simultaneous run of same DAG is possible in airflow? - airflow

We have one airflow DAG which is accepting input from user and performing some task. we want to run same DAG simultaneous with different input from user. we found multiple links for simultaneous task run but not able to get info about simultaneous run. so if we triggered DAG with two diff inputs from cli then its running fine with two instances but just want to understand that both instances are running independently or its waiting for one instance to finish and then trigger the other ?

All of what you mention can be done. Tasks can be executed in parallel.
It's just the proper configuration of max_active_runs
wait_for_downstream and depends_on_past
DAG parameters:
max_active_runs - maximum number of active DAG runs
if you just want the DAGs to be able to execute two jobs in parallel (with no conditions between two distinct runs) then set max_active_runs=2
Operators parameters:
wait_for_downstream - when set to true, an instance of task X will wait for tasks immediately downstream of the previous instance of task X to finish successfully or be skipped before it runs
depends_on_past - when set to true, task instances will run sequentially and only if the previous instance has succeeded or has been skipped.

Related

Is it a good practice to use airflow metadatabase to control pipelines?

Recently I'm developing an airflow pipeline that will be running for multi tenants. This DAG will be triggered via API, and separated by batches, which is controlled by a metadabase in SQL following some business rules.
Each batch has a batch_id in order to controll the batches, and it is passed to conf DAG via API. The batch id has the timestamp of creation combined with tenant and filetype. Example: tenant1_20221120123323 ... tenant2_20221120123323. These batches can contain two filetypes ( for example purpouses) and for each filetype a DAG is triggered (DAG1 for filetype 1 and DAG2 for filetype 2) and then from the file perspective, it is combined with the filetype in some stages tenant1_20221120123323_filetype1, tenant1_20221120123323_filetype2 ...
For illustrate this, imagine that the first dag the following pipeline process_data_on_spark >> check_new_files_on_statingstorage >> [filetype2_exists, write_new_data_to_warehouse] filetype2_exists >> read_data_from_filetype2 >> merge_filetype2_filetype2 >> write_new_data_to_warehouse . Where the filetype2_exists is a BranchPythonOperator, that verify if DAG_2 was triggered, and if it was, it will merge the resulted data form DAG2 with the DAG1 before execute write_new_data_to_warehouse.
Based on this DAG model, there will be one DAG run for each tenant. So, the DAG can have multiple DAG runs running in parallel if we trigger more than one DAG run (one per tenant). Here is my first question:
Is a good practice work with multiple DAG runs in the same DAG instead of working with Dynamic DAGs ? In this case, I would end withprocess_data_on_spark _tenant1,
process_data_on_spark _tenant2, ...process_data_on_spark _tenantN. It worth mention that the number of tenants can reach hundreads.
Now, considering that the filetype2 can or not be present in the batch, and, considering that I would use the model mentioned above (on single DAG with multiples DAG run runnning in parallel - one for each tenant). The only idead that I have for check if DAG2 was triggered for the current batch (ie., filetype2 was present in the batch) was modify the DAG_run_id to include the batch_id, combined with the filetype:
The default dag_run_id: manual__2022-11-19T00:00:00+00:00
The new dag_run_id: manual__tenant1_20221120123323_filetype2__2022-11-19T00:00:00+00:00
And from then, I would be able to query the airflow metadatabse and check if there was an dag_run_id that contains the current batch_id and the filetype2 running, and, with a sensor, wait for the dag_status be success. Then, I could run the read_data_from_filetype2 task. Otherwise, if there is no dag_run_id with batch_id and filetype2 registed in airflow metadatabase, I can follow the write_new_data_to_warehouse directly.
Here's the other question:
Is a good practice to modify dag_run_id and use it combined with airflow metadatabase to control pipelines?
Considering this scenario, It would be better to create dynamic DAGs, even if there would be result in hundeads DAGs or working with dag_run_id and airflow_metadabase and keep parallel DAG runs in one single DAG?
Or, there would be a better approach for this problem?
Thank You.

A DAG is preventing other smaller DAGs tasks to start

I have a big DAG with around 400 tasks that starts at 8:00 and runs for about 2.5 hours.
There are some smaller DAGs that need to start at 9:00, they are scheduled but are not able to start until the first DAG finishes.
I reduced concurrency=6. The DAG is running only 6 parallel tasks, however this is not solving the issue that the other tasks in other DAGs don't start.
There is no other global configuration to limit the number of running tasks, other smaller dags usually run in parallel.
What can be the issue here?
Ariflow version: 2.1 with Local Executor with Postgres backend running on a 20core server.
Tasks of active DAGs not starting
I don't think it's related to concurrency. This could be related to Airflow using the mini-scheduler.
When a task is finished Task supervisor process perform a "mini scheduler" attempting to schedule more tasks of the same DAG. This means that the DAG will be finished quicker as the downstream tasks are set to Scheduled mode directly however one of it's side effect that it can cause starvation for other DAGs in some circumstances. A case like you present where you have one very big DAG that takes very long time to complete and starts before smaller DAGs may be the exact case where stravation can happen.
Try to set schedule_after_task_execution = False in airflow.cfg and it should solve your issue.
Why don't you use the option to invoke the task after the previous one is finished?
In the first DAG, insert the call to the next one as follows:
trigger_new_dag = TriggerDagRunOperator(
task_id=[task name],
trigger_dag_id=[trigered dag],
dag=dag
)
This operator will start a new DAG after the previous one is executed.
Documentation: https://airflow.apache.org/docs/apache-airflow/stable/_api/airflow/operators/trigger_dagrun/index.html

New task in DAG blocks further DAG executions

We have an ETL DAG which is executed daily. DAG and tasks have the following parameters:
catchup=False
max_active_runs=1
depends_on_past=True
When we add a new task, due to depends_on_past property, no new DAG runs get scheduled, as all previous states for new task are missing.
We would like to avoid having to run manual backfill or manually marking previous runs from UI as it can be easily forgotten, and we also have some dynamic DAGs where tasks get added automatically and halt future DAG executions.
Is there a way to automatically set past executions for new tasks as skipped by default, or some other approach that will allow future DAG runs to execute without human intervention?
We also considered creating a maintenance DAG that would insert missing task executions with skipped state, but would rather not go this route.
Are we missing something as the flow looks like a common thing to do?
Defined in Airflow documentation on BaseOperator:
depends_on_past (bool) – when set to true, task instances will run
sequentially and only if the previous instance has succeeded or has
been skipped. The task instance for the start_date is allowed to run.
As long as there exists a previous instance of the task, if that previous instance is not in the success state, the current instance of the task cannot run.
When adding a task to a DAG with existing dagrun, Airflow will create the missing task instances in the None state for all dagruns. Unfortunately, it is not possible to set the default state of task instances.
I do not believe there is a way to allow future task instances of a DAG with existing dagruns to run without human intervention. Personally, for depends_on_past enabled tasks, I will mark the previous task instance as success either through the CLI or the Airflow UI.
Looks like there is an Github Issue describing exactly what you are experiencing! Feel free to bump this PR or take a stab at it if you would like.
A hacky solution is to set depends_on_past to False as max_active_runs=1 will implicitly guarantee the same behavior. As of the current Airflow version, the scheduler orders both dag runs and task instances by execution date before running them (checked 1.10.x but also 2.0)
Another difference is that next execution will be scheduled even if previous fails. We solved this by retrying unlimited times (setting a ver large number), and alert if retry number is larger than some value.

Airflow: Only allow one instance of task

Is there a way specify that a task can only run once concurrently? So in the tree above where DAG concurrency is 4, Airflow will start task 4 instead of a second instance of task 2?
This DAG is a little special because there is no order between the tasks. These tasks are independent but related in purpose and therefore kept in one DAG so as to new create an excessive number of single task DAGs.
max_active_runs is 2 and dag_concurrency is 4. I would like it start all 4 tasks and only start a task in next if same task in previous run is done.
I may have mis-understood your question, but I believe you are wanting to have all the tasks in a single dagrun finish before the tasks begin in the next dagrun. So a DAG will only execute once the previous execution is complete.
If that is the case, you can make use of the max_active_runs parameter of the dag to limit how many running concurrent instances of a DAG there are allowed to be.
More information here (refer to the last dotpoint): https://airflow.apache.org/faq.html#why-isn-t-my-task-getting-scheduled
max_active_runs defines how many running concurrent instances of a DAG there are allowed to be.
Airflow operator documentation describes argument task_concurrency. Just set it to one.
From the official docs for trigger rules:
depends_on_past (boolean) when set to True, keeps a task from getting triggered if the previous schedule for the task hasn’t succeeded.
So the future DAGs will wait for the previous ones to finish successfully before executing.
On airflow.cfg under [core]. You will find
dag_concurrency = 16
//The number of task instances allowed to run concurrently by the scheduler
you're free to change this to what you desire.

Run Airflow task at separate time from the rest of the DAG's tasks

I have an Airflow DAG that runs once daily at a specific time. The DAG runs a bunch of SQL scripts to create and load tables in a database, and the very last task updates permissions so that users can access the tables. Currently the permissions task requires that all previous SQL tasks have completed, so this means that none of the tables' permissions are updated if any of the table tasks fail.
To fix this I'd like to create another permissions task (i.e., a backup task) that runs at a preset time regardless of the status of any of the previous tasks (doesn't hurt to update permissions multiple times). If I don't specify a time different from the DAG's time, then because the new task has no dependencies, the task will try updating permissions before any of the tables have been updated. Is there a setting for me to pass a cron string to a specific task? Or is there an option to pass a timedelta on top of the task's DAG time? I need to run the task some amount of time after the DAG time.
If your permissions task can run no matter what the result of the upstream tasks, I think the best option is simply to change the trigger_rule of your permissions task to all_done (default is all_success).
If you need to do some specific stuffs when there is a failure, you could consider creating a secondary DAG which first step is a sensor that waits for the main DAG to complete with State.FAILED, then run your permissions task.
Have a look at ExternalTaskSensor when you want to establish a dependency between DAGs.
I haven't checked but you might also need to use soft_fail on the sensor to prevent the secondary DAG to show up as failed when the main DAG completes successfully.

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