This self-paced IBM course will teach you all about big data! You will become familiar with the characteristics of big data and its application in big data analytics. You will also gain hands-on experience with big data processing tools like Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark.
Bernard Marr defines big data as the digital trace that we are generating in this digital era. You will start the course by understanding what big data is and exploring how insights from big data can be harnessed for a variety of use cases. You’ll also explore how big data uses technologies like parallel processing, scaling, and data parallelism.
Next, you will learn about Hadoop, an open-source framework that allows for the distributed processing of large data and its ecosystem. You will discover important applications that go hand in hand with Hadoop, like Distributed File System (HDFS), MapReduce, and HBase. You will become familiar with Hive, a data warehouse software that provides an SQL-like interface to efficiently query and manipulate large data sets.
You’ll then gain insights into Apache Spark, an open-source processing engine that provides users with new ways to store and use big data. In this course, you will discover how to leverage Spark to deliver reliable insights. The course provides an overview of the platform, going into the components that make up Apache Spark.
You’ll learn about DataFrames and perform basic DataFrame operations and work with SparkSQL. Explore how Spark processes and monitors the requests your application submits and how you can track work using the Spark Application UI.
This course has several hands-on labs to help you apply and practice the concepts you learn. You will complete Hadoop and Spark labs using various tools and technologies, including Docker, Kubernetes, Python, and Jupyter Notebooks.
Overview
Syllabus
- What Is Big Data?
- In this module, you’ll begin your acquisition of Big Data knowledge with the most up-to-date definition of Big Data. You’ll explore the impact of Big Data on everyday personal tasks and business transactions with Big Data Use Cases. You’ll also learn how Big Data uses parallel processing, scaling, and data parallelism. Going further, you’ll explore commonly used Big Data tools and explain the role of open-source in Big Data. Finally, you’ll go beyond the hype and explore additional Big Data viewpoints.
- Introduction to the Hadoop Ecosystem
- In this module, you'll gain a fundamental understanding of the Apache Hadoop architecture, ecosystem, practices, and commonly used applications, including Distributed File System (HDFS), MapReduce, Hive, and HBase. You’ll also gain practical skills in hands-on labs when you query the data added using Hive, launch a single-node Hadoop cluster using Docker, and run MapReduce jobs.
- Apache Spark
- In this module, you’ll turn your attention to the popular Apache Spark platform, where you will explore the attributes and benefits of Apache Spark and distributed computing. You'll gain key insights about functional programming and Lambda functions. You’ll also explore Resilient Distributed Datasets (RDDs), parallel programming, resilience in Apache Spark, and relate RDDs and parallel programming with Apache Spark. Then, you’ll dive into additional Apache Spark components and learn how Apache Spark scales with Big Data. Working with Big Data signals the need for working with queries, including structured queries using SQL. You’ll also learn about the functions, parts, and benefits of Spark SQL and DataFrame queries, and discover how DataFrames work with Spark SQL.
- DataFrames and Spark SQL
- In this module, you’ll learn about Resilient Distributed Datasets (RDDs), their uses in Apache Spark, and RDD transformations and actions. You'll compare the use of datasets with Spark's latest data abstraction, DataFrames. You'll learn to identify and apply basic DataFrame operations. You’ll explore Apache Spark SQL optimization and learn how Spark SQL and memory optimization benefit from using Catalyst and Tungsten. Finally, you’ll fortify your skills with guided hands-on lab to create a table view and apply data aggregation techniques.
- Development and Runtime Environment Options
- In this module, you’ll explore how Spark processes the requests that your application submits and learn how you can track work using the Spark Application UI. Because Spark application work happens on the cluster, you need to be able to identify Apache Cluster Managers, their components, and benefits. You’ll also know how to connect with each cluster manager and how and when you might want to set up a local, standalone Spark instance. Next, you’ll learn about Apache Spark application submission, including the use of Spark’s unified interface, “spark-submit,” and learn about options and dependencies. You’ll also describe and apply options for submitting applications, identify external application dependency management techniques, and list Spark Shell benefits. You’ll also look at recommended practices for Spark's static and dynamic configuration options and perform hands-on labs to use Apache Spark on IBM Cloud and run Spark on Kubernetes.
- Monitoring and Tuning
- Platforms and applications require monitoring and tuning to manage issues that inevitably happen. In this module, you'll learn about connecting the Apache Spark user interface web server and using the same UI web server to manage application processes. You’ll also identify common Apache Spark application issues and learn about debugging issues using the application UI and locating related log files. Further, you’ll discover and gain real-world knowledge about how Spark manages memory and processor resources using the hands-on lab.
- Final Project and Assessment
- In this module, you’ll perform a practice lab where you’ll explore two critical aspects of data processing using Spark: working with Resilient Distributed Datasets (RDDs) and constructing DataFrames from JSON data. You will also apply various transformations and actions on both RDDs and DataFrames to gain insights and manipulate the data effectively. Further, you’ll apply your knowledge in a final project where you will create a DataFrame by loading data from a CSV file and applying transformations and actions using Spark SQL. Finally, you’ll be assessed based on your learning from the course.
Taught by
Karthik Muthuraman and Aije Egwaikhide
