Customer Data Feed FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Customer Data Feed (CDF) files.

Amazon S3 Storage:anchor-amazon-s3-storage:

Where is my CDF file stored on Amazon?

Your CDF file is stored in the aam-cdf root directory on an Amazon S3 server. This default bucket is managed by Audience Manager. See also Customer Data Feed File Naming Conventions.

Is my storage bucket secure?

Yes. Customers get access to their own storage space only. You will have read-only access to your storage bucket. You will not have write access.

Can I customize my storage bucket or store files in another directory?

No. Customization and alternate storage options are not available.

My directory is missing a file for particular hour. Where is it?

A missing file means Audience Manager was not able to process your CDF files for that hour. This usually happens when our servers get behind in processing CDF files. In this case, your file is not lost. It will appear in a later hourly directory after our system has a chance to catch up. See also, Customer Data Feed File Processing Notifications.

How do I know when my CDF files are ready?

See Customer Data Feed File Processing Notifications.

File Sizes

What sort of file sizes should I expect? How big is an average CDF file?

It is difficult to estimate file sizes. And, each file can be a different size. Sizes will vary from hour to hour and day to day. If you’re going to receive CDF files, it helps to be prepared to manage a lot of data.

How many files will I receive?

Again, it is difficult to estimate this. However, if you’re going to receive CDF files it helps to be prepared to manage a lot of data.

Data Integrity

How can I check the integrity of the data uploaded to Amazon S3?

Amazon splits large files into smaller parts and uploads them to Amazon S3 using the multi-part upload. Then, it generates an ETag value for the multi-part upload. It first calculates the individual MD5 checksums of each uploaded part, then concatenates them into a single string. Then, it calculates the MD5 checksum of the string. The resulting checksum (the ETag) is then appended with a hyphen and the total number of parts used for upload. For instance, the ETag for a file that was split into 5 parts during upload could look something like this: 2c51427d19021e88cf3395365895b6d4-5

Data Retention

How long do you store CDF files?

Data is deleted after 8 (eight) days.

Can I get CDF files retroactively or for previous days?

You can only generate CDF files for the past 8 days. CDF files for intervals older than the past 8 days cannot be re-generated.