question Re: In 'Cluster Node Properties' section of Nifi.properties file is configuring for multicast still relevant, when configuring NiFi 0.6.0? in Archives of Support Questions (Read Only)

In 'Cluster Node Properties' section of Nifi.properties file is configuring for multicast still relevant, when configuring NiFi 0.6.0?

pam1 — Fri, 27 May 2016 05:01:14 GMT

In this section of the Nifi.properties file

# cluster node properties (only configure for cluster nodes) #

There are parameters that can be set utilizing multicast. i.e.

nifi.cluster.protocol.use.multicast=false

I was going to to set up configuration to use multicast, so I was planning to set above value to true. We will be running a clustered configuration.

Was told by someone that the syntax for multicast was only still included in file for backward compatibility and that we should NOT set up a new configuration to use multicast.

I checked the documentation - the NiFi Admin Guide in section: 13. System Properties and I don't see any warnings to no longer use multicast functionality or syntax for any of the multicast related syntax.

Question: What is the official stance on using multicast, should I set this up for Multicast or not?

Thank you for your feedback.

Re: In 'Cluster Node Properties' section of Nifi.properties file is configuring for multicast still relevant, when configuring NiFi 0.6.0?

andrewg — Fri, 27 May 2016 05:03:29 GMT

It's just that multicast networking is usually disabled in production data centers, so your nodes won't auto-discover themselves. Instead, configure worker nodes to 'check-in' with the cluster manager by explicitly providing the FQDN there. There was no motion to remove multicast support from NiFi, however.

Re: In 'Cluster Node Properties' section of Nifi.properties file is configuring for multicast still relevant, when configuring NiFi 0.6.0?

pam1 — Fri, 27 May 2016 05:10:15 GMT

Thank you for your feedback Andrew.

Re: In 'Cluster Node Properties' section of Nifi.properties file is configuring for multicast still relevant, when configuring NiFi 0.6.0?

MattWho — Fri, 27 May 2016 19:35:15 GMT

While still possible to use multicast, it is very uncommon. Its original intend was so you could setup your NiFi cluster so it could auto-discover the NCM. The idea behind this was that if the NCM died, a new one could quickly be stood-up and the nodes would auto-discover and join that new NCM without needing to be restarted. This multicast setup has been around since clustering in NiFi was first added. This was long before site-to-site capability was added. With Site-to-Site, the ability use multicast for the intend described above is not possible without some unique setups within DNS. The RemoteProcessGroup is very dependent on a specific NCM URL, so having the URL change would break Site-To-Site.