Constructing Workflows from Script Applications

Mikołaj Baranowski,Marian Bubak,Adam Belloum,Maciej Malawski

doi:10.1155/2012/683634

Mikołaj Baranowski, Marian Bubak + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/683634

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Abstract

For programming and executing complex applications on grid infrastructures, scientific workflows have been proposed as convenient high-level alternative to solutions based on general-purpose programming languages, APIs and scripts. GridSpace is a collaborative programming and execution environment, which is based on a scripting approach and it extends Ruby language with a high-level API for invoking operations on remote resources. In this paper we describe a tool which enables to convert the GridSpace application source code into a workflow representation which, in turn, may be used for scheduling, provenance, or visualization. We describe how we addressed the issues of analyzing Ruby source code, resolving variable and method dependencies, as well as building workflow representation. The solutions to these problems have been developed and they were evaluated by testing them on complex grid application workflows such as CyberShake, Epigenomics and Montage. Evaluation is enriched by representing typical workflow control flow patterns.

Highlights

Programming and running complex scientific applications on Grid infrastructures requires development of high level programming abstractions and supporting environments
To prove that these aspects of process-control can be implemented in GridSpace Ruby scripts, a workflow creation process was performed for each pattern
Script shows hypothetical situation – how Montage would look like if it was written in Ruby and with usage of GridSpace Grid interface

Summary

Introduction

Programming and running complex scientific applications on Grid infrastructures requires development of high level programming abstractions and supporting environments. Applications are defined as complete workflows using specific workflow languages like Abstract Grid Workflow Language (AGWL) or Yet Another Workflow Language (YAWL). These solutions are implemented in scientific workflow systems such as Taverna [9], Kepler [11], WS-VLAM [3] or Pegasus [6]. We describe an attempt to bridge the gap between these two approaches by proposing a solution for converting scriptbased applications of GridSpace [14] platform into scientific workflows

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