Realtime Compute for Apache Flink:Activate Realtime Compute for Apache Flink

Precautions

• Realtime Compute for Apache Flink is deployed in a compute-storage separation architecture. Information such as checkpoints, savepoints, logs, and JAR packages of deployments is stored in Object Storage Service (OSS). If you have not activated OSS, activate it first. For more information, see Activate OSS.

  • The OSS bucket must reside in the same region as the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace.

  • When you select an OSS bucket, we recommend that you do not configure policies, such as the versioning and retention policies, for the OSS bucket that you select.

    If the versioning feature is enabled for a bucket, an excessive number of delete markers cause slow list processing. To prevent this issue, you must configure lifecycle rules to periodically remove delete markers and historical versions that you no longer use if you enable the versioning feature. This helps reduce storage costs and improves OSS performance. For more information about how to remove delete markers, see Configure lifecycle rules based on the last modified time for versioning-enabled buckets to reduce storage costs.

    Warning

    If you do not enable the versioning feature and you want to configure lifecycle rules, we recommend that you do not configure a deletion policy for the directories of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink, including artifacts, flink-jobs, flink-savepoints, sql-artifacts, plan, and flink-sessionclusters. If you configure a deletion policy for one of the preceding directories, files that are related to Realtime Compute for Apache Flink may be deleted. As a result, Realtime Compute for Apache Flink deployments cannot run as expected.

  • To implement cross-zone high availability for a Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace, make sure that the Object Storage Service (OSS) bucket selected for the workspace is of the zone-redundant storage type. If the OSS bucket is not of the zone-redundant storage type, the state data cannot be accessed when a zone to which the workspace belongs becomes unavailable. As a result, Flink deployments may not be started with states. For more information about how to configure the storage redundancy type of OSS buckets, see Change the storage redundancy type of a bucket.

    Note

    If your OSS capacity usage is high and you are concerned about the additional costs caused by conversion of the storage redundancy type, you can create another Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace and associate the workspace with an independent OSS bucket of the zone-redundant storage type to build an independent high-availability architecture. For more information about OSS storage fees, see Storage fees.

• When you create a Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace, other cloud services, such as OSS, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), and services related to the monitoring service, are used. For more information about the billing rules of the involved cloud services, see Billable items.

Procedure

1. Log on to the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink console.

2. In the Fully Managed Flink section, click Purchase.

3. Grant your Alibaba Cloud account the related permissions to access the services that Realtime Compute for Apache Flink can access if you activate Realtime Compute for Apache Flink for the first time.

   On the Authorization Request page, click Authorize in RAM. On the Cloud Resource Access Authorization page, click Confirm Authorization Policy in the lower part of the page. After automated authorization is complete, your Alibaba Cloud account is granted the related permissions to access the services that Realtime Compute for Apache Flink can access.

4. On the buy page, configure the parameters. The following table describes the parameters.

   

   Section	Parameter	Description	Example
   Basic parameters	Billing Method	The subscription and pay-as-you-go billing methods are supported. For more information about billing details, see Billing items.	Pay-as-you-go
   	Duration	You need to configure this parameter only when the subscription billing method is used. You can select a subscription duration.	-
   	Auto-renewal	You need to configure this parameter only when the subscription billing method is used. After the auto-renewal feature is enabled, you can perform the following steps to modify the renewal policy: Log on to the Alibaba Cloud Management Console. In the top navigation bar, choose Expenses > Renewal Management.	-
   	CPU architecture	You need to configure this parameter only when the subscription billing method is used. You can set this parameter to Intel X86 Architecture or YITIAN ARM Architecture based on your business requirements. Note You can set this parameter to YITIAN ARM Architecture only for a subscription workspace that resides in the China (Ulanqab), China (Beijing), or China (Hangzhou) region. You can view the details on the buy page of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink.	Intel X86 Architecture
   	Region	We recommend that you select the same region as the region in which upstream and downstream storage resides.	China (Beijing)
   Network	VPC	We recommend that you select the VPC in which the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace resides. For more information about how to create a VPC, see Create a VPC and a vSwitch. If the destination upstream and downstream storage resides in a VPC, the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace must be in the same VPC as the destination upstream and downstream storage. Only the following CIDR blocks or their subsets are supported: 192.168.0.0/16, 172.16.0.0/12, and 10.0.0.0/8. The CIDR blocks are standard private CIDR blocks as defined by Request for Comments (RFC) documents.	flink-test-vpc
   	CU Info	Configure the CU Type and Resource Quota parameters. Valid values of the CU Type parameter: Single zone and Cross zone. If you select Whether to enable cross zones, you must configure the Resource Quota parameter. Note Only subscription workspaces that use the Intel X86 architecture processor support cross-zone high availability and cross-zone CUs. For more information about cross-zone high availability, see Zone-high availability.	Single zone
   	Zone	Select a zone. If cross-zone high availability is enabled for a workspace, you must configure the primary and secondary zones in which the workspace resides.	Zone G
   	vSwitch	If cross-zone high availability is enabled for a workspace, you must specify vSwitches for the primary and secondary zones in which the workspace resides. An IP address is assigned to each TaskManager instance and each JobManager instance of a Realtime Compute for Apache Flink deployment. You can select one to five vSwitches to properly plan CIDR blocks based on the scale of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink deployments. Note Only the vSwitches that reside in the specified VPC and the specified zone of the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace are displayed in the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink console. If no available vSwitch is displayed, you can create a vSwitch. For more information, see Create a vSwitch.	flinktest-vsw-2ze4fyq366itq6xqp****
   Workspace settings	Workspace Name	The name must be 1 to 60 characters in length and can contain only lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens (-). The name must start with a lowercase letter and cannot end with a hyphen (-). Important After the fully managed Flink service is activated, you cannot change the value of Workspace Name.	flink-test
   	Resource Quota	You need to configure this parameter only when the Subscription billing method is used. Computing resources are billed based on the quota that is provided in this method.	-
   	Quota Ceiling	You need to configure this parameter only when the Pay-as-you-go billing method is used. This parameter specifies the maximum number of compute units (CUs) that can be configured for a workspace. Default value: 1000. You can change the value of this parameter. The maximum value of this parameter is 9999999.
   Storage	OSS Bucket	An OSS bucket is used to store information, such as checkpoints, savepoints, logs, and JAR packages of deployments. Realtime Compute for Apache Flink creates directories in the OSS bucket that you select to store different types of data. By default, the data is retained for seven days. artifacts: The uploaded JAR packages are stored in this directory. flink-jobs: The high availability (HA) information and checkpoints of Flink deployments are stored in this directory. flink-savepoints: If you click Savepoint in the development console of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink, savepoints are created for the deployment and the final savepoint file is stored in this directory. logs: If you set Log Template to OSS for your deployment, the logs of your deployment are stored in this directory. sql-artifacts: Files on which user-defined functions (UDFs) and connectors depend are stored in this directory. plan: In expert mode, the configured resource information is stored in this directory. flink-sessionclusters: The HA information and checkpoints of session clusters are stored in this directory. Important After the fully managed Flink workspace is created, you cannot change the value of the OSS Bucket parameter. For more information about how to select an OSS bucket, see Precautions.	flink-test-oss
   Monitoring service	Monitoring service	You can select Free monitoring service or Pay-as-you-go Prometheus monitoring service. For more information about differences in features between CloudMonitor and ARMS, see Feature comparison between CloudMonitor and ARMS. Free monitoring service: After the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace is created, CloudMonitor provides basic monitoring and alerting service. For more information, see Free quotas. Pay-as-you-go Prometheus monitoring service: After the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace is created, ARMS is automatically activated to provide the commercial edition of Managed Service for Prometheus. For more information about the billing of the Prometheus Service, see Billing.	Free monitoring service

5. Click Confirm Order and complete the payment to activate Realtime Compute for Apache Flink.

   After you complete the payment, click Console. On the page that appears, you can view the workspace that is being created. In most cases, the workspace can be created in 5 to 10 minutes after you complete the payment.

6. Perform operations based on your business requirements. The following table describes the operations that you can perform after Realtime Compute for Apache Flink is activated.

   Operation	Description
   View the details of a workspace	In the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink console, you can find the workspace that you want to manage and choose More > Workspace Details in the Actions column to view information about the workspace. The information includes the workspace name, workspace ID, OSS bucket, VPC name, VPC ID, and vSwitch.
   Obtain basic concepts	In the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink console, you can learn about how the basic concepts in Realtime Compute for Apache Flink are organized and obtain a helpful reference for planning future operations, such as draft development, deployment creation, deployment O&M, and security management.
   Manage permissions	If you want to access the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink console as a RAM user or by using a RAM role and perform operations in a namespace in the development console of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink, the RAM user or RAM role must be granted RAM permissions and the permissions to perform operations in the namespace, such as the permissions to view and purchase a workspace and perform draft development and deployment O&M in a namespace.
   Add a namespace	A namespace is the basic management unit for drafts and deployments of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink. The configurations, drafts, deployments, and permissions of each namespace are separately managed. After a workspace is created, a namespace named Workspace name-default or Workspace name-default-ha is automatically generated. You can create multiple namespaces and assign separate resources and permissions to each namespace. This isolates the resources and permissions among the namespaces of different tenants in an efficient manner.
   Develop drafts and maintain deployments	Find the workspace that you want to manage and click Console in the Actions column to go to the development console of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink. You can develop drafts and maintain deployments. Realtime Compute for Apache Flink provides various upstream and downstream built-in connectors. For more information, see Supported connectors.
   Reconfigure resources	You can reconfigure resources for workspaces and namespaces.
   Switch the billing method	You can switch the billing method of a workspace between pay-as-you-go and subscription in the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink console.
   Change a vSwitch	You can change the vSwitch to resolve deployment startup failures that are caused by insufficient IP addresses of the vSwitch that you select.
   Release resources	In the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink console, you can find the workspace that you want to manage and choose More > Release Resources in the Actions column to release resources. You are not charged for the workspace after it is released. The ARMS service for the namespace is released when you release the workspace.