Deploying a flow definition using the wizard

Deploy a flow definition to run NiFi flows as flow deployments in CDF. To do this, launch the Deployment wizard and specify your environment, parameters, sizing, and KPIs.

The CDF Catalog is where you manage the flow definition lifecycle, from initial import, to versioning, to deploying a flow definition.

You have an enabled and healthy CDF environment.
You have imported at least one flow definition.
You have been assigned the DFCatalogAdmin or DFCatalogViewer role granting you access to the CDF Catalog.
You have been assigned the DFFlowAdmin role for the environment to which you want to deploy the flow definition.
You have been assigned DFProjectMember role for the Project where you want to deploy the flow definition.
If you are deploying custom Processors or Controller Services, you may need to meet additional prerequisites.

In DataFlow, from the left navigation pane, select Catalog.
Flow definitions available for you to deploy are displayed, one definition per row.
Launch the Deployment wizard.
1. Click the row to display the flow definition details and versions.
2. Click a row representing a flow definition version to display flow definition version details and the Deploy button.
3. Click Deploy to launch the Deployment wizard.
From the Deployment wizard, select the environment to which you want to deploy this version of your flow definition.

note

Only environments which have been enabled for DataFlow, are in a healthy state, and to which you have access display in the dropdown. Once you have selected the target environment, you cannot change it later in the flow deployment process without starting over.
From Overview, perform the following tasks:
1. Give your flow a unique Deployment Name.
  You can use this name to distinguish between different versions of a flow definition, flow definitions deployed to different environments, and similar.
  note
  
  Flow Deployment names need to be unique within an Environment. The Deployment wizard indicates whether a name is valid by displaying a green check below the Deployment Name text box.
2. Select a Target Project for your flow deployment from the list of Projects available to you.
  - If you do not want to assign the deployment to any of the available Projects, select Unassigned. Unassigned deployments are accessible to every user with DFFlowUser role for the environment.
  - This field is automatically populated if you import a configuration and the Project referenced there exists in your environment and you have access to it.
3. If you have previously exported a deployment configuration that closely aligns with the one you are about to deploy, you can import it under Import Configuration to auto-fill as much of the wizard as possible.
  You can still modify auto-filled configuration values manually during deployment.
Specify NiFi Configuration information.
1. Pick the NiFi Runtime Version for your flow deployment.
  Cloudera recommends that you always use the latest available version, if possible.
2. Specify whether you want to use Inbound Connections that allow your flow deployment receiving data from an external data source.
  
  If yes, specify the endpoint host name and listening port(s) where your flow deployment listens to incoming data.
  
  See Creating an inbound connection endpoint for complete information on endpoint configuration options.
3. Specify whether you want to use NiFi Archives (NAR) to deploy custom NiFi processors or controller services.
  If yes, specify the CDP Workload Username and password, and cloud storage location you used when preparing to deploy custom processors.
  tip
  If you want to provide a machine user as CDP Workload Username during flow deployment, make sure to note the full workload user name including the srv_ prefix.
  
  tip
  
  Make sure that you click the Apply button specific to Custom NAR Configuration before proceeding.
4. Specify whether you want the flow deployment to auto-start once deployed.
In Parameters, specify parameter values like connection strings, usernames and similar, and upload files like truststores, jars, and similar.
Specify your Sizing & Scaling configurations.
NiFi node sizing
- You can adjust the size of your cluster between Extra Small, Small, Medium, and Large.
Number of NiFi nodes
- You can set whether you want to automatically scale your cluster according to flow deployment capacity requirements. When you enable auto-scaling, the minimum NiFi nodes are used for initial size and the workload scales up or down depending on resource demands.
- You can set the number of nodes from 1 to 32.
- You can set whether you want to enable Flow Metrics Scaling.
Storage Selection

You can select whether you want your deployment to use storage optimized for cost or performance.
From KPIs, you may choose to identify key performance indicators (KPIs), the metrics to track those KPIs, and when and how to receive alerts about the KPI metrics tracking.

tip

You can reorder the KPIs by dragging them up or down the list. The order you configure here will be reflected in the detailed monitoring view of the resulting deployment.

See Working with KPIs for complete information about the KPIs available to you and how to monitor them.
Review a summary of the information provided and make any necessary edits by clicking Previous. When you are finished, complete your flow deployment by clicking Deploy.

tip

Click View CLI Command to see the equivalent CDP CLI syntax in a help pane.

Once you click Deploy, you are redirected to the Alerts tab for the deployment where you can track its progress.