Reproduce/View input/output from Alteryx Server/MongoDB

[markashman]

Hi all,

I cannot find anything officially on this, maybe I missed it, but I am wanting to know if it is possible to recreate or access input used in or output data produced by an Alteryx flow run on Server, be that from querying the mongoDB or browsing the file system on the VM which Server is deployed.

Browsing the DB and schema I cannot see any obvious way to do this, which is good but there is reference to results files. I had a quick browse through some files but couldn't see anything obviously readable, again good, but I wanted to confirm if the above was possible or not - I am obviously hoping not, as we want both the input and output data to be secure and only accessible by the running user, which is how it appears to be, but can someone confirm?

[DavidP · Accepted solution]

Hi @markashman, the actual data that a workflow reads or writes in server or desktop is not stored in MongoDB. It is transient unless you specifically write it out to a file from within the workflow.

The one thing you want to keep your eye on are temp files that Alteryx creates in the course of executing a workflow. By design they are deleted when the workflow finishes, but it doesn't hurt to go and have a look.

You can read about temp files here:

https://help.alteryx.com/current/en/designer/file-types-support/alteryx-and-temporary-files.html#idp...

[markashman]

@DavidP Thanks, I did some testing today, and can see the temp files on the server. However, there are two types, those files that are transient when the flow is running, and those files that are the results when the flow completes. Thankfully none seem to be readable in notepad

Also the 2nd type do not delete on completion, as they are needed for the user to download their results, but are supposed to be cleared out by the persistency settings. Sadly, as with most things Alteryx Server related this doesn't quite work, as if the results are not downloaded and in other cases these temp files are never cleared, so I will create a batch process to delete after