Pull from Amazon S3 (Legacy)¶

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) stores customer data files of any size in any file formats.

Amperity can pull data from Amazon S3. A common scenario: a file is output from a customer data source with a consistent datestamp pattern appended to a static file name, added to an Amazon S3 bucket, and then updated on a regular basis. Amazon S3 can be a source for any number of file types and formats. A courier can be configured to ingest multiple file types and formats as a fileset.

This topic describes the steps that are required to pull files in any supported format to Amperity from Amazon S3:

Get details
Configure cross-account roles
Add courier
Get sample files
Add feeds
Add load operations
Run courier
Add to courier group

Get details¶

The Amazon S3 destination requires the following configuration details:

The name of the S3 bucket from which data will be pulled to Amperity.

For cross-account role assumption you will need the value for the Target Role ARN, which enables Amperity to access the customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket.

Note

The values for the Amperity Role ARN and the External ID fields are provided automatically.

Review the following sample policy, and then add a similar policy to the customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket that allows Amperity access to the bucket. Add this policy as a trusted policy to the IAM role that is used to manage access to the customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket.

The policy for the customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket is unique, but will be similar to:

{
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "AllowAmperityAccess",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::account:role/resource"
       },
      "Action": "sts:AssumeRole",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
           "sts:ExternalId": "01234567890123456789"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

The value for the role ARN is similar to:

arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/prod/amperity-plugin

An external ID is an alphanumeric string between 2-1224 characters (without spaces) and may include the following symbols: plus (+), equal (=), comma (,), period (.), at (@), colon (:), forward slash (/), and hyphen (-).

Configure cross-account roles¶

Amperity prefers to pull data from and send data to customer-managed cloud storage.

Amperity requires using cross-account role assumption to manage access to Amazon S3 to ensure that customer-managed security policies control access to data.

This approach ensures that customers can:

Directly manage the IAM policies that control access to data
Directly manage the files that are available within the Amazon S3 bucket
Modify access without requiring involvement by Amperity; access may be revoked at any time by either Amazon AWS account, after which data sharing ends immediately
Directly troubleshoot incomplete or missing files

Note

After setting up cross-account role assumption, a list of files (by filename and file type), along with any sample files, must be made available to allow for feed creation. These files may be placed directly into the shared location after cross-account role assumption is configured.

Can I use an Amazon AWS Access Point?

Yes, but with the following limitations:

The direction of access is Amperity access files that are located in a customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket
A credential-free role-to-role access pattern is used
Traffic is not restricted to VPC-only

To configure an S3 bucket for cross-account role assumption

The following steps describe how to configure Amperity to use cross-account role assumption to pull data from (or push data to) a customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket.

Important

These steps require configuration changes to customer-managed Amazon AWS accounts and must be done by users with administrative access.

	Open the Sources tab to configure credentials for Amazon S3. Click the Add courier button to open the Add courier dialog box. Do one of the following to select Amazon S3: Click the row in which Amazon S3 is located. Search for Amazon S3. Start typing “ama”. The list will filter to show only matching sources.
	From the Credentials dialog box, enter a name for the credential, select the iam-role-to-role credential type, and then select “Create new credential”.
	Next configure the settings that are specific to cross-account role assumption. The values for the Amperity Role ARN and External ID fields – the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) for your Amperity tenant and its external ID – are provided automatically. You must provide the values for the Target Role ARN and S3 Bucket Name fields. Enter the target role ARN for the IAM role that Amperity will use to access the customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket, and then enter the name of the Amazon S3 bucket.
	Review the following sample policy, and then add a similar policy to the customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket that allows Amperity access to the bucket. Add this policy as a trusted policy to the IAM role that is used to manage access to the customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket. The policy for the customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket is unique, but will be similar to: { "Statement": [ { "Sid": "AllowAmperityAccess", "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": { "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::account:role/resource" }, "Action": "sts:AssumeRole", "Condition": { "StringEquals": { "sts:ExternalId": "01234567890123456789" } } } ] } The value for the role ARN is similar to: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/prod/amperity-plugin An external ID is an alphanumeric string between 2-1224 characters (without spaces) and may include the following symbols: plus (+), equal (=), comma (,), period (.), at (@), colon (:), forward slash (/), and hyphen (-).
	Click Continue to test the configuration (and validate the connection) to the customer-managed Amazon S3 bucket, after which you will be able to continue the steps for adding a courier.

Add courier¶

A courier brings data from an external system to Amperity.

Tip

You can run a courier with an empty load operation using {} as the value for the load operation. Use this approach to get files to upload during feed creation, as a feed requires knowing the schema of a file before you can apply semantic tagging and other feed configuration settings.

Example entities list

An entites list defines the list of files to be pulled to Amperity, along with any file-specific details (such as file name, file type, if header rows are required, and so on).

For example:

[
  {
    "object/type": "file",
    "object/file-pattern": "'/path/to/CustomerRecords.csv'",
    "object/land-as": {
      "file/header-rows": 1,
      "file/tag": "customer-records-2019",
      "file/content-type": "text/csv"
    }
  },
  {
    "object/type": "file",
    "object/file-pattern": "'/path/to/TransactionRecords.csv'",
    "object/land-as": {
      "file/header-rows": 1,
      "file/tag": "transaction-records-2019",
      "file/content-type": "text/csv"
    }
  }
]

To add a courier for Amazon S3

From the Sources page, click Add Courier. The Add Source page opens.
Find, and then click the icon for Amazon S3. The Add Courier page opens.
Enter the name of the courier. For example: “Amazon S3”.
Credentials allow Amperity to connect to Amazon S3. Give the courier a name, and then select a credential from the Credential drop-down.
Under Amazon S3 Settings, add the name of the Amazon S3 bucket and prefix.
Under Amazon S3 Settings configure the list of files to pull to Amperity. Configure the Entities List for each file to be loaded to Amperity.
Under Amazon S3 Settings set the load operations to a string that is obviously incorrect, such as df-xxxxxx. (You may also set the load operation to empty: “{}”.)

Tip

If you use an obviously incorrect string, the load operation settings will be saved in the courier configuration. After the schema for the feed is defined and the feed is activated, you can edit the courier and replace the feed ID with the correct identifier.

Caution

If load operations are not set to “{}” the validation test for the courier configuration settings will fail.
Click Save.

Get sample files¶

Every Amazon S3 file that is pulled to Amperity must be configured as a feed. Before you can configure each feed you need to know the schema of that file. Run the courier without load operations to bring sample files from Amazon S3 to Amperity, and then use each of those files to configure a feed.

To get sample files

From the Sources tab, open the menu for a courier configured for Amazon S3 with empty load operations, and then select Run. The Run Courier dialog box opens.
Select Load data from a specific day, and then select today’s date.
Click Run.

Important

The courier run will fail, but this process will successfully return a list of files from Amazon S3.

These files will be available for selection as an existing source from the Add Feed dialog box.

Wait for the notification for this courier run to return an error similar to:

Error running load-operations task
Cannot find required feeds: "df-xxxxxx"

Add feeds¶

A feed defines how data should be loaded into a domain table, including specifying which columns are required and which columns should be associated with a semantic tag that indicates that column contains customer profile (PII) and transactions data.

Note

A feed must be added for each file that is pulled from Amazon S3, including all files that contain customer records and interaction records, along with any other files that will be used to support downstream workflows.

To add a feed

From the Sources tab, click Add Feed. This opens the Add Feed dialog box.
Under Data Source, select Create new source, and then enter “Amazon S3”.
Enter the name of the feed in Feed Name. For example: “CustomerRecords”.

Tip

The name of the domain table will be “<data-source-name>:<feed-name>”. For example: “Amazon S3:CustomerRecords”.
Under Sample File, select Select existing file, and then choose from the list of files. For example: “filename_YYYY-MM-DD.csv”.

Tip

The list of files that is available from this drop-down menu is sorted from newest to oldest.
Select Load sample file on feed activation.
Click Continue. This opens the Feed Editor page.
Select the primary key.
Apply semantic tags to customer records and interaction records, as appropriate.
Under Last updated field, specify which field best describes when records in the table were last updated.

Tip

Choose Generate an “updated” field to have Amperity generate this field. This is the recommended option unless there is a field already in the table that reliably provides this data.
For feeds with customer records (PII data), select Make available to Stitch.
Click Activate. Wait for the feed to finish loading data to the domain table, and then review the sample data for that domain table from the Data Explorer.

Add load operations¶

After the feeds are activated and domain tables are available, add the load operations to the courier used for Amazon S3.

Example load operations

Load operations must specify each file that will be pulled to Amperity from Amazon S3.

For example:

{
  "CUSTOMER-RECORDS-FEED-ID": [
    {
      "type": "truncate"
    },
    {
      "type": "load",
      "file": "customer-records"
    }
  ],
  "TRANSACTION-RECORDS-FEED-ID": [
    {
      "type": "load",
      "file": "transaction-records"
    }
  ]
}

To add load operations

From the Sources tab, open the menu for the courier that was configured for Amazon S3, and then select Edit. The Edit Courier dialog box opens.
Edit the load operations for each of the feeds that were configured for Amazon S3 so they have the correct feed ID.
Click Save.

Run courier manually¶

Run the courier again. This time, because the load operations are present and the feeds are configured, the courier will pull data from Amazon S3.

To run the courier manually

From the Sources tab, open the menu for the courier with updated load operations that is configured for Amazon S3, and then select Run. The Run Courier dialog box opens.
Select the load option, either for a specific time period or all available data. Actual data will be loaded to a domain table because the feed is configured.
Click Run.

This time the notification will return a message similar to:
```
Completed in 5 minutes 12 seconds
```

Add to courier group¶

A courier group is a list of one (or more) couriers that are run as a group, either ad hoc or as part of an automated schedule. A courier group can be configured to act as a constraint on downstream workflows.

To add the courier to a courier group

From the Sources tab, click Add Courier Group. This opens the Create Courier Group dialog box.
Enter the name of the courier. For example: “Amazon S3”.
Add a cron string to the Schedule field to define a schedule for the orchestration group.

A schedule defines the frequency at which a courier group runs. All couriers in the same courier group run as a unit and all tasks must complete before a downstream process can be started. The schedule is defined using cron.

Cron syntax specifies the fixed time, date, or interval at which cron will run. Each line represents a job, and is defined like this:
```
┌───────── minute (0 - 59)
│ ┌─────────── hour (0 - 23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of the month (1 - 31)
│ │ │ ┌────────────── month (1 - 12)
│ │ │ │ ┌─────────────── day of the week (0 - 6) (Sunday to Saturday)
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * * command to execute
```
For example, 30 8 * * * represents “run at 8:30 AM every day” and 30 8 * * 0 represents “run at 8:30 AM every Sunday”. Amperity validates your cron syntax and shows you the results. You may also use crontab guru to validate cron syntax.
Set Status to Enabled.
Specify a time zone.

A courier group schedule is associated with a time zone. The time zone determines the point at which a courier group’s scheduled start time begins. A time zone should be aligned with the time zone of system from which the data is being pulled.

Use the Use this time zone for file date ranges checkbox to use the selected time zone to look for files. If unchecked, the courier group will use the current time in UTC to look for files to pick up.

Note

The time zone that is chosen for an courier group schedule should consider every downstream business processes that requires the data and also the time zone(s) in which the consumers of that data will operate.
Add at least one courier to the courier group. Select the name of the courier from the Courier drop-down. Click + Add Courier to add more couriers.
Click Add a courier group constraint, and then select a courier group from the drop-down list.

A wait time is a constraint placed on a courier group that defines an extended time window for data to be made available at the source location.

Important

A wait time is not required for a bridge.

A courier group typically runs on an automated schedule that expects customer data to be available at the source location within a defined time window. However, in some cases, the customer data may be delayed and isn’t made available within that time window.
For each courier group constraint, apply any offsets.

A courier can be configured to look for files within range of time that is older than the scheduled time. The scheduled time is in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), unless the “Use this time zone for file date ranges” checkbox is enabled for the courier group.

This range is typically 24 hours, but may be configured for longer ranges. For example, it’s possible for a data file to be generated with a correct file name and datestamp appended to it, but for that datestamp to represent the previous day because of how an upstream workflow is configured. A wait time helps ensure that the data at the source location is recognized correctly by the courier.

Warning

This range of time may affect couriers in a courier group whether or not they run on a schedule. A manually run courier group may not take its schedule into consideration when determining the date range; only the provided input day(s) to load data from are used as inputs.
Click Save.