distributes indexing and search (do they distribute Lucene shards or individual documents?), how it does sharding and if it is possible to have replicas and change their number dynamically. Also it seems to me that a single node (in elasticsearch terms) provides more out of the box functionality which is implemented "externaly" in IndexTank (autodiscovery, loadbalaning, recovery...) Also it seems to me that faceting capabilities are not that rich and one has to predefine a lot of things ahead, in ES they are more flexible IMO. The same apply to query DSL. Also I noted that IndexTank seems to use Lucene 3.0.1 [https://github.com/linkedin/indextank-engine/blob/master/pom.xml#L19](https://github.com/linkedin/indextank-engine/blob/master/pom.xml#L19) which is more then year old. Not sure how hard it would be to migrate to new Lucene version but is interesting observation IMO. Regards, Lukas On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 1:45 PM, Damien Hardy [damienhardy.bal@gmail.com](mailto:damienhardy.bal@gmail.com)wrote: > Hello, > Linkedin released indextank. It look like pretty much with Elasticsearch > in its features > > What thinking about this new actor ? > > [LinkedIn Open Sources IndexTank: What Is IndexTank... • myNoSQL](http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/14584603231/linkedin-open-sources-indextank-what-is-indextank-an) > > Cheers, > > -- > Damien ---
**Author:** ![Karussell1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/50afbb/32.png) [@Karussell1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Karussell1)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indextank-vs-elasticsearch/6218/4 "2011-12-22T17:20:35Z")
Thanks Lukas for this quick review! I think missing tests is bad not only in terms of managability but they would also show features and act as missing documentation. Peter. On 22 Dez., 16:06, Lukáš Vlček [lukas.vl...@gmail.com](mailto:lukas.vl...@gmail.com) wrote: > Hi, > > I think it looks interesting, but it is quite hard to say how exactly it > compares to elasticsearch right now. It reminds me when elasticsearch was > made available and many people started asking how it compares to SolrCloud, > which is legitimate question but it is hard to answer if you want to talk > about it only from the highlevel API POW because then they might look quite > similar. In my opinion the "devil" is in details, which in this case means > detail understanding of underlying design. Fortunately, IndexTank sources > are now available, on the other hand I was not able to find a single unit > test in the indextank-engine, so hard to say... apart from this one would > have to either compile and try it out to do the comparison or ask on some > forum or ML (but not sure if there is any at this point). > > Based onhttp://indextank.com/\_static/papers/IndexTank%20WhitePaper%20Technica...it > seems that IndexTank could have some interesting features, especially it > seems it has some kind of fast (possibly distributed?) in-memory storage > for portion of document data (they call it document variables) which they > can update frequently and made available for search, scoring calculations > and faceting. Personally, I think elasticsearch will get similar feature as > well one day and the fact that IndexTank already built something like that > means that elasticsearch can learn from this lesson and may be deliver > something similar (or even better). But this is probably not a trivial > function to build, especially in distributed search engines and current > documentation of IndexTank does not uncover a lot of design details. > > From the documentations that is available, I was not able to understand how > exactly IndexTank distributes indexing and search (do they distribute > Lucene shards or individual documents?), how it does sharding and if it is > possible to have replicas and change their number dynamically. Also it > seems to me that a single node (in elasticsearch terms) provides more out > of the box functionality which is implemented "externaly" in IndexTank > (autodiscovery, loadbalaning, recovery...) > > Also it seems to me that faceting capabilities are not that rich and one > has to predefine a lot of things ahead, in ES they are more flexible IMO. > The same apply to query DSL. > > Also I noted that IndexTank seems to use Lucene 3.0.1https://github.com/linkedin/indextank-engine/blob/master/pom.xml#L19which > is more then year old. Not sure how hard it would be to migrate to new > Lucene version but is interesting observation IMO. > > Regards, > Lukas > > On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 1:45 PM, Damien Hardy [damienhardy....@gmail.com](mailto:damienhardy....@gmail.com)wrote: > > > Hello, > > Linkedin released indextank. It look like pretty much with Elasticsearch > > in its features > > > What thinking about this new actor ? > > > [LinkedIn Open Sources IndexTank: What Is IndexTank... • myNoSQL](http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/14584603231/linkedin-open-sources-indextank-what-is-indextank-an) > > > Cheers, > > > -- > > Damien ---
**Author:** ![kimchy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kimchy/32/44952_2.png) [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indextank-vs-elasticsearch/6218/5 "2011-12-22T18:00:19Z")
As Lukas noted, its hard to compare... . I had a quick look at the source code, and its, well..., interesting :). Regarding the fast "variables" updates that allow for updates, yes, it is planned for elasticsearch (I alluded to it in several IRC conversations and answers on the mailing list), so I had a quick look at how its implemented in index tank, and its very problematic (it flushes all of it periodically to disk, not sure how it survives failures, and of course, how it works in distributed env). I hope people will actually start to put it to good use so proper knowledgable comparisons can be made. On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 7:20 PM, Karussell [tableyourtime@googlemail.com](mailto:tableyourtime@googlemail.com)wrote: > Thanks Lukas for this quick review! I think missing tests is bad not > only in terms of managability but they would also show features and > act as missing documentation. > > Peter. > > On 22 Dez., 16:06, Lukáš Vlček [lukas.vl...@gmail.com](mailto:lukas.vl...@gmail.com) wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I think it looks interesting, but it is quite hard to say how exactly it > > compares to elasticsearch right now. It reminds me when elasticsearch was > > made available and many people started asking how it compares to > > SolrCloud, > > which is legitimate question but it is hard to answer if you want to talk > > about it only from the highlevel API POW because then they might look > > quite > > similar. In my opinion the "devil" is in details, which in this case > > means > > detail understanding of underlying design. Fortunately, IndexTank sources > > are now available, on the other hand I was not able to find a single unit > > test in the indextank-engine, so hard to say... apart from this one would > > have to either compile and try it out to do the comparison or ask on some > > forum or ML (but not sure if there is any at this point). > > > > Based onhttp:// > > [indextank.com/\_static/papers/IndexTank%20WhitePaper%20Technica...it](http://indextank.com/_static/papers/IndexTank%20WhitePaper%20Technica...it) > > seems that IndexTank could have some interesting features, especially it > > seems it has some kind of fast (possibly distributed?) in-memory storage > > for portion of document data (they call it document variables) which they > > can update frequently and made available for search, scoring calculations > > and faceting. Personally, I think elasticsearch will get similar feature > > as > > well one day and the fact that IndexTank already built something like > > that > > means that elasticsearch can learn from this lesson and may be deliver > > something similar (or even better). But this is probably not a trivial > > function to build, especially in distributed search engines and current > > documentation of IndexTank does not uncover a lot of design details. > > > > From the documentations that is available, I was not able to understand > > how > > exactly IndexTank distributes indexing and search (do they distribute > > Lucene shards or individual documents?), how it does sharding and if it > > is > > possible to have replicas and change their number dynamically. Also it > > seems to me that a single node (in elasticsearch terms) provides more out > > of the box functionality which is implemented "externaly" in IndexTank > > (autodiscovery, loadbalaning, recovery...) > > > > Also it seems to me that faceting capabilities are not that rich and one > > has to predefine a lot of things ahead, in ES they are more flexible IMO. > > The same apply to query DSL. > > > > Also I noted that IndexTank seems to use Lucene 3.0.1 > > [https://github.com/linkedin/indextank-engine/blob/master/pom.xml#L19which](https://github.com/linkedin/indextank-engine/blob/master/pom.xml#L19which) > > is more then year old. Not sure how hard it would be to migrate to new > > Lucene version but is interesting observation IMO. > > > > Regards, > > Lukas > > > > On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 1:45 PM, Damien Hardy \<[damienhardy....@gmail.com](mailto:damienhardy....@gmail.com) > > wrote: > > > > > Hello, > > > Linkedin released indextank. It look like pretty much with > > > Elasticsearch > > > in its features > > > > > What thinking about this new actor ? > > > > > > > [LinkedIn Open Sources IndexTank: What Is IndexTank... • myNoSQL](http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/14584603231/linkedin-open-sources-indextank-what-is-indextank-an) > > > > Cheers, > > > > > -- > > > Damien ---
**Author:** ![Lukas\_Vlcek1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/lukas_vlcek1/32/819_2.png) [@Lukas\_Vlcek1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Lukas_Vlcek1)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indextank-vs-elasticsearch/6218/6 "2011-12-22T18:22:09Z")
Exactly, I was looking for unit tests because I was hoping they would show me how to use it. On the other hand, the chance is that they simply did not open source tests (yet) for some reason, because I can not imagine implementing something like that completely without tests. So may be they will be added later...? On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 6:20 PM, Karussell [tableyourtime@googlemail.com](mailto:tableyourtime@googlemail.com)wrote: > Thanks Lukas for this quick review! I think missing tests is bad not > only in terms of managability but they would also show features and > act as missing documentation. > > Peter. > > On 22 Dez., 16:06, Lukáš Vlček [lukas.vl...@gmail.com](mailto:lukas.vl...@gmail.com) wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I think it looks interesting, but it is quite hard to say how exactly it > > compares to elasticsearch right now. It reminds me when elasticsearch was > > made available and many people started asking how it compares to > > SolrCloud, > > which is legitimate question but it is hard to answer if you want to talk > > about it only from the highlevel API POW because then they might look > > quite > > similar. In my opinion the "devil" is in details, which in this case > > means > > detail understanding of underlying design. Fortunately, IndexTank sources > > are now available, on the other hand I was not able to find a single unit > > test in the indextank-engine, so hard to say... apart from this one would > > have to either compile and try it out to do the comparison or ask on some > > forum or ML (but not sure if there is any at this point). > > > > Based onhttp:// > > [indextank.com/\_static/papers/IndexTank%20WhitePaper%20Technica...it](http://indextank.com/_static/papers/IndexTank%20WhitePaper%20Technica...it) > > seems that IndexTank could have some interesting features, especially it > > seems it has some kind of fast (possibly distributed?) in-memory storage > > for portion of document data (they call it document variables) which they > > can update frequently and made available for search, scoring calculations > > and faceting. Personally, I think elasticsearch will get similar feature > > as > > well one day and the fact that IndexTank already built something like > > that > > means that elasticsearch can learn from this lesson and may be deliver > > something similar (or even better). But this is probably not a trivial > > function to build, especially in distributed search engines and current > > documentation of IndexTank does not uncover a lot of design details. > > > > From the documentations that is available, I was not able to understand > > how > > exactly IndexTank distributes indexing and search (do they distribute > > Lucene shards or individual documents?), how it does sharding and if it > > is > > possible to have replicas and change their number dynamically. Also it > > seems to me that a single node (in elasticsearch terms) provides more out > > of the box functionality which is implemented "externaly" in IndexTank > > (autodiscovery, loadbalaning, recovery...) > > > > Also it seems to me that faceting capabilities are not that rich and one > > has to predefine a lot of things ahead, in ES they are more flexible IMO. > > The same apply to query DSL. > > > > Also I noted that IndexTank seems to use Lucene 3.0.1 > > [https://github.com/linkedin/indextank-engine/blob/master/pom.xml#L19which](https://github.com/linkedin/indextank-engine/blob/master/pom.xml#L19which) > > is more then year old. Not sure how hard it would be to migrate to new > > Lucene version but is interesting observation IMO. > > > > Regards, > > Lukas > > > > On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 1:45 PM, Damien Hardy \<[damienhardy....@gmail.com](mailto:damienhardy....@gmail.com) > > wrote: > > > > > Hello, > > > Linkedin released indextank. It look like pretty much with > > > Elasticsearch > > > in its features > > > > > What thinking about this new actor ? > > > > > > > [LinkedIn Open Sources IndexTank: What Is IndexTank... • myNoSQL](http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/14584603231/linkedin-open-sources-indextank-what-is-indextank-an) > > > > Cheers, > > > > > -- > > > Damien ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indextank-vs-elasticsearch/6218/7 "2017-07-06T03:44:33Z")