KPI Management Quick-Start Guide - Distributed Processing
The input data in this example use case consists of sales numbers in CSV format. This dataset is from here on, referred to as "sales". The data is collected in real-time from the regions "APAC", "AMERICAS", and "EMEA". We want to calculate the total-, average, and number of sales per minute. These numbers will be our KPIs, broken down per country and region.
Example - Input data
timestamp | region | country | amount |
---|---|---|---|
2017-03-08T13:53:52.123 | EMEA | Sweden | 123.50 |
2017-03-08T13:53:56.123 | APAC | India | 12.12 |
2017-03-08T13:53:59.123 | AMERICAS | US | 425.23 |
As a prerequisite, the scripts must be prepared according to Preparing and Creating Scripts for KPI Management.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Configure the service model. The service model describes your data, which KPIs (KPI stands for Key Performance Index) to generate, and how to calculate them. A JSON representation is used to describe the model, which includes the following top-level objects:
dimension
tree
metric
kpi
threshold
(optional)
Start with the dimensions and tree objects. The dimensions describe the fields of your data used for grouping and the tree the relation between them. The identifying fields in the input data are region and country. A region has one or more countries. The data type is sales. In the dimension object we specify each of our identifying fields as separate objects, with the datatype and field in the body."dimension": { "Region": { "sales": "region" }, "Country": { "sales": "country" } }, "tree": { "tree1": { "Region": { "Country": { } } } }
- Define the metrics using the amount field in the input data:
totalSales
- For total sales, sum up the amount for each record by using the sum function on the expression expr, which contains the amount field.avgSales
- For average sales use theavg
function instead ofsum
.numSales
- To count the number of records, use the function isSet in the expression. This function evaluates to 1 if there is a value in amount or 0 if there is no value. Use the function sum to sum up the 1s and 0s.
- Define the KPIs. The expected output is the total sales, average sales, and number of sales per region and country in 60 second periods.
Use the property
node
to describe where in the topology the KPI should be calculated and windowSize to set the period length. Use the name of the metrics defined above in theexpr
propertyCombine all the objects above for a complete representation of the model. Below is an example containing all types.
Open the Desktop and paste the service model into a KPI profile. Save the profile with the name
SalesModel
in the folderkpisales
.
- Define the metrics using the amount field in the input data:
Configure Kafka and Zookeper.
KPI Management reads and writes its data to and from Kafka. In order for this to work, you need to install and configure both Kafka and Zookeeper. More information about this can be found on the pages Spark, kafka and zookeeper as well as Starting Clusters and Creating Topics. Kafka depends on Zookeeper (which is also included in the Kafka-installation folder) and you need to ensure that Zookeeper is started first.
- Configure Spark. The Spark cluster will be running a so called app for doing the KPI calculations.
- Install and Configure Spark. The Spark cluster will be running a so called "app" for doing the KPI calculations. First you need to install Spark for Scala (
spark-3.5.0-bin-hadoop3-scala2.13
). More information about this can be found in the Spark documentation, https://spark.apache.org/docs/3.5.0/. For further information about properties related to Spark, see Spark, kafka and zookeeper. Please note on the page that the spark-defaults.conf in the spark needs to contain the parameters mentioned on Preparing and Creating Scripts for KPI Management for this to work.
The Spark slave node will have one worker that will be assigned four cores. The cores are split between the executors and the Spark driver. This means that we will have three executors running in parallel. The property SPARK_DEFAULT_PARALLELISM inkpi_param.sh
is set to match this value.
The propertyMZ_KPI_PROFILE_NAME
needs to match the folder- and configuration name of the KPI profile that was created in step 1. Start up Zookeeper, Kafka and Spark.
Set up environment variables$ export SPARK_HOME=/opt/spark-3.5.0-bin-hadoop3-scala2.13 $ export KAFKA_HOME=/opt/kafka_2.13-3.3.2 $ export PATH=$KAFKA_HOME/bin:$PATH:/opt/mz_kpiapp/bin
And while located in $KAFKA_HOME execute:
Start Zookeeper and Kafka$ bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh config/zookeeper.properties & bin/kafka-server-start.sh config/server.properties
Run the following command to start spark:
Start Sparkstart_master_worker.sh
Create the Kafka topics that are required by the KPI app. Each of the Spark executors needs to read from a separate Kafka partition so each of the topics needs three partitions, i.e the number of partitions for each topic must be identical to the value of the property
SPARK_DEFAULT_PARALLELISM
inkpi_params.sh
.Create Kafka Topics$ bin/kafka-topics.sh --create --topic kpi-input --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --partitions 2 $ bin/kafka-topics.sh --create --topic kpi-output --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --partitions 2 $ bin/kafka-topics.sh --create --topic kpi-error --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --partitions 2
Create the real-time workflow. In this guide we will use Pulse agents to simulate sales data coming from three different sources, EMEA, AMERICAS, and APAC.
Add three Pulse agents and an Analysis agent.
Workflow - Pulse Agents
Configure the Pulse agents as follows:AMERICAS will send 1000 TPS - Set Time Unit to MILLISECONDS and Interval to 1
EMEA will send 500 TPS - Set Time Unit to MILLISECONDS and Interval to 2
APAC will send 250 TPS - Set Time Unit to MILLISECONDS and Interval to 4
To be able to identify the data, set the data to the region name.
Pulse agent configuration
The pulse agents only sends us a simple event containing the name of the region, the other data that will be used in the KPI calculations are generated in the connected Analysis agent.
The APL code below creates the input to KPI Management.Create a Kafka profile for the KPI Cluster In agent. This agent will write to the
kpi-input
topic.
Kafka profile configuration - kpi-inputAdd a KPI Cluster In agent.
Workflow - KPI Cluster In agent
Configure it to use the KPI profile that you created as part of point 'a' above. And add the Kafka Profile that the agent will use to write on thekpi-input
topic. This will be read from by the KPI Management Spark application.
The Analysis agent is added because the KPI Forwarding agent will send outKafkaExceptionUDR
in case of errors in the Kafka communication (if Route On Error option is selected). This example does not cover handling of those errors.Create a Kafka Profile for the KPI Cluster Out agent. This agent will read from the kpi-output topic.
Kafka Profile Configuration - kpi-outputAdd a KPI Output Agent (on its own, see further down for screenshot) and configure it as follows. This agent will provide the KPI output:
- Add another Analysis agent for debugging of the KPIs.
Final workflow configuration Add the APL code below to the Analysis agent.
Submit the Spark application to the cluster.
Submit the Spark applicationsubmit.sh kpiapp
Open the Spark UI at http://localhost:8080/. You should see that
kpiapp
is running.Open the workflow configuration in the Workflow Monitor. Enable debugging and select events for the KPI Cluster Out agent and the Analysis agent that produces the debug output.
Start the workflow. It may take a minute to display the output data: