Deploy a flow definition

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.

Steps

  1. In DataFlow, from the left navigation pane, click Catalog.

    Flow definitions available for you to deploy are displayed, one definition per row.

  2. 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.
  3. From the Deployment wizard, select the environment to which you want to deploy this version of your flow definition.
  4. From Overview, perform the following preliminary tasks:
    • Give your flow deployment a unique name. You can use this name to distinguish between different versions of a flow definition, flow definitions deployed to different environments, and similar.

  5. From NiFi Configuration, specify the following NiFi configuration information:
    • Pick the NiFi Runtime Version for your flow deployment. Cloudera recommends that you always use the latest available version, if possible.

    • Specify whether you want to use Inbound Connections that allow your flow deployment receiving data from an external data source. If so, specify the endpoint host name and listening port(s) where your flow deployment listens to incoming data.

      See Create an inbound connection endpoint for complete information on endpoint configuration options.

    • Specify whether you want to use NiFi Archives (NAR) to deploy custom NiFi processors or controller services. If so, specify the CDP Workload Username and password, and cloud storage location you used when preparing to deploy custom processors.

    • Specify whether you want the flow deployment to auto-start once deployed.

  6. In Parameters, specify parameter values like connection strings, usernames and similar, and upload files like truststores, jars, and similar.
  7. Specify your Sizing & Scaling configurations.
    NiFi node sizing
    • You can adjust the size of your cluster from Extra Small to 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.
  8. 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.

    See Working with KPIs for complete information about the KPIs available to you and how to monitor them.

  9. 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.

Results

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