Apache Falcon is a feed processing and feed management system that makes it easier to onboard and manage feed processing and feed management on Hadoop clusters. It has basic components like Prism, Server, Client and integrates with systems like ActiveMQ and Oozie. For DevOps, it allows defining clusters, feeds, processes. Entities can be submitted, listed, scheduled and monitored. Typical workflows involve defining clusters, feeds as input/output for processes, and Oozie workflows to execute the defined processes. Falcon provides a unified way to manage these entities and their instances.

1. Apache Falcon
DevOps
Sanjeev Tripurari
Tech Lead Operations@inmobi

2. Falcon is a feed processing and feed management system aimed at making it easier for
end consumers to onboard their feed processing and feed management on hadoop
clusters.
http://falcon.apache.org

3. What’s on GRID
/user/sanjeev
/user/mohit
/user/Iliyas
/projects/meetup
/projects/support
/data/stream/click
/data/stream/beacon

4. Basic Components
Falcon
• Prism
• Server
• Client
ActiveMQ
Oozie
Hadoop

5. What’s in for DevOps
Cluster
NameNode, JT, Oozie, ActiveMQ, Colo
Feed
Data, DataPath, Lifetime, Retention, Owner,Replication
Process
Job, Queue, Priority, Parallelism, Input, Output, Workflow

6. Basic Enviroment Setup
UK US
Prism
Server
Oozie ActiveMQ
HDFS - MR1/2
Server
Oozie ActiveMQ
HDFS - MR1/2

7. Logical Setup
UK US
uk-clusterAlpha
uk-clusterBeta
prism
us-clusterGamma

8. Falcon Entity Operation
Command:
falcon entity -submit -type [cluster/feed/process] -file cluster-definition.xml
falcon entity -list -type [cluster/feed/process]
Cluster
• Submit
• Delete
falcon entity -list -type [feed/process] -name [processname/feedname] -[OPTIONS]
Feed/Process OPTIONS
• schedule
• Status
• list
• touch
• depedency
• definition
• update
• delete

9. Falcon Cluster
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<cluster name="uk-clusterAlpha" description="" colo="uk" xmlns="uri:falcon:cluster:0.1">
<interfaces>
<interface type="readonly" endpoint=“hftp://nn.cluster.my.com:50070” version="0.20.2-cdh3u3"/>
<interface type="write" endpoint=“hdfs://nn..cluster.my.com:8020” version="0.20.2-cdh3u3"/>
<interface type="execute" endpoint=“jt.cluster.my.com:8021" version="0.20.2-cdh3u3"/>
<interface type="workflow" endpoint=“http://oozie..cluster.my.com:11000/oozie/" version="3.1.6"/>
<interface type="messaging" endpoint=“tcp://amq..cluster.my.com:61616?daemon=true” version="5.4.3"/>
</interfaces>
<locations>
<location name="staging" path="/store/falcon/staging"/>
<location name="temp" path="/tmp"/>
<location name="working" path="/store/falcon/working"/>
</locations>
<properties>
<property name="colo.name" value="uk"/>
</properties>
</cluster>

10. Falcon Feed
<feed description="input feed" name="uk-inputfeed" xmlns="uri:falcon:feed:0.1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<groups>input</groups>
<frequency>hours(1)</frequency>
<late-arrival cut-off="hours(6)" />
<clusters>
<cluster name="uk-clusterAlpha" type="source">
<validity start="2015-02-20T18:00Z" end="2015-02-23T00:00Z"/>
<retention limit="hours(24)" action="delete" />
</cluster>
</clusters>
<locations>
<location type="data" path="/user/sanjeev/falcon/input/${YEAR}/${MONTH}/${DAY}/${HOUR}" />
</locations>
<ACL owner="sanjeev" group="users" permission="0x755" />
<schema location="/none" provider="none" />
</feed>

11. Falcon Feed
<feed description="input feed" name="uk-outputfeed" xmlns="uri:falcon:feed:0.1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<groups>output</groups>
<frequency>hours(1)</frequency>
<late-arrival cut-off="hours(6)" />
<clusters>
<cluster name="uk-clusterAlpha" type="source">
<validity start="2015-02-20T18:00Z" end="2015-02-23T00:00Z"/>
<retention limit="hours(24)" action="delete" />
</cluster>
</clusters>
<locations>
<location type="data" path="/user/sanjeev/falcon/output/${YEAR}/${MONTH}/${DAY}/${HOUR}" />
</locations>
<ACL owner="sanjeev" group="users" permission="0x755" />
<schema location="/none" provider="none" />
</feed>

12. Falcon Process
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<process name="falcon-sanjeev-process" xmlns="uri:falcon:process:0.1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<clusters>
<cluster name="uk-clusterAlpha">
<validity start="2015-02-20T18:00Z" end="2015-02-23T00:00Z"/>
</cluster>
</clusters>
<parallel>1</parallel>
<frequency>hours(1)</frequency>
<timezone>UTC</timezone>
<inputs>
<input end="today(18,0)" start="today(18,0)" feed="uk-inputfeed" name="input" />
</inputs>
<outputs>
<output instance="now(0,0)" feed="uk-outputfeed" name="output" />
</outputs>
<properties>
<property name="fileTime" value="${formatTime(dateOffset(instanceTime(), 1, 'DAY'), 'yyyy-MMM-dd')}"/>
<property name="user" value="${user()}"/>
<property name="baseTime" value="${today(0,0)}"/>
</properties>
<workflow engine="oozie" path="/user/sanjeev/falcon/workflow" />
<retry policy="periodic" delay="minutes(10)" attempts="3" />
</process>

13. Oozie Workflow
<workflow-app xmlns="uri:oozie:workflow:0.3" name="fs-workflow">
<start to="fs-cmds"/>
<action name="fs-cmds">
<fs>
<mkdir path='${output}'/>
</fs>
<ok to="end"/>
<error to="fail"/>
</action>
<kill name="fail">
<message>Workflow failed, error message[${wf:errorMessage(wf:lastErrorNode())}]</message>
</kill>
<end name="end"/>
</workflow-app>

14. What’s on HDFS
Input Feed: /user/sanjeev/falcon/input/2015/02/20/00
Input Feed: /user/sanjeevt/falcon/input/2015/02/20/18
Output Feed: /user/sanjeevt/falcon/output/
Workflow: /user/sanjeevt/falcon/workflow/workflow.xml
falcon entity -type cluster -submit -file uk-clusterAlpha.xml
falcon entity -type feed -submit -file uk-inputfeed.xml
falcon entity -type feed -submit -file uk-outputfeed.xml
falcon entity -type process -submitAndSchedule -file falcon-sanjeev-process.xml

15. Typical Production Process and Workflow
(process) process-click-convert
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<process name="process-click-convert" xmlns="uri:falcon:process:0.1">
<clusters>
<cluster name="uk-clusterAlpha">
<validity start="2015-01-15T00:00Z" end="2100-01-01T00:00Z"/>
</cluster>
<cluster name="us-clusterGamma">
<validity start="2015-01-15T00:30Z" end="2100-01-01T00:00Z"/>
</cluster>
</clusters>
<parallel>2</parallel>
<order>FIFO</order>
<frequency>minutes(30)</frequency>
<timezone>UTC</timezone>
<inputs>
<input name="Input" feed="feed-click-stream" start="now(0,-30)" end="now(0,-1)"/>
</inputs>
<outputs>
<output name="Output" feed="feed-click-convert" instance="now(0,-30)"/>
</outputs>
<properties>
<property name="queueName" value="stream"/>
<property name="jobPriority" value="NORMAL"/>
</properties>
<workflow path="/projects/support/click/conversion" lib="/projects/support/lib"/>
</process>
(workflow) /projects/support/click/conversion/workflow.xml
<workflow-app xmlns='uri:oozie:workflow:0.3' name='click-conversion'>
<start to='click-convert' />
<action name='click-convert'>
<java>
<job-tracker>${jobTracker}</job-tracker>
<name-node>${nameNode}</name-node>
<prepare>
<delete path="${Output}"/>
<delete path="${wf:conf('Output.stats')}"/>
<delete path="${wf:conf('Output.tmp')}"/>
</prepare>
<configuration>
<property>
<name>mapred.job.queue.name</name>
<value>${queueName}</value>
</property>
<property>
<name>mapred.job.priority</name>
<value>${jobPriority}</value>
</property>
</configuration>
nn.cluster.my.com
<main-class>com.my.cluster.io.Driver</main-class>
<arg>-inputpath</arg><arg>${Input}</arg>
<arg>-outputpath</arg><arg>${Output}</arg>
<arg>-statspath</arg><arg>${wf:conf("Output.stats")}</arg>
<arg>-stagingpath</arg><arg>${wf:conf("Output.tmp")}</arg>
</java>
<ok to="end" />
<error to="fail" />
</action>
<kill name="fail">
<message>Workflow failed, error
message[${wf:errorMessage(wf:lastErrorNode())}]
</message>
</kill>
<end name='end' />
</workflow-app>

16. Falcon Instance
Operation
Command:
falcon instance -type [feed/process] -[status/list]
falcon entity -list -type [feed/process] -name [processname/feedname] {-start
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MMZ -end YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MMZ } [OPTIONS]
Feed/Process OPTIONS
• status
• list
• logs
• kill
• rerun
• suspend
• resume

17. Monitoring
• Falcon CLI
• Oozie CLI
• ActiveMQ
• falcon entity type -type process -name falcon-sanjeev-process -dependency
(cluster) uk-clusterAlpha
(feed) uk-inputfeed - [Input]
(feed) uk-outputfeed - [Output]
• falcon instance type -type process -name falcon-sanjeev-process -start 2015-02-20T18:00Z - end
2015-02-23T00:00Z -status
Consolidated Status: SUCCEEDED
Instances:
Instance Cluster SourceCluster Status Start End Details Log
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015-02-20T18:00Z uk-clusterAlpha - SUCCEEDED 2015-02-20T18:00Z 2015-02-20T18:01Z - http://oozie..cluster.my.com:11000/oozie/?job=0229074-150205100814135-
oozie-oozi-W

18. MonitoringDashboard
• https://github.com/ajayyadav/falcon-dashboard

19. OnBoarding Pipeline
• Group All Process
• Minutely, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly
• Group Related Feeds
• Verify All process jars, workflows pushed to cluster
• Verify ownerships of all feed and process directories
• Verify owners have job scheduling access roles in particular cluster
• Validate the feeds
• Submit and schedule the feeds, so retention and replication is in place
• Dryrun the process schedule
• Submit and schedule the process
• Document the FEED SLA, HDFS Usage, retention period for
monitoring
• Document the PROCESS SLA, to observe delays

20. Challenges
• Tightly Integrated with Oozie
• Monitoring, onboarding needs streamlined
• Realtime change in Schedule Time, Queues
Advantages
• Development is very aggressive
• Industry is adopted quickly
• Once onboarded, focus only needs to be on set of critical process
• Easy shutdown and upgrade, as all the running jobs are managed by oozie
• DevOps can do easy setup and manage data

21. Thank You