What is ecflow
ECFLOW is a client/server workflow package that enables users to run a large number of programs (with dependencies on each other and on time) in a controlled environment. It provides reasonable tolerance for hardware and software failures, combined with restart capabilities.
ECFLOW submits tasks (jobs) and receives acknowledgments from the tasks when they change status and when they send events, using child commands embedded in your scripts. ECFLOW stores the relationships between tasks, and is able to submit tasks dependant on triggers, such as when a given task changes its status, for example when it finishes. Users communicate with ECFLOW server using:
- Command Level Interface (CLI).
- Python interface
- ecflowview. This is an X-Windows/Motif based program.
ECFLOW runs as a server receiving requests from clients. CLI, ecflowview and the suite jobs are the clients. Communication is based on TCP/IP. Note that ECFLOW is a scheduler and is not a queuing system such as NQS, SGE, Load leveller or PBS. However, it can submit to queuing systems.
History
ECFLOW is a product of the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and was written by the Meteorological Applications (MetApps) section.
ECFLOW is a complete replacement of SMS. It has been written using an object oriented language. It provides most of the functionality that is available in SMS.