Alteryx Server provides a scalable server-based analytics solution that allows users to publish and share analytic applications, schedule and automate workflow jobs, manage and share data connections, and control data access. Alteryx Server can be cloud-hosted or self-hosted (on-premises) to provide businesses with self-service analytics.Â
Cloud-hosted applications are simple, and you don’t have to do much on installation. But when it comes to on-premises application hosting, you will have to take care of a wide range of activities to run the application.
In this blog, we will guide you through the installation process of the Alteryx Server. We will look at some of the key configurations you must apply for the server to perform better and the components of the installation.
Alteryx Server Components
When you install Alteryx Server, a few components are installed as a package. Let’s see some packages that come as a bundle with Alteryx Server.
Alteryx Designer: Alteryx Designer is a Windows-based application that provides an intuitive drag-and-drop user interface for creating workflows. Those workflows can then be scheduled at specific times in the Alteryx Server.
Alteryx Gallery: The UI interface of Alteryx Server is known as Alteryx Gallery. You can share and run workflows in the gallery and view the results.
Controller: The controller manages the server settings and delegates workflows to be executed by the workers.
Workers: These are responsible for executing the workflows that the controller delegates. Workers contain an instance of Alteryx Engine, which supports direct connections to various data sources.
Persistence Layer: This is also known as a database, which stores application data and connects all the components.
Alteryx Server Prerequisites
Some basic requirements are needed to install and run Alteryx Server.
Hardware Requirements: See here for the detailed hardware requirements.
Ensure the computer can contact the
whitelist.alteryx.comweb domain that licenses Alteryx Server.Ensure to have access with administrator privileges in the installation server.
Read and write permissions to the installation directory.
Once you have checked all these necessary items, you can download and install Alteryx Server.
How to Download Alteryx Server
The Alteryx Server (or any other Alteryx products) can be downloaded from the Alteryx Licensing portal. Please follow the steps below to download the Alteryx Server.
Login to the Alteryx Licensing portal as highlighted above using your Partner account
Go to Home > Product Downloads
You will see Alteryx Products available for you to download
Click on the Download button on the Alteryx Server pane
A new window will pop up. Select the desired version of Alteryx Server; here, we are going with
2024.1, and then click Next.
Click on the Download button to select the Alteryx Server option.
The download will start soon, and the Windows executable file will be available for installation.
How to Install Alteryx Server
Once you have downloaded the appropriate version of Alteryx Server, you can start the installation process.
Right-click on the installer file you downloaded in the previous step and select Run As Administrator.
A new window will appear where you can select the Alteryx Server installation location. Once you have selected the installation path, click on Next.
Check the I accept the license agreement checkbox and click on Next
The wizard will install all the dependencies along with Alteryx Server.
At the end, you will have 3 options to finish with.
Configure Server Now
Close and run Alteryx Designer
Install Predictive Tools
We will select the Configure Server Now option to understand more about the basics of Alteryx Server configuration and click on Finish to complete the setup.
Alteryx Server Configuration
After selecting the Configure Server Now option in the installation step of Alteryx Server, a new window known as System Settings appears. This page contains all the settings and configurations required to run the Alteryx Server. Let us walk through some of the important settings you should apply for every Alteryx Server setup.
The System Setting is divided into 6 parts: Environment, Controller, Worker, Server UI, Engine, and DCM.
Note: We will discuss only a few important settings here.
You can define the server node detail under Environment > Setup Type. If you create a single-node Alteryx Server, you can keep it as a Complete Alteryx Server. If you are creating a multi-node Alteryx Server, you can define components on every node as per your design architecture.
The Controller configuration includes options such as where to store temporary and log files and what information you want to log.
The controller needs a location to maintain the available workflows, a queue of execution requests, and other information. On the persistence screen, you can define information critical to the service’s functioning.
The worker handles the execution of analytic workflows. At least one machine must be enabled as a worker to execute workflows. You can configure the same machine to be both the controller and a worker. The Worker Configuration screen includes configuration options, such as where you want to store temporary files, whether you want the machine to run scheduled workflows, and whether you want to run Alteryx Server with a different account rather than the Local System account.
Alteryx Server is a private website hosted on your server infrastructure that allows internal users to share workflows, apps, and macros. You can configure the Server component on the Server UI screen. The Server UI screen is available only when you have selected either Complete Alteryx Server or Custom > Enable Gallery under Environment Type.
This page allows you to configure the URL for accessing Alteryx Gallery, the default login method (Windows Authentication, SAML Authentication, etc.), SMTP connectivity, and more.
The Engine executes workflows using high-speed data processing and analytics. This process can be entirely self-contained in Designer, scaled across an organization by the Alteryx service, or deployed in the cloud in Server. The Engine Configuration screen has configuration options, such as where you want to store temporary files and log files, and options for specifying system resource usage to optimize performance.
The last one is DCM (Data Connection Manager). It is a centralized storage for Database and Cloud inter-operable connections (credentials linked to data sources) that facilitates workflow connection management and collaboration across Alteryx products.
Once you have completed all the configuration settings, you will find a Finish button at the end of the document. Clicking this button will apply the settings made in the session and restart your Alteryx Server.
Closing
We hope this blog helped you with all the instructions for installing and configuring the Alteryx Server. It is important to note that installing the server will be quite easy. But when configuring the server for your organization’s usage, there are a couple of settings you need to go through and apply as per your org policy.
If you have more questions about this and want to dive deep to understand all the configuration details, don’t hesitate to contact our Alteryx experts.
FAQs
How to access Alteryx Server?
After you have completed the installation and configuration of the Alteryx Server, the Server UI (Alteryx Gallery) is accessible in a web browser. To access the web interface, open a browser and go to the Server URL you provided in the settings.
How do I activate a license in Alteryx?
To activate the license in Alteryx Server online, please follow the steps below.
Open Alteryx Designer installed in the machine where Alteryx Server is.
Select Options > Manage Licenses > Activate New License. If you do not have valid licenses for Alteryx Server, Alteryx will display the Install License. Select OK to continue.
In the Alteryx Designer Activation window, enter your email address
Enter or paste your License keys, one per line
Select Activate. A registration window displays if your email address has not been previously registered. Provide your information to continue.
In the Activation Success window, select Experience Alteryx.
