Alteryx Installations and Performance

I work with a small team of developers and we are looking to grow our team. With that, we want to properly scale our performance capabilities. Currently we run Alteryx Designer to process our data, which is then pushed out to Tableau Server for creation of our data visualizations. I do make use of the command line tool for a bit of automation. Most of our workflows run in under a couple of minutes on our laptops, a few take upwards of five minutes and one particularly large, complex workflow takes around six hours to complete.

In preparation of expanding our team, we are looking at potentially getting a server (or perhaps just a beastly desktop) to run our workflows before pushing them out to Tableau Server. We anticipate on developing more of those complex, six hour workflows, so we want to set up a computer that can really crunch through the data quickly. My questions are:

Would it be best to get Alteryx Server to run our workflows or just continue running them via command line with Alteryx Designer? I know Alteryx Server is expensive and I'm not sure what it will benefit us versus what we're already doing.
Does a server crunch the data any better than a desktop? I imagine a 12 core server is no different than a 12 core desktop, so at that point the only difference would be the OS.
Should we run a physical server/desktop or a VM? I've heard that VMs do not run as fast as a physical machine. Something to do with vCPUs vs CPUs (the former being half the speed of the latter).

Developer

Output

Server

Optimization

Accepted answers

TheOC

Hey @taran42

Glad to hear about your progress with Alteryx so far!

One of the major reasons i would recommend Server, is the ability for version control and collaborative working on a workflow. It can seem like something not needed- however the ability to have a workflow backed up on the server - with multiple versions, allows mission critical workflows to be secure.

I think otherwise, your points are correct:

Alteryx server is 'Expensive' in a sense - but obviously the value it brings is tremendous. Being able to schedule and adjust schedules on the fly is incredibly useful as Designer rolls out onto your growing team. Command line 'works', but i would not like to teach all members of the growing team how to use it effectively - and with server you also have the option to view where all future schedules are - ensuring that workflows are set to run when the server will be free.
As far as im aware, server will crunch the same speed as the desktop, core for core. I think the main thing thats nice about it, is that you can really power up the server, and keep your desktops fairly medium level. This lets you make your workflows sampled or throttled, and then unleash the power of the server when its required.
I would recommend physical, for the power of faster CPUs. However, you can use both - and you might find it cheaper through a VM.
There are maybe some considerations around the licensing too (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Server-Knowledge-Base/How-Alteryx-defines-cores-for-licensing-our-products/ta-p/158030)

In short - i would recommend Server for how easy it is to use, how secure and version controlled the workflows are, and future proofing for more scheduled workflows.

Hope this helps,
TheOC

TheOC

hey @taran42
Sorry about the late reply - i have only just received the email that you did reply... strange!
Great to hear back from you, and not a problem at all about the follow-up questions! I will answer them again as direct answers to your bullet points:

Scheduling from the Alteryx Server is very easy. Server has a web interface, where you can easily see all the workflows you have published to the server, and you have the option to schedule them at any time interval (you can actually go really in-depth as to when you want the workflow to run, for instance the 2nd Friday of every June and September...). This does require you to save the workflow on the Server - but that process is incredibly seamless - within Alteryx Designer you can save directly to the gallery:

This then automatically loads the browser to that workflow on the gallery. I'd be happy to give you a tour of Server over a call if you like - feel free to shoot me a direct message.
This is a great question, i think its a really good point that if you're on the home network - it may definitely be worth looking into an Azure/AWS hosted Instance for the bandwidth speed. It would be worth double checking - but i believe you could move the license to a new machine in the future anyway, so it might make sense to start physical/virtual and move in the future?

if it helps, Alteryx server is listed on both the AWS and Azure marketplaces - and as far as i'm aware, these come with the latest version of Alteryx Server installed, with most of the setup done.

https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-nkcabw5i5emdc?ref_=srh_res_product_title

https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/alteryx.alteryx-server-byol?tab=overview

Hope this helps!
TheOC

All comments

TheOC

I think otherwise, your points are correct:

Alteryx server is 'Expensive' in a sense - but obviously the value it brings is tremendous. Being able to schedule and adjust schedules on the fly is incredibly useful as Designer rolls out onto your growing team. Command line 'works', but i would not like to teach all members of the growing team how to use it effectively - and with server you also have the option to view where all future schedules are - ensuring that workflows are set to run when the server will be free.
As far as im aware, server will crunch the same speed as the desktop, core for core. I think the main thing thats nice about it, is that you can really power up the server, and keep your desktops fairly medium level. This lets you make your workflows sampled or throttled, and then unleash the power of the server when its required.
I would recommend physical, for the power of faster CPUs. However, you can use both - and you might find it cheaper through a VM.
There are maybe some considerations around the licensing too (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Server-Knowledge-Base/How-Alteryx-defines-cores-for-licensing-our-products/ta-p/158030)

In short - i would recommend Server for how easy it is to use, how secure and version controlled the workflows are, and future proofing for more scheduled workflows.

Hope this helps,
TheOC

taran42

Thanks @TheOC ! The link was very helpful as was your post. That gives me a lot to think about. I have some follow-up questions, if you don't mind.

How does scheduling work with Alteryx Server? Do you save the workflow on the same machine (or a shared drive), then it accesses the file and runs it (thus pushing it out to Tableau Server, in our case)? What else does server do other than schedule tasks for us?
You said you would recommended a physical computer over a virtual one for faster CPUs. Since we all work from home, if this computer was physical, it would be sitting in my home office. Would that effect it's speed at all - being on my home network as opposed to an office's setup? I was just thinking about bandwidth when it pulled the data from our shared drive (Dropbox). Would a server versus a desktop matter in this instance as well?

As for the server vs the desktop, the computer will be dedicated to the task of running workflows and pushing the data out to Tableau Server. I've pondered using it as an FTP server as well, but that's minor and we may have another solution for that.

TheOC

Scheduling from the Alteryx Server is very easy. Server has a web interface, where you can easily see all the workflows you have published to the server, and you have the option to schedule them at any time interval (you can actually go really in-depth as to when you want the workflow to run, for instance the 2nd Friday of every June and September...). This does require you to save the workflow on the Server - but that process is incredibly seamless - within Alteryx Designer you can save directly to the gallery:

This then automatically loads the browser to that workflow on the gallery. I'd be happy to give you a tour of Server over a call if you like - feel free to shoot me a direct message.
This is a great question, i think its a really good point that if you're on the home network - it may definitely be worth looking into an Azure/AWS hosted Instance for the bandwidth speed. It would be worth double checking - but i believe you could move the license to a new machine in the future anyway, so it might make sense to start physical/virtual and move in the future?

if it helps, Alteryx server is listed on both the AWS and Azure marketplaces - and as far as i'm aware, these come with the latest version of Alteryx Server installed, with most of the setup done.

https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-nkcabw5i5emdc?ref_=srh_res_product_title

https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/alteryx.alteryx-server-byol?tab=overview

Hope this helps!
TheOC

taran42

@TheOC Thanks for the additional information and especially those last two links! I think those will be very helpful in our decision-making process.

TheOC

hey @taran42

Not a problem! Shoot me a message/reply if you have any other queries!

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