Claus Ibsen

See how the latest Apache Camel release improves support for the broker Apache ActiveMQ Artemis so that it works better with large messages.

I have just recorded a 5 minute video that demonstrates running an out of stock example from Apache Camel release, the camel-example-servlet packaged as a docker container and running on a kubernetes platform, such as openshift 3. camel-servlet-example scaled up to 3 running containers (pods) which is easy with kubernetes and fabric8 In this video I have already deployed the example and then demonstrates how we can use the fabric8 web console to manage our application. And also connect to the running container and see inside, such as the Camel routes visually as shown above. Then I run a simple bash script from my laptop that sends a HTTP GET to the Camel example and prints the response. The script runs in a endless loop and demonstrates how kubernetes can easily scale up and down multiple Camel containers and load balance across the running containers. And at the end its even self healing when I force killing docker containers. So I suggest to grab a fresh cup of tea or coffee and sit back and play the 5 minutes video. The video is hosted on vimeo and can be seen from this link.

Apache Camel 2.14 is being released later this month. There is a slight holdup due some Apache infrastructure issue which is being worked on. This blog post is to talk about one of the new functions we have added to this release. Thanks to Lauri Kimmel who donated a camel-metrics component, we integrated with the excellent codehale metrics library. So I took this component one step further and integrated it with the Camel routes so we have additional metrics about the route performances using codehale metrics. This allows end users to seamless feed Camel routing information together with existing data they are gathering using codehale metrics. Also take note we have a lot of existing metrics from camel-core which of course is still around. What codehale brings to the table is that they have additional statistical data which we do not have in camel-core. To use the codehale metics all you need to do is: add camel-metrics component enable route metrics in XML or Java code To enable in XML you declare a as shown below: &;t;bean id="metricsRoutePolicyFactory" class="org.apache.camel.component.metrics. routepolicy.MetricsRoutePolicyFactory"/> And doing so in Java code is easy as well by calling this method on your CamelContext. context.addRoutePolicyFactory(new MetricsRoutePolicyFactory()); Now performance metrics is only useable if you have a way of displaying them, and for that you can use hawtio. Notice you can use any kind of monitoring tooling which can integrate with JMX, as the metrics is available over JMX. The actual data is 100% codehale json format, where a piece of the data is shown in the figure below. Sample of the route metrics JSON data The next release of hawtio supports Camel 2.14 and automatic detects if you have enabled route metrics and if so, then shows a sub, where the information can be seen in real time in a graphical charts. hawtio have detected that we have route metrics enabled, and shows a sub tab where we can see the data in real time The screenshot above is from the new camel-example-servlet-rest-tomcat which we ship out of the box. This example demonstrates another new functionality in Camel 2.14 which is the Rest DSL (I will do a blog about that later). This example enables the route metrics out of the box, so what I did was to deploy this example together with hawtio (the hawtio-default WAR) in Apache Tomcat 8. With hawtio you can also build custom dashboards, so here at the end I have put together a dashboard with various screens from hawtio to have a custom view of a Camel application. hawtio dashboard with Camel route and metrics as well control panel to control the route(s), and the logs in the bottom.

This morning an interesting topic was posted to the Apache ServiceMix user forum, asking the question: To ServiceMix or not ServiceMix. In my mind the short answer is: NO Guillaume Nodet one of the key architects and long time committer on Apache ServiceMix already had his mind set 3 years ago when he wrong this blog post - Thoughts about ServiceMix. What has happened on the ServiceMix project was that the ServiceMix kernel was pulled out of ServiceMix into its own project - Apache Karaf. That happened in spring 2009, which Guillaume also blogged about. So is all that bad? No its IMHO all great. In fact having the kernel as a separate project, and Camel and CXF as the integration and WS/RS frameworks, would allow the ServiceMix team to focus on building the ESB that truly had value-add. But that did not happen. ServiceMix did not create a cross product security model, web console, audit and trace tooling, clustering, governance, service registry, and much more that people were looking for in an ESB (or related to a SOA suite). There were only small pieces of it, but never really baked well into the project. That said its not too late. I think the ServiceMix project is dying, but if a lot of people in the community step up, and contribute and work on these things, then it can bring value to some users. But I seriously doubt this will happen. PS: 6 years ago I was working as a consultant and looked at the next integration platform for a major Danish organization, and we looked at ServiceMix back then and dismissed it due its JBI nature, and the new OSGi based architecture was only just started. And frankly it has taken a long long time to mature Apache Karaf / Felix / Aries and the other pieces in OSGi to what they are today to offer a stable and sound platform for users to build their integration applications. That was not the case 4-6 years ago. Okay No to ServiceMix - what are my options then? So what should use you instead of ServiceMix? Well in my mind you have at least these two options. 1) Use Apache Karaf and add the pieces you need, such as Camel, CXF, ActiveMQ and build your own ESB. These individual projects have regular releases, and you can upgrade as you need. The ServiceMix project only has the JBI components in additional, that you should NOT use. Only legacy users that got on the old ServiceMix 3.x wagon may need to use this in a graceful upgrade from JBI to Karaf based containers. 2) Take a look at fabric8. IMHO fabric8 is all that value-add the ServiceMix project did not create, and a lot more. James Strachan, just blogged today about some of his thoughts on fabric8, JBoss Fuse, and Karaf. I encourage you to take a read. For example he talks about how fabric becomes poly container, so you have a much wider choice of which containers/JVM to run your integration applications. OSGi is no longer a requirement. (IMHO that is very very existing and potentially a changer). I encourage you to check out fabric8 web-site, and also read the overview and motivation sections of the documentation. And then check out some of the videos. After the upcoming JBoss Fuse 6.1 release, the Fuse team at Red Hat will have more time and focus to bring the documentation at fabric8 up to date covering all the functionality we have (there is a lot more), and as well bring out a 1.0 community released using pure community releases. This gives end users a 100% free to use out of the box release. And users looking for a commercial release can then use JBoss Fuse. Best of both worlds. Summary Okay back to the question - to ServiceMix or not. Then NO. Innovation happens outside ServiceMix, and also more and more outside Apache. If you have thoughts then you can share those in comments to this blog, or better yet, get involved in the discussion forum at the ServiceMix user forum. PPS: The thoughts on this blog is mine alone, and are not any official words from my employer.

In the upcoming release of Apache Camel 2.12 we have introduced an SPI that allows users to plugin different schedulers for schedule-based consumers. The motivation for this feature came from the fact that some Camel components have scheduled consumers. Usually file and FTP consumers. By default, they use the scheduler from the JVM that can schedule based on a fixed period. Now, with the SPI, we allow a different scheduler to be used instead. We have two cron-based schedulers ready out-of-box in the camel-quartz2 and camel-spring components. So pick your favorite, or dive in and build your own scheduler. CRON expression If you want to pickup files during working hours (polling every 10th second) on weekdays, you can easily do this now (notice we use + as a space separator). Example with Spring: ... Example with Quartz: ... To implement a similar solution in older releases of Camel, you would need to use sort in order to use a route policy. There is a cron-based route policy that can be used to setup cron expressions when a route should be started and when it should be stopped. With this new functionality in Camel 2.12, it's even easier to just define the cron expression in the endpoint URI directly. There are more details in the Camel docs: - Polling Consumer - Quarz2 Component Camel-quartz2 is also a new component in the upcoming Apache Camel 2.12 release. In fact, we already have 14 new components. You can take a peek at the work-in-progress release notes to see what is coming down the road.

CamelOne was yet again a really cool and fun conference. I just returned back home, from the 2nd annual CamelOne conference, held in downtown Boston. It was a 2 day packed with great talks with a balanced mix of technical talks, cloud stuff, and showcases of integration in the real world. CamelOne speaker podium The feedback of the conference was really good, as you can see from the image below. Feedback wall from CamelOne attendees The FuseSource engineering team was present, and on the end of the 2nd day, Debbie, got us together for a photo session. The FuseSource Engineering Team CamelOne 2012 - Day 1 So back the the 1st day. This year Jonathan and I was asked to do the opening key note, with our Camel story, and where the Camel project is today, and some thoughts about how Camel could be riding the cloud in the near future. Jonathan and I wanted to tell our Camel story with a sense of humor. I can say mission accomplished when the slide with the lovely Camel picture was shown. And no the picture is not retouched, it was found using google image search. Apache Camel is a project that stands out After the keynote I gave a talk about how to get started riding the Camel. The talk is a practical focus talk so I was sharing the time 50/50 between slides and live coding. As all sessions were recorded, and we can all watch them later, as they will be posted on the CamelOne website, free for anymore to watch. A professional production company is currently processing the videos. They should be ready in weeks from now. I will blog when the videos are online. Free Apache/Fuse Resources Apache Project Leader Videos Open Source Integration Tool Downloads Integrate Anywhere: Fuse ESB Super Fast Messaging with Fuse MQ Free SOA Webcasts Apache ActiveMQ and ServiceMix Lessons Integration Resources Jonathan was next after my talk, and his talk was a natural progress from mine talk. As he gave a rundown how you can run and deploy Camel and CXF applications in the ESB server. Jonathan showed how this works in practice as well. I got engaged in a number of hallway conversations, and didn't have the chance to attend a session at every slot. It was really great to meet so many happy Camel users, and hear their stories, where the Camel is riding in the real world. Also I was told that more and more commercial vendors is adapting Camel and embedding it internally in their commercial products. Kai Wahner gave his first of two talks today. Kai Wahner giving a talk about choosing Integration Frameworks He was talking about his experience with evaluating Apache Camel, Spring Integration, and Mule ESB. I guess Camel was in favor at a Camel conference :) James gave the ending general session of the first day. James Strachan giving ending key note on 1st day As always a pleasure to watch James talk with such a enthusiasm. His talk was a technical talk addressed to the developers how to develop and get Camel riding in the cloud. He gave a tour of the cool and awesome much improved Fuse IDE 2.1 product. It now has even more Camel crack for runtime insight. As well as easier deployment for both local jvms, remove machines, and as well the clouds. CamelOne 2012 - Day 2 On the 2nd day, we have Gabe Zichermann giving a very entertaining keynote, about gamification. Gabe talking about Gamification The idea of getting people engaged, based on the ideas of computer games. But applying them in a real life processes. For example a company managed to get its employees go to the gym, based on teaming up, and competing against your co-workers. In Sweden they have traffic cameras, using reverse sychology, by enlisting people in a lottery, if they are within speed limits. However people above the speed limit will of course still get a fine, and not participate in the lottery. I have heard good buzz about Stan Lewis and Dhirajs talk about how to manage, monitor and provision a cluster of machines, in a data centre or the cloud. Dhiraj showed how Fuse HQ could monitor the Camel applications running on numerous machines. And how that worked as well when Stan did a rolling upgrade on the fly, leaving Fuse HQ being able to compare and display a "before" vs. "after" overview. Likewise the tweets about Charles Moulliard were very positive. Seems like people wanted to go and play with websockets, and the Camel. This is definitly cool. So Camel 2.10 is a much anticipated release, having the websocket component out of the box. Kai was on the stage again, giving a talk about using Apache Camel with BPM (Avtiviti). Kai gave us a rundown of the differences between Camel and Activiti, and where they overlap. As well when you should use either one, or both of them. In Kais talk he give live demos which is a nice change in the flow, to see the "code" for real. Activiti and Camel together seems powerful. And the Activiti designer looks beautiful. Did you know that Camel is help protecting the Canadians. Mike Gingell from General Dynamics Canada gave us a rundown of how they have been successful by using open source integration technologies from Apache. The Camel is helping in cool stuff such as with the marine to detect torpedo attacks, with satellite surveillance of the north poles, and to keep track of personel and whatnot. Torpedo Warning System. Slide from Mike Gingell, General Dynamics Canada, Mike gave a really great talk, and also took us through how his team is battling uphill in a traditionally conservative organization where software projects take millions of $ and years to just get started. They have been on the open source road for about 5 years, and jumped on Apache ServiceMix when it became OSGi based. And the Camel has been riding all along together with ActiveMQ and CXF. So the Camel is help protecting Jonathan Anstey, who lives in New Foundland, Canada. Must be cool to know that the software he works on every day, is now serving the people of Canada. The ending keynote, was a real treat to all of us. Felix Ehmn from CERN gave us a very interesting talk how CERN is using ActiveMQ in their control room, to monitor the most complex machine man have ever built - the Large Hadron Collider; eg the 27km circle where they smash atoms together and see what happens. Felix giving ending keynote, about CERN using ActiveMQ There is 85.000 devices, which they need the monitor. Its everything, from censors on the collider, to fire alarms, door buttons and whatnot. CERN is definitily a cool place. In fact the coolest place on earth as well, as they need to cool down the collider, to 1 degree kelvin. That is - 272 degrees celsius. Like CERN, the CamelOne conference was very cool. I discovered a number of other blogs covering the CamelOne 2012 conference Kai Waehner blogged his CamelOne report. Christian Posta blogged as well And Rob Terpilowski who gave a talk also Hope to see you in 2013 at the next CamelOne conference. As David Reiser tweeted, the conference was awesome. David liked the conference