Heuristic:Apache Spark Warning Deprecated DStream Streaming
| Knowledge Sources | |
|---|---|
| Domains | Streaming, Deprecation |
| Last Updated | 2026-02-08 22:00 GMT |
Overview
DEPRECATION WARNING: DStream-based Spark Streaming is deprecated in favor of Structured Streaming. New streaming applications should use the Structured Streaming API.
Description
The DStream-based Spark Streaming API (including StreamingContext, WriteAheadLog, and related classes) has been deprecated by the Apache Spark project. Structured Streaming, built on the Spark SQL engine, provides a more robust, exactly-once processing model with better integration with the DataFrame/Dataset APIs. While the DStream API remains available for backward compatibility, it receives no new feature development and may be removed in a future major release.
Usage
Consult this warning when working with any DStream-based Spark Streaming component. For new streaming applications, migrate to Structured Streaming. For existing DStream applications, plan a migration path to Structured Streaming.
The Insight (Rule of Thumb)
- Action: Use Structured Streaming (`spark.readStream` / `spark.writeStream`) instead of DStream-based Spark Streaming (`StreamingContext`, `DStream`)
- Value: Structured Streaming provides exactly-once semantics, event-time processing, and watermarking out of the box
- Trade-off: Migration requires rewriting stream processing logic from DStream transformations to DataFrame operations; some custom receiver patterns may not have direct equivalents
Reasoning
Structured Streaming was introduced in Spark 2.0 as a higher-level abstraction over DStreams. It uses the Catalyst optimizer and Tungsten execution engine, providing better performance and a simpler programming model. The DStream API's micro-batch architecture has fundamental limitations (processing-time only, at-most-once semantics without WAL, complex windowing) that Structured Streaming addresses architecturally.