Apache Airflow is an industry-standard open-source ETL (extract, transform, load) tool that allows you to programmatically build and deploy your data pipelines. The Kubernetes Executor is an Airflow executor that runs each task instance in its own pod on a cluster. This offers advantages over other executors like the Celery Executor where a fixed number of long-running Celery worker pods were needed, regardless of whether there were tasks to run.

With the Kubernetes Executor, a pod is created when the task is queued and terminates when the task completes. This leads to better resource utilization and cost-effectiveness. Additionally, since the tasks run independently of the executor and results are reported directly to the database, scheduler failures will not lead to task failures or re-runs.

To run tasks using the Kubernetes Executor, the scheduler needs access to a Kubernetes cluster with a service account. The worker pods need access to the DAG files to execute the tasks within those DAGs and interact with the Metadata repository. Configuration information specific to the Kubernetes Executor, such as the worker namespace and image information, needs to be specified in the Airflow Configuration file. The pod used for k8s executor worker processes is created based on a pod template file, and persistent volumes are optional and depend on your configuration.

Apache Airflow supports numerous integration dependencies, including various popular data lakes, databases like Apache Sqoop, S3/RedShift, MsSql, PostgreSQL, Hive, Cloudant CouchDB, and popular cloud providers like Google, Amazon, Azure, and Facebook. Airflow is also dynamic, extensible, elegant, and scalable, making it an ideal choice for data orchestration.

Apache Airflow and Kubernetes orchestration and can help you rapidly develop, monitor and schedule your pipeline performance on a cloud platform. We take care of the configuration and infrastructure on a scalable cluster with a staging or production ready environment. Our team of experts can ensure data orchestration by delivering value solutions for your organization and daily operations by either building or simply deploying your pipelines in a secure, on-demand cloud environment, saving you time and effort and schedule process at your convenience that best fit your need. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you optimize your data operations.