Running Workflows
There are two ways you can submit jobs to a cluster: by using workflows or through any terminal or command-line interface. For the command-line interface option, please see Submitting Jobs via Slurm.
After you’ve started a cluster, navigate to the Workflows page and select the workflow you’d like to use. If you haven’t added any workflows, you can select one from the Marketplace.
When you click the name of your workflow, you'll be taken to the workflow's Jobs page. Click the Run Workflow tab.
The Run Workflow tab is where you enter the inputs used in the workflow.
In the Workflow Settings section, enter any necessary parameters. The example workflow pictured has only two test parameters, but your selected workflow may have more or fewer options.
In the Workflow Host section, select your running resource and how the job will be submitted. In this example, we ran our workflow on the resource Demo. We submitted the job to Demo's controller because we used a small workflow. You might submit your job to a partition, Slurm, or PBS, depending on your resource's configuration and your workflow's needs.
Click Execute.
You’ll be taken back to the workflow's Jobs tab, where you can monitor your workflow's progress.
The Workflow Monitor shows your workflow's status. In this example, the monitor shows Completed with a Runtime of 0 because the demo workflow ran in less than a second, bypassing the Running status. Workflows that create larger or more complex jobs will show Running for longer periods of time before showing Completed.
The Job logs module shows your job's output as well as details about your workflow's session.
In this example, we ran a simple bash script that returns the running resource's hostname, so Job logs displayed the following output:
Starting test workflow at Wed Jan 25 17:12:21 UTC 2023
INPUT ARGUMENTS:
Running on the following computer: pw-user-demo
This is a NO-OP workflow - nothing got launched remotely.
Done!
In addition to your workflow's output, logs also include start times and messages for job submissions, job completions, and job errors if any occur.
On the Home page, the Workflow Monitor will also reflect your job's status.
On the Home page, you can click a workflow's ID number in the Workflow Monitor to return to its Jobs tab.
The example workflow used here has only two parameters meant for testing purposes. Many workflows on ACTIVATE have additional parameters, especially those that execute multiple or more complex tasks. If you need help with setting parameters, you can reach out to your admin or to us at any time.