Azkaban
Azkaban is a free, open-source batch workflow scheduler for self-hosted deployments.
What Azkaban is
Azkaban is a free, 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, with project workspaces, retries for failed jobs and email alerts for successes and failures. Advanced capabilities include multiple executors, conditional workflows, data triggers and plug-in extensions. Listed job types cover Hadoop Shell, Java, Hadoop Java, Pig and Hive, and the project says it works with any Hadoop version. Deployment options include Solo Server and distributed multiple-executor mode, described for most production environments. Security features include authentication, authorization, action tracking and SLA alerts with automatic job killing. The API handles authentication, projects, flow execution and logs. Azkaban requires Java 8 or higher, uses Apache-2.0 licensing and supports Linux, macOS and Windows-related environments.
Good
- Free and open source under Apache-2.0
- Dependency-based workflow ordering
- Retries failed jobs automatically
- Multiple executors and conditional workflows
- API supports flow execution and logs
Watch out
- Self-hosted deployment required
- Requires Java 8 or higher
- Default XMLUserManager is not secure
- Solo server lacks SSL by default
Who it suits
Azkaban suits teams managing scheduled batch jobs and dependency-based workflows in self-hosted environments. It is relevant when Hadoop integrations, APIs or distributed executors are needed.
Verdict
Azkaban provides broad scheduling, execution and monitoring features for self-hosted batch workflows. Production deployments need attention to authentication configuration, HTTPS setup and executor architecture.
The facts
Each one read from Azkaban's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Advanced features
- The documentation lists multiple executors, conditional workflows, data triggers, and plug-in extensions from the web UI through job execution.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Alerts
- The product site lists email alerts for workflow failures and successes, plus SLA alerting and automatic killing.checked 8 Oct 2026
- API
- The documentation includes API operations for authenticating, managing projects, executing flows, and retrieving execution logs.checked 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.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- The documentation provides instructions for setting up Solo Server and Multi Executor Server deployments.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Deployment requirements
- The documentation says Azkaban requires Java 8 or higher and describes builds for Linux and OS X platforms.checked 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.checked 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.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Extensibility
- Plugins can add viewer pages, trigger methods, user authentication methods, alerting methods, and job-type executors.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Hadoop
- The official site says Azkaban is compatible with any version of Hadoop.checked 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.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Documented job-type plugin examples include Hadoop ecosystem components, Pig, Hive, and VoldemortBuildAndPush.checked 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.checked 8 Oct 2026
- License
- The project’s GitHub page identifies its license as Apache-2.0.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Azkaban is a distributed workflow manager created at LinkedIn to manage Hadoop job dependencies and run jobs in sequence.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Scheduling
- Users can schedule workflows, and flows can also be launched through the Ajax API.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Security
- The official site lists authentication and authorization, user action tracking, and SLA alerting with automatic job killing.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Support
- The project directs users to its Google Group for help and lists Gitter and mailing lists as community channels.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Web interface
- It provides a web UI to maintain and track workflows.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Workflow features
- Documented features include conditional workflows, data triggers, multiple executors, and retry support.checked 8 Oct 2026
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