[gentoo-soc] GSoC 2013: Log collector

[Antanas Uršulis]

Hello,

I'm a final year Computer Science undergraduate at the University of
Cambridge (UK). My main languages are C and C++, but my bachelor's project
involves working with and modifying the CIEL task-parallel execution system
written in Python, and I have also been using Python for my scripting
needs. I have been a Gentoo user since 2009 (switched from *buntu), if I
can remember correctly.

I am interested in the "Log collector/analyzer for tinderbox" GSoC project,
not only because I would like to help the developers of my favourite Linux
distribution, but I could also see myself using an extension of the tool to
oversee my own systems (for example, computers at the Lithuanian National
Olympiad in Informatics, where I am a member of the technical staff).

Of course, there are some things I would like to discuss. Firstly, are
there already any thoughts on a replacement for Amazon's SimpleDB storage?
I would see that as a major part of the project. Second, if I were to think
of this as a more general tool, with the possibility to support various log
providers (portage, apache, etc.) and analyzers in the future, what would
your opinion be on that? I think it would be possible to implement this
without any external dependencies, so that Portage remains light. Third,
after a quick search, I came upon the question: is there a reason not to
hook into systems such as Apache Flume + Elastic Search, or logstash, or
Scribe?

Lastly, I would like to know up-front whether you would be OK with me only
being to able to fully focus on the project from the 7th June - I have
exams until then and cannot devote my time to this. That is 10 calendar
days lost from the "Students get to know mentors, read documentation, get
up to speed to begin working on their projects." phase.

I'm happy to provide more background about myself and hope to hear from you!

Regards,
Antanas Uršulis