A common workflow registry of compute endpoints and applications

Research topic and goals

There is now a large and ever-growing number of workflow systems, and we have lost hope in encouraging users not to continue developing more. Instead, we want to focus on building shared elements that can help us with our own systems, as well as the users of those systems and the developers of applications that will increasingly be used as workflow elements in simulation, analysis, search, optimization, and parameter study research campaigns.

As discussed briefly at JLESC 9 (in ST A1.1. Python-based Workflows & Software Sustainability), two of the common types of elements that workflow systems interact with are the end computing systems and the preexisting applications that the workflows wrap and call. Today, users of a workflow system have to find information about both the end points and the applications, they have to map that information to workflow-specific configuration formats, individually customize their workflow to use these configurations, and keep up with changes over time. Instead, we propose a registry of compute end points and applications, where an entry could be automatically brought in to a workflow system.

This requires a pair of components:

  1. The registry itself and a means for adding and editing entries, potentially along with curation, or perhaps community curated, using WikiData

  2. A means to use entries for a given workflow system

Registry entries could be added by three different groups:

  1. Compute resource providers could enter their systems, and application developers could enter their applications

  2. Workflow system providers could enter systems and applications that they support, or we could collect published configurations and map them to our common schema

  3. Workflow developers could enter system and applications that they and their workflow users need

Results for 2020–2022

The BSC team, in the context of the eFLows4HPC project, has developed an extension of the PyCOMPSs programming model to allow the integration of 3rd party software execution within a PyCOMPSs workflow with a simple JSON description. This integration is done with a new python decorator which is located on top of a python function which represent the 3rd party software invation, as indicated below.

@software (config_file=software_description.json) 
def external_software(params):
  pass

The software_description.json can be stored locally or retrieved from a repository and provides a description of how the software is executed, If it is a multicore binary execution, mpi application, service invocation, etc. This description is processed by the PyCOMPSs runtime which replaces the method call by the application executed indicated in the description. A code example can be found in this link

In collaboration with the ECP ExaWorks project, we have contributed to the definition and development of PSI/J, a common Python library for managing asynchronous execution of jobs on schedulers. We contributed to the specification and the Python library. The evolving implementation currently supports Slurm, Cobalt, Flux, and LSF.

We have also worked with the Science Gateways Community Institute to provide feedback on the SGCI Resource Inventory. This initiative shares similar goals to our work in the NSF community. The inventory includes a JSON schema and a GitHub-based flow for cataloging systems.

We’ve also been involved in spinning up the Workflows Community Initiative, which is another part to build buy-in for this work.

Visits and meetings

Impact and publications

    Future plans

    Contributions:

    1. A prototype of the registry itself and a means for adding and editing entries, potentially along with curation, or perhaps community curated, using WikiData

    2. Methods to use registry entries in Parsl and PyCOMPs

    Timeline:

    The initial work that proposed is

    1. defining the schema for the registry, and implementing it as a REST service
    2. building some test elements, and entering them manually
    3. building software for Parsl and PyCOMPs to import and use registry entries

    We originally planed to do this initial work in the summer of 2020, but due to COVID-19 disruptions, we are now planning to focus initially on defining the registration schema and collecting resource documents in a GitHub repository during 2020. In early 2021, we will get some experience with using them in an ad hoc fashion. With the help of students we will develop the REST API and integrate with Parsl over summer 2021. Also in 2021, the use of the registry will be considered within the EU eFlows4HPC project and its integration with PyCOMPSs. After these initial activities, we will evaluate progress and decide on next steps, which likely include a publication and bringing in additional workflow systems.

    Computer resource needs:

    Very few – no testing needs to be done at large scale, though we will need access to a few HPC systems to test mechanisms for their use

    Expected results:

    • Paper describing the prototype
    • The prototype registry
    • Initial methods added to Parsl and PyCOMPs to use the registry

    References