What's the difference between Flume and Sqoop?

Question

Both Flume and Sqoop are meant for data movement, then what is the difference between them? Under what condition should I use Flume or Sqoop?

Answer 1

1. Apache Sqoop and Apache Flume work with various kinds of data sources. Flume functions well in streaming data sources which are generated continuously in hadoop environment such as log files from multiple servers.

whereas Apache Sqoop is designed to work well with any kind of relational database system that has JDBC connectivity.

2. Sqoop can also import data from NoSQL databases like MongoDB or Cassandra and also allows direct data transfer or Hive or HDFS. For transferring data to Hive using Apache Sqoop tool, a table has to be created for which the schema is taken from the database itself.

3. In Apache Flume data loading is event driven whereas in Apache Sqoop data load is not driven by events.

4.Flume is a better choice when moving bulk streaming data from various sources like JMS or Spooling directory whereas Sqoop is an ideal fit if the data is sitting in databases like Teradata, Oracle, MySQL Server, Postgres or any other JDBC compatible database then it is best to use Apache Sqoop.

5.In Apache Flume, data flows to HDFS through multiple channels whereas in Apache Sqoop HDFS is the destination for importing data.

6.Apache Flume has agent based architecture i.e. the code written in flume is known as agent which is responsible for fetching data whereas in Apache Sqoop the architecture is based on connectors. The connectors in Sqoop know how to connect with the various data sources and fetch data accordingly.

Lastly, Sqoop and Flume cannot be used achieve the same tasks as they are developed specifically to serve different purposes. Apache Flume agents are designed to fetch streaming data like tweets from Twitter or log file from the web server whereas Sqoop connectors are designed to work only with structured data sources and fetch data from them.

Apache Sqoop is mainly used for parallel data transfers, for data imports as it copies data quickly where Apache Flume is used for collecting and aggregating data because of its distributed, reliable nature and highly available backup routes.