This is a FAQ for common questions that occur when debugging the operations of a running Flume NG cluster.
HDFS Sink
How can I use date escape sequences (%H, %M, etc) on the HDFS Sink? I am getting a NumberFormatException...
To use the date related escape sequences you need to provide a timestamp header.
The easiest way to do this would be configuring a timestamp interceptor onto your source, something like:
sender1.sources.tail.interceptors = ts sender1.sources.tail.interceptors.ts.type = org.apache.flume.interceptor.TimestampInterceptor$Builder