What is Expanso and how does it work?

Expanso is a managed platform for deploying intelligent data pipelines at the edge. It processes data where it's generated - reducing bandwidth, latency, and costs. You deploy lightweight agents on your infrastructure, build pipelines using our visual builder or YAML, and control everything from a central SaaS platform.

Can I run AI/ML models directly in my data pipelines?

Yes! Expanso supports running ONNX, TensorFlow Lite, and other models as native pipeline steps. Execute low-latency inference on streaming data, enrich events with model outputs (like risk scores), and make decisions at the edge without cloud round-trips.

How many pre-built components are available?

Expanso provides 200+ pre-built components including inputs (Kafka, HTTP, files), processors (transformations, filtering, PII masking, aggregations), and outputs (S3, Snowflake, Datadog, Splunk). Browse the complete catalog in our Component Reference.

Do I need to write code to build pipelines?

No - use our drag-and-drop visual pipeline builder to create sophisticated pipelines without code. For advanced use cases, you can also write pipelines in YAML or use the Bloblang transformation language for complex data mappings.

How does Expanso help with data governance and compliance?

Expanso includes built-in governance features: automatic PII detection and masking, policy enforcement at the edge, RBAC, SSO integration, and comprehensive audit trails. Mask sensitive data before it ever leaves your network.

Nodes Show Connected After Restart

After an orchestrator restart (upgrades, crashes, deployments), nodes may briefly show "Connected" even though they haven't actually reconnected yet.

Symptoms

Nodes appear "Connected" immediately after orchestrator restart
Jobs scheduled during the first 90 seconds may have executions stuck in Pending
After about 90 seconds, nodes that failed to reconnect transition to "Disconnected"

Why This Happens

The orchestrator saves node state to disk. When it restarts, it loads the old "Connected" state—even though those network connections no longer exist.

To handle this, the orchestrator uses a 90-second grace period after startup. During this window, it doesn't mark nodes as disconnected, giving them time to re-establish heartbeats. Nodes that don't reconnect within this window are then marked as disconnected.

How It Self-Heals

You typically don't need to do anything—the system recovers automatically:

Grace period begins — The orchestrator waits 90 seconds before checking heartbeat timeouts
Nodes reconnect — Edge nodes detect the restart and re-establish their connections
State stabilizes — Nodes with fresh heartbeats stay connected; others transition to disconnected

After 90 seconds, the system accurately reflects which nodes are actually connected.

Debugging

If you suspect connection issues after a restart:

# List nodes and their connection status
expanso-cli node list

# Check if a specific node is receiving heartbeats
expanso-cli node describe <node-id>

# Check execution states for recently deployed jobs
expanso-cli execution list --job <job-id>

If executions stay in Pending for more than 2 minutes, the node may have genuinely lost connectivity (network issues, node offline, etc.).

To verify which nodes reconnected after a restart:

# After orchestrator restart, verify which nodes reconnected
expanso-cli node list

# Look for nodes still in "Connecting" or "Disconnected" state
# These nodes may have network issues preventing reconnection

tip

You don't need to wait before deploying jobs after an orchestrator restart. The grace period handles the transition automatically, and jobs will be scheduled to nodes once they've re-established their connections.

Symptoms​

Why This Happens​

How It Self-Heals​

Debugging​

Symptoms

Why This Happens

How It Self-Heals

Debugging