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

[#1]

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.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

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.

[#3]

Thank you for your feedback Andrew.

[#4]

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.