KNIME Documentation

Add-on Feature

Sovereign Execution is a paid add-on available for Business Hub Standard and Enterprise editions. It is automatically included on your quote or order form when selected. Contact your KNIME account manager if you have questions about licensing.

Enabling Sovereign Execution ​

Sovereign execution isn't enabled by default. Contact Knime support to activate it. Once activated, manage it entirely through the admin interface.

Setting up Sovereign Executors ​

Preparing a machine to serve as sovereign executor for a Knime instance requires the installation of an Executor Agent and an Executor. For more detail on each component, see the Architecture Overview.

The commands in the following sections install a full executor. Check LTS executor images to see which extensions it includes.

Setting up a Sovereign Executor on Linux ​

Info

Install both the Knime Sovereign Execution Agent and the Knime Executor as the same user, using the recommended username knime. This user does not need administrator (root) privileges, and installing without them is safer. No other user requires write permissions to any files created during the installation.

Installing required OS libraries (Linux) ​

The executor needs extra system libraries for its embedded Chromium browser and the GTK launcher. Many server and cloud images don't include them. If a library is missing, the executor fails to start or exits shortly after it starts.

To find out which libraries your distribution needs, see the CEF required libraries in the Equo documentation.

Install the libraries before you start the agent. This step needs administrator (root) privileges, so run it with sudo as a user with administrator rights. The executor and agent installation steps in the next section run as the non-root knime user. Configuring the optional systemd service also requires administrator privileges.

Installing the Executor and Executor Agent (Linux) ​

  1. Download and Install Knime Executor (5.13 or later):

    Knime Executor Already Installed?

    If you already have an existing Knime Executor 5.13 or later installation on the machine, you can reuse it and skip the steps below. The executor requires Knime Executor 5.13 or later, with the Knime Executor Connector and the Knime Remote Workflow Editor for Executor extensions installed. The Knime Executor distribution linked below already includes these extensions by default.

    shell
    curl -L -o knime-executor_5.13.0.linux.gtk.x86_64.tar.gz https://download.knime.com/executor/linux/knime-executor_5.13.0.linux.gtk.x86_64.tar.gz
    • Extract the archive into a directory named "knime"
    shell
    mkdir knime && tar xzf knime-executor_5.13.0.linux.gtk.x86_64.tar.gz -C knime --strip-components=1
    • (Optionally) Remove the downloaded archive
    shell
    rm knime-executor_5.13.0.linux.gtk.x86_64.tar.gz

  2. Download and Install Knime Hub Executor Agent:

    • Download Knime Hub Executor Agent version
    shell
    curl -L -o knime-hub-executor-agent_latest_Linux_amd64.tar.gz https://download.knime.com/knime-hub-executor-agent/knime-hub-executor-agent_latest_Linux_amd64.tar.gz
    • Extract the archive
    shell
    tar xzf knime-hub-executor-agent_latest_Linux_amd64.tar.gz
    • (Optionally) Remove the downloaded archive
    shell
    rm knime-hub-executor-agent_latest_Linux_amd64.tar.gz
    • Make the agent executable
    shell
    chmod +x knime-agent

  3. Configure the Agent:

    • Execute the command
    shell
    ./knime-agent configure --executor $PWD/knime/

    You will be prompted for the Hub URL and a connect token provided in the Knime UI.

    Important

    The value passed to --executor must be the path to the Knime Executor installation directory (the directory containing the knime.ini file). Adjust the path if you bring your own installation or move the installation. An absolute path is recommended in case you want to run the agent as a service.

  4. Start the Agent:

    • Execute the command
    shell
    ./knime-agent start

    The status in the Knime UI will change from Offline to Running.

Configuring the Agent as a System Service (Linux) ​

To ensure the Agent automatically starts upon host restart, create a systemd unit file at /etc/systemd/system/knime-agent.service:

shell
[Unit]
Description=Knime Hub Executor Agent
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=<non-root user>
Group=<non-root group>
WorkingDirectory=<path to the agent>
ExecStart=<path to the agent>/knime-agent start
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Setting up a Sovereign Executor on Windows ​

Installing the Executor and Executor Agent (Windows) ​

  1. Download and Install Knime Executor (5.13 or later):

    Knime Executor Already Installed?

    If you already have an existing Knime Executor 5.13 or later installation on the machine, you can reuse it and skip the steps below. The executor requires Knime Executor 5.13 or later, with the Knime Executor Connector and the Knime Remote Workflow Editor for Executor extensions installed. The Knime Executor distribution linked below already includes these extensions by default.

    • (Optionally) If the following download is slow, disabling the progress bar might speed it up
    powershell
    $ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'
    powershell
    Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://download.knime.com/executor/win/knime-executor_5.13.0.win32.win32.x86_64.zip -OutFile knime-executor_5.13.0.win32.win32.x86_64.zip
    • Extract the archive to folder "knime"
    powershell
    Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem ; [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory("$PWD/knime-executor_5.13.0.win32.win32.x86_64.zip", "$PWD")
    • Rename the extracted folder to "knime"
    powershell
    Get-ChildItem -Directory -Filter 'knime-executor_*' | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending | Select-Object -First 1 | Rename-Item -NewName 'knime'
    • (Optionally) Remove the downloaded archive
    powershell
    Remove-Item knime-executor_5.13.0.win32.win32.x86_64.zip

  2. Install Knime Hub Executor Agent:

    • Download Knime Hub Executor Agent version
    powershell
    Invoke-WebRequest -Uri http://download.knime.com/knime-hub-executor-agent/knime-hub-executor-agent_latest_Windows_amd64.zip -OutFile knime-hub-executor-agent_latest_Windows_amd64.zip
    • Extract the archive
    powershell
    Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem ; [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory("$PWD/knime-hub-executor-agent_latest_Windows_amd64.zip", "$PWD")
    • (Optionally) Remove the downloaded archive
    powershell
    Remove-Item knime-hub-executor-agent_latest_Windows_amd64.zip

  3. Configure the Agent:

    • Execute the command
    powershell
    .\knime-agent.exe configure --executor $PWD\knime\

    You will be prompted for the Hub URL and a connect token provided in the Knime UI.

    Important

    The value passed to --executor must be the path to the Knime Executor installation directory (the directory containing the knime.ini file). Adjust the path if you bring your own installation or move the installation. An absolute path is recommended in case you want to run the agent as a service.

  4. Start the Agent:

    • Execute the command
    powershell
    .\knime-agent.exe start

    The status in the Knime UI will change from Offline to Running.

Configuring the Agent as a System Service (Windows) ​

To create a service on Windows, we need to use the Non-Sucking Service Manager (NSSM) package.

TIP

The Non-Sucking Service Manager (NSSM) package is already included in the extensions required for Sovereign Execution. The steps below assume that you use all of the default directory naming and structuring as suggested in our public docs.

  1. Create the service using NSSM

    • Execute the command to create a service called KNIMEAgent
    powershell
    .\knime\nssm install KNIMEAgent $PWD\knime-agent.exe start

  2. Explicitly set the working directory of the agent

    • Execute the command
    powershell
    .\knime\nssm set KNIMEAgent AppDirectory $PWD

  3. Configure the agent to start automatically

    • Execute the command
    powershell
    .\knime\nssm set KNIMEAgent Start SERVICE_AUTO_START

  4. Manually start the agent for the first time

    • Execute the command
    powershell
    .\knime\nssm start KNIMEAgent

Creating Sovereign Environments ​

Administrators can create and manage shared sovereign environments on the Global Administration page. See Create an environment for the general environment-creation flow.

  1. Create a new execution context from the Global Administration page.

  2. When creating an environment, switch Execution to Remote.

    Important

    This option can only be set during creation; you cannot change the executor provisioning mode for an existing context.

  3. Configure the options for Data Security. These configurations can be changed after the environment has been created.

    Important

    To utilize the newly introduced Data Security Settings, updating the Executor to 5.12+ is mandatory in addition to updating the Agent.

    img architecture

    For more information about the different Data Security options, see Data governance & security.

  4. Click Create. After creation, the environment will remain in a Not configured state until the first executor is added.