FireWorks

Note: FireWorks is under active development; major features are yet to be implemented, and the internal code is refactored often and not suitable for production. However, certain components of the code are available for initial testing.

FireWorks is a code for defining, managing, and executing scientific workflows. It can be used to automate most types of calculations over arbitrary computing resources, including those that have a queueing system.

Features

FireWorks is intended to be a friendly workflow software that is easy to get started with, but flexible enough to handle complicated use cases.

Some (but not all) of its features include:

  • Storage and management of workflows through MongoDB, a noSQL datastore that is flexible and easy to use.
  • Ability to distribute calculations over multiple worker nodes, each of which might use different a queueing system and process a different type of calculation.
  • Support for dynamic workflows that that react to results programmatically. You can pre-specify what actions to take depending on the output of a job (e.g., terminate a workflow, add a new step, or completely alter the workflow)
  • Automatic detection of duplicate sub-workflows - skip duplicated portions between two workflows while still running unique sections
  • Loosely-coupled and modular infrastructure that is intentionally hackable. Use some FireWorks components without using everything, and more easily adapt FireWorks to your application.
  • Plug-and-play on several large supercomputing clusters and queueing systems (future)
  • Monitoring of workflows through a web service (future)
  • Package many small jobs into a single large job (useful for running on HPC machines that prefer a small number of large-CPU jobs). (future)

Limitations

Some limitations of FireWorks include:

  • FireWorks has not been stress-tested to hundreds of jobs within a single workflow.
  • FireWorks has not been stress-tested to millions of workflows.
  • FireWorks does not automatically optimize the distribution of computing tasks over worker nodes (e.g., to minimize data movement or to match jobs to appropriate hardware); you must define such optimizations yourself.
  • FireWorks has only been tested on Linux and Macintosh machines.

If you encounter any problems while using FireWorks, please let us know (see Contributing and Contact).

Is FireWorks for me?

It can be time-consuming to evaluate whether a workflow software will meet your computing needs from documentation alone. If you just want to know whether FireWorks is a potential solution to your workflow problem, one option is to e-mail a description of your problem to the developer at: developer contact

We can tell you if:

  • Your problem is a great match for FireWorks
  • Your problem requires implementing minor extensions or modifications to FireWorks, but FireWorks is still a potential solution
  • Your problem is not easily solved with FireWorks and you should probably look elsewhere!

Getting Started!

To get started with FireWorks, we suggest that you follow our core tutorials. These tutorials will set up a central server as well as worker computers. They will also demonstrate how to define and run basic workflows. We expect that completing all of the core tutorials will take between one and three hours. (You might want to get a snack...)

More!

Depending on your application, you might also be interested in the following tutorials:

Planned future tutorials:

  • Maintaining the FW database and dealing with crashed jobs
  • Detailed tutorial on implementing dynamic jobs
  • Securing the FW database
  • Detailed tutorial on Script Task
  • File movement Task Operations
  • Database Task Operations
  • Assigning specific FireWorkers to run certain jobs
  • Assigning and modifying job priority
  • Using a web interface to monitor FireWorks
  • Checkpoint / restart of jobs
  • Using the QueueLauncher outside of FW
  • Searching for FireWorks and Workflows
  • Logging
  • Shortcuts, power usage
  • FW design guide, e.g. FireTasks vs Workflows
  • JSON vs. YAML and serialization of FW objects (including WF serialiazation as TAR instead of JSON/YAML)

Contributing and Contact

Want to see something added or changed? There are many ways to make that a reality! Some ways to get involved are:

  • Help us improve the documentation - tell us where you got ‘stuck’ and improve the install process for everyone.
  • Let us know if you need support for a queueing system or certain features.
  • Point us to areas of the code that are difficult to understand or use.
  • Contribute code! If you are interested in this option, please see our contribution guidelines.

The collaborative way to submit questions, issues, and all other communication is through the FireWorks Github page. You can also contact: developer contact

The list of contributors to FireWorks can be found here.

License

FireWorks is developed under a BSD-style License (an open-source license), reproduced below:

FireWorks Copyright (c) 2013, The Regents of the University of
California, through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (subject
to receipt of any required approvals from the U.S. Dept. of Energy).
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:

(1) Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

(2) Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with
the distribution.

(3) Neither the name of the University of California, Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy nor the names of
its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN
ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

You are under no obligation whatsoever to provide any bug fixes,
patches, or upgrades to the features, functionality or performance
of the source code ("Enhancements") to anyone; however, if you
choose to make your Enhancements available either publicly, or
directly to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory or its
contributors, without imposing a separate written license agreement
for such Enhancements, then you hereby grant the following license:
a  non-exclusive, royalty-free perpetual license to install, use,
modify, prepare derivative works, incorporate into other computer
software, distribute, and sublicense such enhancements or derivative
works thereof, in binary and source code form.

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