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CSV ingest flags reference

Once your CSV file(s) are constructed, they can be ingested by FeatureBase using the ./molecula-consumer-csv ingester.

Table of contents

Before you begin

Syntax 

molecula-consumer-csv         \
  <common-flags>              \
  <csv-flags>                 \
  <id-flags>                  \
  <error-flags>               \
  <log-stat-flags>            \
  <testing-flags>             \
  <auth-token-flags>          \
  <tls-authentication-flags>  \

Common flags

Flag Data type Description Default Required Additional
--batch-size int Number of records to read before indexing them as a batch. Recommended: 1,048,576 1   A larger value indicates better throughput and more memory usage.
--concurrency int Number of concurrent sources and indexing routines to launch. 1 When ingesting multiple CSV files Does not support SQL ingestion or --auto-generate
--featurebase-hosts string Supply FeatureBase default bind points using comma separated list of host:port pairs. [localhost:10101]    
--index string Name of target FeatureBase index.   Yes  
--string-array-separator string character used to delineate values in string array ,    
--use-shard-transactional-endpoint   Use alternate import endpoint that ingests data for all fields in a shard in a single atomic request.   Recommended. Flag has negative performance impact and better consistency

CSV ingest flags

Flag Data type Description Default Required
--files string List of files, URLs, or directories to ingest [] Yes
--header string Defined as {source_column_name}[__data_type[_constraint-value...]],... [] If data_type, constraint-value not defined in data file.
--ignore-header   Ignore header in file and use --header flag to define column names and data types   When using --header flag

Generate ID flags

Flag Data type Description Default Required
--auto-generate   Automatically generate IDs. Used for testing purposes. Cannot be used with --concurrency   When --id-field or --primary-key-fields not defined
--external-generate   Allocate _id using the FeatureBase ID allocator. Supports --offset-mode. Requires --auto-generate    
--id-alloc-key-prefix string Prefix for ID allocator keys when using --external-generate. Requires different value for each concurrent ingester ingest  
--id-field string A sequence of positive integers that uniquely identifies each record. Use instead of --primary-key-fields   if --auto-generate or --primary-key-fields not defined
--primary-key-fields string Convert records to strings for use as unique _id. Single records are not added to target as records. Multiple records are concatenated using / and added to target as records. Use instead of --id-field [] If --auto-generate or --id-field are not defined.
--offset-mode   Set Offset-mode based Autogenerated IDs. Requires --auto-generate and --external-generate   When ingesting from an offset-based data source

Error handling flags

flag data type Description Default Required
--allow-decimal-out-of-range   Allow ingest to continue when it encounters out of range decimals in Decimal Fields. false  
--allow-int-out-of-range   Allow ingest to continue when it encounters out of range integers in Int Fields. false  
--allow-timestamp-out-of-range   Allow ingest to continue when it encounters out of range timestamps in Timestamp Fields. false  
--batch-max-staleness duration Maximum length of time the oldest record in a batch can exist before the batch is flushed. This may result in timeouts while waiting for the source    
--commit-timeout duration A commit is a process of informing the data source the current batch of records is ingested. --commit-timeout is the maximum time before the commit process is cancelled. May not function for CSV ingest process.    
         
--skip-bad-rows int Fail the ingest process if n rows are not processed.    

Logging & statistics flags

Flag Data type Description Default Required
--log-path string Log file to write to. Empty means stderr.  
--pprof string host:port on which to listen for pprof go package “localhost:6062”  
--stats string host:port on which to host metrics “localhost:9093”  
--track-progress   Periodically print status updates on how many records have been sourced.    
--verbose   Enable verbose logging.    
--write-csv string Write ingested data to the named CSV file.    

Testing flags

flag Description Default Required
--delete-index Delete an existing index specified by --index before starting ingest. USE WITH CAUTION    
--dry-run Parse flags without starting an ingest process    

Authentication token flags

Flag Data type Description Default Required
--auth-token string Authentication Token for FeatureBase    

TLS authentication flags

Flag Data type Description Default Required  
--tls.ca-certificate string Path to CA certificate file on the target FeatureBase instance, or literal PEM data.   Yes  
--tls.certificate string Path to certificate file on the target FeatureBase instance, or literal PEM data.   Yes  
--tls.enable-client-verification   Enable verification of client certificates.   Yes  
--tls.key string Path to certificate key file on the target FeatureBase instance, or literal PEM data.   Yes  
--tls.skip-verify   Disables verification of server certificates. Use for self-signed certificates.   Optional

TLS connections require an appropriate protocol set with --featurebase-hosts (e.g., https://featurebase0.local:10101).

Additional information

batch additional

There is no default batch-size because memory usage per record varies between workloads.

During ingestion processing, there is a fixed overhead:

  • from setting up an ingester transaction
  • for each row

Setting large batch-size values will:

  • average-out the overheads
  • proportionally increase memory usage
  • improve performance (in general terms)

For example:

Workload includes Batch size Typical memory usage (MB)
High number of sparse keys 20,000 100+
High-frequency keys 1,000,000+  

concurrency additional

The concurrency ingest flag is used to run ingesters in parallel which can:

  • improve utilization on multi-core systems
  • allow for redundancy

Alternatively, ingest processes can be launched individually on different environments.

Using environment variables to set flags

All command line flags can be set via environment variables by:

  • removing leading dashes
  • adding CONSUMER_ as prefix
  • writing the flag in UPPER CASE
  • converting dashes or dots to underscores

For example:

Original flag Equivalent for use with environment variables
--tls.ca-certificate CONSUMER_TLS_CA_CERTIFICATE

Missing value processing

Missing and empty string values are handled the same.

Field data type Expected behaviour
"ID" Error if "ID" selected for id-field. Otherwise, do not update value in index.
"DateInt" Raise error during ingestion - timestamp must have a valid value.
"Timestamp" Raise error during ingestion - input is not time.
"RecordTime" Do not update value in index.
"Int" Do not update value in index.
"Decimal" Do not update value in index.
"String" Error if "String" select for primary-key field. Otherwise do not update value in index.
"Bool" Do not update value in index.
"StringArray" Do not update value in index.
"IDArray" Do not update value in index.
"ForeignKey" Do not update value in index.

Quoting values

Use double quotes “…” to enclose fields containing:

  • Line breaks (CRLF)
  • Commas
  • double quotes

Value Path Selection

The path argument is an array of JSON object keys which are applied in order.

For example:

Source data Path selection Value selected
{"a":{"b":{"c":1}}} ["a","b","c"] 1

Use allow-missing-fields to avoid path errors where source data is missing.

config options for data types

  • Use the config flag when changing flags from default values.

Examples

CSV ingest tool flags for header-defined.csv

The required header is defined in the source file

./molecula-consumer-csv \
    --batch-size=10000 \
    --primary-key-fields=username \
    --index=users \
    --files=header-defined.csv

Connect securely over TLS and define header flags

Use this method to:

  • ignore CSV headers and define them at the command line
  • define FeatureBase server tls certificates to securely connect to a remote server.
./molecula-consumer-csv \
    --featurebase-hosts=https://localhost:10101
    --tls.certificate=featurebase.local.crt \
    --tls.key=featurebase.local.key \
    --tls.skip-verify \
    --batch-size=10000 \
    --auto-generate \
    --header=asset_tag__String,fan_time__RecordTime_2006-01-02,fan_val__String_F_YMD \
    --ignore-header
    --index=csv-ingest-tls \
    --files=header-defined.csv,header-undefined.csv \

Further information