Feb 12 Fork Update

First things first - we’re about 93% done with having a fully open source ElasticsearchFork and KibanaFork ready for release.

Let’s look at the progress:

  • 100% of all x-pack code is gone
  • 100% of all the licensing tools and checks have been eliminated
  • 100% of the telemetry collection has been removed
  • 95% of the test framework updates are done
  • 90% of the CI has been reworked

So, when is this thing going to be released? Great question we’ve gotten a few times already. We’re nearing the end of coding on this project phase but we’re still awaiting naming. Naming approval is complicated and we knew it would be the longest timeline part of the effort. It’s also critical to get right - we don’t want to rename twice or deal with trademark issues.

It’s possible that we will release the code with a placeholder name, but it’s unlikely. It would be less than ideal on many fronts - building community around something that is nameless is weird and hard. We would only take the placeholder route if we saw that the naming process was going to extend far into the future.

Two more updates:

We’re drafting some critical questions for the community, and starting next week, we’ll be opening calls for responses on these questions. The questions are about how we can make this software and community work for you. This feedback will help us form the initial frameworks we’ll need to function as we make our way to a shared governance model. Stay tuned to the forum for these updates.

We’ve started the process of scrubbing the documentation and user guides (and we officially got word we can use them). We have a huge task ahead of us here but it’s a place where everyone in the community can help out with little ramp-up required. If you have any ideas for documentation or places you’d like to contribute new guides, let us know!

10 Likes

Thanks, Kyle. Looking forward to some bi-directional public dialog on the future plans and path. Our team is working on fixing some open issues/bugs on ElasicSearch and Kibana we will merge in once the repo is open.

2 Likes

thanks for the update @searchymcsearchface
“ElasticsearchFork and KibanaFork” - are these official project names? or just placeholders?

@horovits - Those are just placeholder names - Thanks.

1 Like

I recognize things are still in a state of flux, and that you may be waiting for the community to have input on some items, however I still had a question…

Given that both the fork and the OD plugins are Apache 2.0, is the plan to fully integrate those plugins into the codebase of the fork, or will they remain separate plugins? I can see the desire to keep the plugins separate to allow the community to develop alternative plugins. However it would also be great to have the more simplified deployment with all of the OD features “pre-integrated”.

As I said, I see merit in both options. I was just curious of the plan might be.

@robcowart The plan right now is to maintain the architecture as-is - ElasticsearchFork + plugins, KibanaFork + plugins. Open Distro for Elasticsearch (renamed, naturally) will eventually ship with ElasticsearchFork + plugins and KibanaFork + plugins for those who want turn-key. They’re all being administered as a single organization on github.

1 Like

This is great news. Keep up the good work.

2 Likes