Apache NiFi - Flow Based Programming Meetup

Apache NiFi: Enterprise data
flow management and FBP
© Hortonworks Inc. 2011 – 2017. All Rights Reserved
Apache, NiFi, Apache NiFi, and the NiFi logo are trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation
Joe Witt | July 2017

About me
Member @ Apache Software Foundation
Member @ Apache NiFi PMC
VP Engineering @ Hortonworks

Agenda
• The journey to an FBP-like design
• Architectural elements for Dataflow Management
• Apache NiFi and FBP
• Live Demo and discussion

The journey to an FBP like design

The data is over here but I want it over there…
Basics of Connecting Systems
For every connection,
these must agree:
1. Protocol
2. Format
3. Schema
4. Priority
5. Size of event
6. Frequency of event
7. Authorization access
8. Relevance
P1
Producer
C1
Consumer

It started so simple
• Just needed to scan a directory for new data
• Send it over the link.
But….
• Bandwidth was low, latency high, comms unreliable
• Some data was more useful than others
• The rules for that could change often
• Light-weight in-line analysis could be used to determine relative value
• The value of the data decayed rapidly
• The data’s raw form was highly inefficient for transport
• and large portions of the data could simply be removed in many cases
• How to document, maintain and fine tune the configuration?
• Infrastructure was highly limited

Challenges at the Edge
• Small footprint
• Low power
• Expensive bandwidth
• High latency
• Access to data exceeds
bandwidth (if you're doing
it right)
• Needs recoverability
• Needs to be secured for
both the data plane and
control plane
GATHER
DELIVER
PRIORITIZE
Track from the edge Through the datacenter

Simplistic View of Enterprise Data Flow
The Data Flow Thing
Process and
Analyze Data
Acquire Data
Store Data

Realistic View of Enterprise Data Flow
?
?
?
?
?
?
?

What is Dataflow Management

Dataflow Management
The systematic process by which data is
acquired from all producers and delivered to all
consumers

Dataflow Management Considerations
• Promote Loosely Coupled Systems
• Types of coupling: Format, Schema, Protocol, Priority, Size, Interest, …
• Promote Highly Cohesive Systems
• Producers should focus on production (not the intricacies of consumption)
• Consumers should focus on storage or processing (not the details of production)
• Provide Provenance
• The who/what/when/where/why of data
• Inter and Intra Process Latency
• Enable enterprise version control for data

Dataflow Management Considerations
• Empower Understanding and Interaction
• Ability to see the flow, safely and quickly iterate and experiment
• Breaking production is bad – so too is not being able to evolve fast enough
• Secure
• Bridge between security domains
• Data Plane (transport)
• Control Plane (C&C, Monitoring)
• Self Service
• Centralized teams – hard to scale – slow turnaround times
• Centralized systems – multi-tenant management works

The role of messaging systems
• Reduce variables: Fix protocol, Data Size, Provide Buffering
• Historically not very fast or replayable: Apache Kafka solved that
• Strong solution within a controlled domain
• But numerous challenges remain
• Topics do not separate key concerns between producer and consumer pairs such as
– Authorization
– Format
– Schema
– Interest
– Prioritization
• Flow control (back-pressure, pressure-release, filtering, etc..)

Apache NiFi – Built for Dataflow Managment

The NSA Years
• Created in 2006
• Improved over eight years
• Simple Initial vision – Visio for real-time dataflow management
• Key Lessons Learned
• What scale means – down, up, and out
• The fearsome force known as Compliance Requirements
• The power of provenance!
• Operational best-practices and anti-patterns
• NSA donated the codebase to the ASF in late 2014

”Maintainability is the real test.”
- J Paul Morrison

NiFi Key Features
• Guaranteed delivery
• Data buffering
- Backpressure
- Pressure release
• Prioritized queuing
• Flow specific QoS
- Latency vs.
throughput
- Loss tolerance
• Data provenance
• Recovery/recording
a rolling log of fine-
grained history
• Visual command and
control
• Flow templates
• Pluggable/multi-role
security
• Designed for extension
• Clustering

NiFi and FBP concept mapping
FBP Term NiFi Term Description
Information
Packet
FlowFile Each object moving through the system. NiFi does not have the concept
of bracket/data IP. Just IP.
Black Box FlowFile
Processor
Performs the work, doing some combination of data routing,
transformation, or mediation between systems. NiFi does not have the
concept of named input ports on black boxes.
Bounded
Buffer
Connection The linkage between processors, acting as queues and allowing various
processes to interact at differing rates.
Scheduler Flow
Controller
Maintains the knowledge of how processes are connected, and manages
the threads and allocations thereof which all processes use.
Subnet Process
Group
A set of processes and their connections, which can receive and send
data via named input/output ports. A process group allows creation of
entirely new component simply by composition of its components.

NiFi Architecture
Single Node Cluster
One or more nodes

NiFi Architecture – Repositories – Pass by reference
FlowFile Content Provenance
F1à C1 C1
Excerpt of demo flow… What’s happening inside the repositories…
BEFORE
AFTER
F2à C1 C1 P3à F2 – Clone (F1)
F1à C1 P2à F1 – Route
P1à F1 – Create
P1à F1 – Create

NiFi Architecture – Repositories – Copy on Write
FlowFile Content Provenance
F1à C1 C1 P1à F1 - CREATE
Excerpt of demo flow… What’s happening inside the repositories…
BEFORE
AFTER
F1à C1
F1.1à C2 C2 (encrypted)
C1 (plaintext) *
P2à F1.1 - MODIFY
P1à F1 - CREATE
* C1 (plaintext) is now eligible to be removed. But if we keep it around as long as possible what cool things can we do?

NiFi Security – at a high level
Authentication
Authenticate users and systems
• TLS one-way or mutual auth, Username/Password via LDAP, Kerberos/SPNEGO – out of the box
Authorization
Provision access to data
• Pluggable authorization
• Simple file-based authority provider OR Apache Ranger based provider out of the box
• Fine-grained rights assignment per action/component for users and groups
Audit
Maintain a record of data access
• Detailed logging of all user actions
• Detailed logging of all REST API interactions (person or non-person)
• Detailed logging of key system behaviors
• Data Provenance enables fine-grained end to end tracking
Data Protection
Protect data at rest and in motion
• Support a variety of SSL/encryption protocols
• Tag and utilize tags on data for fine grained access controls
• Encrypt/decrypt content
• TDE for Provenance repository (content repository and flowfile WAL work underway!)

Questions
• Apache NiFi – Join the community!
• Feature Requests
• Bug Reports
• Code Contributions
• Peer Reviews
• Documentation
https://nifi.apache.org

Apache NiFi - Flow Based Programming Meetup

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