martin-g commented on code in PR #188:
URL: https://github.com/apache/datafusion-site/pull/188#discussion_r3298459226
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content/blog/2026-05-24-datafusion-ballista-53.0.0.md:
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+---
+layout: post
+title: Apache DataFusion Ballista 53.0.0 Released
+date: 2026-05-24
+author: pmc
+categories: [release]
+---
+<!--
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+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
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+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+{% endcomment %}
+-->
+
+[TOC]
+
+We are pleased to announce version [53.0.0] of [Apache DataFusion Ballista].
Ballista is a distributed query
+execution engine that enhances [Apache DataFusion] by enabling parallel
execution of workloads across multiple
+nodes.
+
+[53.0.0]:
https://github.com/apache/datafusion-ballista/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md#5300-2026-05-19
+[Apache DataFusion Ballista]: https://datafusion.apache.org/ballista/
+[Apache DataFusion]: https://datafusion.apache.org
+
+The last Ballista blog post covered [43.0.0], released in January 2025. In the
year and a bit since, the
+project has quietly shipped a release for every DataFusion release: 44, 45,
46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, and
+now 53. This post catches up on what changed across that span, what landed
specifically in 53.0.0, and where
+the project is heading.
+
+[43.0.0]: /blog/2025/02/02/datafusion-ballista-43.0.0/
+
+## How Ballista has changed since 43.0.0
+
+The story of 43.0.0 was one of simplification: experimental features were
removed, the `BallistaContext` was
+deprecated in favor of the standard DataFusion `SessionContext`, and the
project's release cadence was
+aligned with DataFusion's. The story of the year that followed has been one of
putting things back, but
+under a more deliberate design.
+
+### Production deployment
+
+A lot of the work over this period has been about running Ballista in real
clusters rather than just on a
+developer's laptop:
+
+- **S3 object store support** has been added to both the executor and
scheduler binaries, including
+ credentials derived from the standard AWS environment, instance metadata,
and explicit configuration.
+- **Docker images** for the scheduler and executor are now published on each
release, making Docker Compose
+ and Kubernetes deployments straightforward.
+- **Cluster RPC** can be configured with TLS and custom headers, enabling
deployments that need encrypted
+ inter-component traffic or pass-through authentication.
+- **Push-based task scheduling** is now the default, replacing pull-staged
scheduling. Push scheduling
+ generally results in lower latency for short queries. Both modes remain
available.
+- **Configurable gRPC timeouts**, retry policies, and message size limits make
it easier to operate clusters
+ under varying network conditions.
+- **Memory bounds for executors** can now be set with `--memory-pool-size`, so
executors no longer rely on
+ unbounded growth.
+
+### Shuffle subsystem
+
+The shuffle subsystem received the largest single rework over this period.
+
+- A new **sort-based shuffle writer** was added in 52.0.0 and made the default
in 53.0.0. The hash-based
+ writer remains available behind a configuration flag.
+- **Buffered I/O** in the shuffle writer significantly reduces the number of
small writes, and disk I/O
+ has been moved off the Tokio worker threads so that I/O latency does not
block scheduling.
+- **Per-task spill thresholds** bound writer memory in the sort-based path,
and a deferred materialization
+ step using `interleave_record_batch` reduces allocator pressure during
shuffle write.
+- **Remote shuffle reads** now use Arrow Flight directly, with a client cache
on the executor side, giving
+ better throughput and resource utilization for shuffle-heavy queries.
+- **Shuffle reader cleanup** removes job-local data once a job completes.
+
+### REST API and observability
+
+The scheduler's REST API has grown from a small status surface to the primary
control plane for inspecting
+running and completed jobs:
+
+- The REST API is now enabled by default.
+- `/api/jobs` and `/api/jobs/<job_id>` expose job status, start/end times,
logical and physical plans,
+ per-stage task information, and metrics.
+- Plans can be rendered as a tree directly from the REST API.
+- Per-executor system and process metrics are reported, and Prometheus metrics
integration is available
+ behind a feature flag.
+
+### A new Python interface
+
+A redesigned Python client has replaced `BallistaBuilder`. The new entry point
is `BallistaSessionContext`,
+which mirrors the DataFusion Python `SessionContext` API:
+
+```python
+from ballista import BallistaSessionContext
+
+ctx = BallistaSessionContext(
+ "df://localhost:50050",
+ cluster_config={
+ "datafusion.execution.target_partitions": "32",
+ },
+)
+
+ctx.register_parquet("trips", "/mnt/bigdata/trips")
+df = ctx.sql("SELECT vendor_id, COUNT(*) FROM trips GROUP BY vendor_id")
+df.show()
+```
+
+A number of fixes since 43.0.0 made this client much more usable in
distributed environments: session
+configuration is now propagated from the Python client to the cluster;
`collect`, `show`, and `to_pandas`
+go through the cluster instead of falling back to a local execution path; and
S3 access works without
+requiring explicit credentials. Jupyter notebook integration is documented in
the [Python user guide].
+
+[Python user guide]:
https://datafusion.apache.org/ballista/user-guide/python/quickstart.html
+
+The release process has also been extended so that future Ballista releases
will publish Python wheels to
+[PyPI] as `ballista`. Note that the Python bindings included in **53.0.0 still
report version 52.0.0**
+because the version bump landed shortly after the 53.0.0 release candidate was
tagged. Wheels matching
+the 53 line will be published with **53.1.0**, which is expected to follow
shortly.
+
+[PyPI]: https://pypi.org/project/ballista/
+
+### Spark compatibility and Substrait
+
+Ballista now supports the `spark-compat` Cargo feature, which auto-registers
the
+[`datafusion-spark`] function library in the executor session context. This
makes it possible to evaluate
+Spark-compatible SQL semantics on a Ballista cluster.
+
+The scheduler also has a Substrait surface: `SubstraitSchedulerClient` accepts
Substrait logical plans, and
+the deprecated SQL-string submission path has been removed. This is an
important step toward decoupling
+Ballista from any one client language.
+
+[`datafusion-spark`]: https://docs.rs/datafusion-spark/latest/datafusion_spark/
+
+## Highlights of 53.0.0
+
+53.0.0 is a feature-heavy release, with significant work in observability, the
planner, and the executor.
+
+### Terminal User Interface
+
+The Ballista CLI now ships with an integrated Terminal User Interface for
monitoring a running cluster.
+The TUI is enabled with `ballista-cli --tui`, or by typing `\tui` inside the
CLI. It provides views for
+executors, jobs, stages, tasks, plan trees, and metrics, all backed by the
scheduler's REST API.
+
+<img
+src="/blog/images/datafusion-ballista-53.0.0/tui-jobs-table.png"
+width="100%"
+class="img-fluid"
+alt="Ballista TUI jobs view"
+/>
+
+Plan rendering, including a graph view, is available directly from the TUI:
+
+<img
+src="/blog/images/datafusion-ballista-53.0.0/tui-job-plan-graph-popup.png"
+width="100%"
+class="img-fluid"
+alt="Ballista TUI plan graph popup"
+/>
+
+A web rendering of the TUI is in development.
Review Comment:
~We are very optimistic here! 😄
The web version of the TUI is functional but it is very ugly! Ratzilla
produces a ton of empty spans (`<span> </span>`) to render empty "pixel"s~
While writing the above I realized that the WebTUI could look much better if
it was rendered in a `<canvas>` HTML element and I went to suggest this to the
Ratzilla project but obviously someone else already realized this before me! 😄
<img width="1549" height="870" alt="Image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4ed51b16-1947-4d4a-a71e-ec9646ba30ad";
/>
Now I just need to make a different banner for the WebTUI build!
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