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Alteryx AMP Engine

When you run your workflows, you might have wondered what’s under the hood providing the functionality. This article will give you an overview of the Alteryx Engine and the new Alteryx Multi-threaded Processing (AMP) engine.

What Is Alteryx Engine?

Alteryx Engine is an operator which processes each record of the workflow. It uses the machine’s cores and RAM (memory) run your workflows.

What Is AMP?

The Alteryx Multithreaded Processing (AMP) is a new architecture of Alteryx engine. As the name implies, AMP is a multi-threaded concept of processing your data in parallel packets. In contrast, the original Engine processes your data record-by-record and sequentially to run a workflow.

Why Use AMP

AMP is designed to work with larger volumes of data at higher velocity and typically executes workflows more faster, with efficient usage of machine resources.

Availability

The AMP engine is available starting with Designer version 20.2.

AMP as Default

AMP is the default Engine for all new workflows starting with Designer version 22.1.

Requirements

The AMP engine must have at least 400 MB of memory to process one thread of a workflow. For example, with 8 threads, there must be at least 3.2 GB of memory available at runtime. If there are only 2.5 GB available at runtime, AMP uses 6 threads to satisfy the 400 MB minimum.

Align Memorey Limit settings with the thread utilization. To learn more about AMP memory use, see AMP Memory Use.

How to Disable AMP

Note

The default setting for all new workflows is AMP.

You can cancel the selection to use the AMP engine in user or workflow settings. Navigate through these steps to switch between the original and AMP engines.

User Settings

To cancel the selection of AMP engine for all new workflows...

  1. Go to Options > User Settings > Edit User Settings.
  2. On the Defaults tab, select the Use AMP Engine for all new workflows check box.
  3. Select Save.

Proxy Support

AMP supports networking via proxy. SFTP over HTTP proxy is supported for both AMP and the original Engine, as is the ability to bypass proxy. You can specify Proxy Protocol Type (HTTP and SOCKS5h) in Options > User Settings > Advanced > Proxy Settings - Configure. The default Proxy Protocol Type is HTTP.

Admins can configure a proxy in System Settings. Go to Options > Advanced Options > System Settings > Engine > Proxy.

Workflow Settings

To cancel the selection of a new workflow run with the AMP engine...

  1. Select a point on the white space of the canvas to display the Workflow - Configuration window.
  2. Go to the Workflow - Configuration window and select the Runtime tab.
  3. Check the Use AMP Engine check box.
  4. Run the workflow.

Should I Use AMP for Existing Workflows That Were Built with the Original Engine?

AMP can greatly increase the processing speed of your data. Using AMP might, however, have limitations in available memory and tools usage. You can decide based on the following steps:

  1. Run an existing workflow a few times in the original Engine, then run the workflow a few times with the AMP Engine.
  2. Compare the Results pane (messages, warnings, errors, duration of the run) as well as any resulting data to check for differences.
  3. To identify whether a workflow ran with the AMP Engine, check the Results pane for a message that states "This is AMP Engine; running [N] worker threads."

Limitations

To prevent deadlocks, there is a maximum of 32 allowed connections for any tool when AMP is enabled.

Learn More about AMP

This is just a quick overview of the Alteryx Engine and AMP. If you want to learn more, check out these articles: