Azkaban
What it is
Azkaban is a free, Apache-2.0 open-source batch workflow scheduler for self-hosted deployments. It resolves job order through dependencies and provides a web interface for maintaining and tracking workflows. Users can schedule flows or launch them through the Ajax API, retry failed jobs, and receive email alerts for failures and successes. The system supports project workspaces, conditional workflows, data triggers, multiple executors, and plug-in extensions. Listed job types include Hadoop Shell, Java, Hadoop Java, Pig, and Hive, and the official site says it works with any Hadoop version. Deployments can use Solo Server or distributed multiple-executor mode, with the latter documented for most production environments. APIs cover authentication, projects, flow execution, and execution logs. Azkaban requires Java 8 or higher and offers Linux and OS X build instructions.
For and against
For
- Free and Apache-2.0 licensed
- Dependency-based scheduling with workflow tracking
- Automatic retries and email alerts
- Multiple executors and conditional workflows
- API for flows and execution logs
Against
- Self-hosted deployment requires setup
- Requires Java 8 or higher
- Default XMLUserManager is not secure
- Solo server lacks SSL by default
The verdict
Azkaban provides a broad open-source toolkit for scheduling, observing, and operating batch workflows. Its deployment, security, and extensibility options require administrators to configure the environment carefully.
Who it suits
It suits teams running scheduled, dependency-based batch workflows that need web tracking, APIs, alerts, and self-hosted deployment. Hadoop-oriented environments and production deployments can use its listed job types and executor modes.
On the record
- Advanced features
- The documentation lists multiple executors, conditional workflows, data triggers, and plug-in extensions from the web UI through job execution.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Alerts
- The product site lists email alerts for workflow failures and successes, plus SLA alerting and automatic killing.azkaban.github.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- API
- The documentation includes API operations for authenticating, managing projects, executing flows, and retrieving execution logs.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Authentication
- Azkaban ships with XMLUserManager, but its documentation says this default is not secure and recommends using a suitable user manager, such as LDAP, in production.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- The documentation provides instructions for setting up Solo Server and Multi Executor Server deployments.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Deployment requirements
- The documentation says Azkaban requires Java 8 or higher and describes builds for Linux and OS X platforms.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Downloads
- The downloads page links to source code and GitHub releases and notes that Azkaban is under active development with frequent changes.azkaban.github.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Execution modes
- Azkaban offers a solo-server mode and a distributed multiple-executor mode; the documentation describes multiple-executor mode as intended for most production environments.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Extensibility
- Plugins can add viewer pages, trigger methods, user authentication methods, alerting methods, and job-type executors.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Hadoop
- The official site says Azkaban is compatible with any version of Hadoop.azkaban.github.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- HTTPS
- The solo server does not use SSL by default, but the web server supports SSL socket connectors when configured with a keystore.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Documented job-type plugin examples include Hadoop ecosystem components, Pig, Hive, and VoldemortBuildAndPush.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Kafka triggers
- The event-trigger plugin can launch flows when Kafka events match configured patterns; the documented implementation currently supports Kafka's built-in String deserializer only.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- License
- The project’s GitHub page identifies its license as Apache-2.0.github.com · read 8 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Azkaban is a distributed workflow manager created at LinkedIn to manage Hadoop job dependencies and run jobs in sequence.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Scheduling
- Users can schedule workflows, and flows can also be launched through the Ajax API.azkaban.readthedocs.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Security
- The official site lists authentication and authorization, user action tracking, and SLA alerting with automatic job killing.azkaban.github.io · read 8 Oct 2026
- Support
- The project directs users to its Google Group for help and lists Gitter and mailing lists as community channels.github.com · read 8 Oct 2026
