Datavolo Cloud: Getting started

Last Updated: 2024-08-19

Background

In order to help you become a 10x Data Engineer for AI, we are proud to offer Datavolo Cloud as a free public beta release.

Scope of the tutorial

In this tutorial, you will learn how to register as a Datavolo Cloud user and configure a runtime as your personal learning environment. Subsequent tutorials will focus on building flows and other advanced features, performance & scalability, and debugging.

Learning objectives

Once you've completed this tutorial, you will be able to:

Register for the Datavolo Cloud public beta.
Log into Datavolo Cloud.
Understand the configuration options available for a runtime.
Create a runtime.
Navigate to the Datavolo canvas UI for your runtime.
Understand how Process Groups can be used for flow organization.

Prerequisites

None.

Datavolo Cloud is accessible at https://app.datavolo.ai/ and will render a page similar to the following if you are not currently logged in.

Already registered?

If you already registered for a Datavolo Cloud account, you can skip to the Log in section which is available in the left navigation menu.

If you were sent an invite from an existing organization, click on the invite link in the invite email. After accepting the invite follow the Sign up with any email address approach below.

Decide how to sign up

When signing up for a new account, Datavolo Cloud offers you the choice of creating a set of credentials or leverage any existing Google account you may have.

Sign up with any email address

Click Sign up in the bottom right corner of the login page.

Supply a valid Email address, select a Password, and click on the Sign up button in the slightly modified form.

You will be presented with a screen similar to the following. Check your email and then Confirm account with the Verification code emailed to you.

Use Google authentication

Alternatively, Datavolo Cloud allows you to create your organization and initial user account utilizing your existing Google credentials. Click Continue with Google for this authentication approach.

As controlled by Google, you will be asked to make choices about which Google account you want to leverage and asked to agree to some additional terms & conditions.

Profile & approval

Regardless of which of the two options you chose, you will then be asked to complete some initial profile information. Click on ACCEPT & CONTINUE once you have completed the form.

You will be presented with a message stating that Datavolo will need to approve your request to sign up.

Once you receive an email approval, you can continue to Sign In from the button above, or simply return to http://app.datavolo.ai.

Once you have an approved user account, you can Sign in to Datavolo Cloud at https://app.datavolo.ai/ with either your social account or your email and password.

After logging in, you will be routed to the Runtimes page with the following banner.

When on the Runtimes page for the first time, you will see the message in the screenshot below. Click on the Create Runtime button.

Runtime configuration

Enter a Runtime Name and select Create to create your first runtime.

Wait for activation

Once the creation process is triggered, the Runtime will be in a Creating state for a brief time.

It will then be marked as Active and the Runtime name itself will be enabled as a hyperlink.

Open a runtime

From the Runtimes page, either click on the Runtime name or from the vertical ellipsis select View Canvas.

You will see the Datavolo UI and an empty canvas.

Add a process group

Drag and drop the process group icon from the components toolbar onto your canvas.

When you release your mouse button, a Create Process Group box will appear. Enter a Name and click Add.

Open the process group

Either double click on the new process group that was created on the canvas or right click on it and select Enter Group from the contextual menu that appears.

The canvas will now appear empty again, but notice the breadcrumb links in the lower left corner showing that have navigated into the process group.

To exit the process group, you can do any of the following.

Click on NiFi Flow in the breadcrumbs
Right click on the canvas and select Leave Group
Click on the leave group icon in the Navigation pane

Process group abstraction

Process groups offer multiple benefits. This initial benefit shown above concerns abstraction and maintainability. Process groups allow you to visually separate dataflows from each other and help developers and operators understand better due to only visualizing the elements that matter to a specific flow.

Congratulations, you've completed the Datavolo Cloud: Getting started tutorial!