In an Apache NiFi data flow, flowfiles move from one to another processor through connection that gets validated using a relationship between processors. Whenever a connection is created, a developer selects one or more relationships between those processors.

As you can see in the above image, the check boxes in black rectangle are relationships. If a developer selects these check boxes then, the flowfile will terminate in that particular processor, when the relationship is success or failure or both.

Success

When a processor successfully processes a flowfile like store or fetch data from any datasource without getting any connection, authentication or any other error, then the flowfile goes to success relationship.

Failure

When a processor is not able to process a flowfile without errors like authentication error or connection problem, etc. then the flowfile goes to a failure relationship.

A developer can also transfer the flowfiles to other processors using connections. The developer can select and also load balance it, but load balancing is just released in version 1.8, which will not be covered in this tutorial.

As you can see in the above image the connection marked in red have failure relationship, which means all flowfiles with errors will go to the processor in left and respectively all the flowfiles without errors will be transferred to the connection marked in green.

Let us now proceed with the other relationships.

comms.failure

This relationship is met, when a Flowfile could not be fetched from the remote server due to a communications failure.

not.found

Any Flowfile for which we receive a ‘Not Found’ message from the remote server will move to not.found relationship.

permission.denied

When NiFi unable to fetch a flowfile from the remote server due to insufficient permission, it will move through this relationship.