Switch analytics logging of "request_at" to be end time (not start time) #251
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Previously, the "request_at" field in the analytics was the timestamp of when the request began. This changes the behavior so "request_at" is now the timestamp of when the response finished. Using the start time caused potential issues with the new hadoop analytics processing for long-running requests. Because we partition the live incoming data by the request_at timestamp, it meant that if a request took 3 minutes to complete, we would suddenly be inserting data into the partition from 3 minutes ago. This complicates data processing, since we have to deal with out-of-order insertion timestamps (which vary depending on how long the requests take). By switching to use the end time, data processing is much simpler, since the timestamps should always be incrementing. Using the end time also better aligns our timestamps with the timestamps nginx logs in the access.log file (which can be useful for debugging).
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Jun 13, 2016
In light of #251, the field we're storing is now the end time, rather than beginning time of the request. To make this column name more generic, rename the fields to "timestamp_*" in the new SQL storage. Also better clarify the main "timestamp_utc" column to clarify it should always contain the UTC time (versus the "timestamp_tz_*" columns). Elasticsearch will continue to store it as "request_at" for backwards compatibility.
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Previously, the "request_at" field in the analytics was the timestamp of when the request began. This changes the behavior so "request_at" is now the timestamp of when the response finished.
Using the start time caused potential issues with the new hadoop analytics processing for long-running requests. Because we partition the live incoming data by the request_at timestamp, it meant that if a request took 3 minutes to complete, we would suddenly be inserting data into the partition from 3 minutes ago. This complicates data processing, since we have to deal with out-of-order insertion timestamps (which vary depending on how long the requests take).
By switching to use the end time, data processing is much simpler, since the timestamps should always be incrementing.
Using the end time also better aligns our timestamps with the timestamps nginx logs in the access.log file (which can be useful for debugging).