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Installation

This guide covers the full installation process and configuration details for Drona Workflow Engine.

Prerequisites​

  • Python 3.8+
  • Node.js and npm
  • Git

What setup.sh Does​

The setup script automates the following steps:

  1. Configures config.yml and manifest.yml by replacing [app-name] and [user-name] placeholders with actual values
  2. Creates directories — environments/ for workflow definitions and logs/ for application logging
  3. Sets up a Python virtual environment in .venv and installs dependencies from requirements.txt
  4. Installs frontend dependencies (babel-loader, @babel/core, @babel/preset-react) and builds the React frontend

Manual Installation​

If you prefer to install manually or need to adapt the process for your system:

git clone https://github.com/tamu-edu/dor-hprc-drona-composer.git
cd dor-hprc-drona-composer

# Create required directories
mkdir -p environments logs
touch logs/drona_log
chmod uog+rw logs/drona_log

# Python setup
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Frontend setup
npm install -D babel-loader @babel/core @babel/preset-react
npm run build

Configuration​

config.yml​

The main configuration file controls application behavior. Key settings:

development: &common_settings
  cluster_name: "Grace"                    # Your cluster name
  dashboard_url: "/pun/dev/drona-composer" # URL path for the app
  modules_db_path: "/path/to/modules/bin/" # Path to modules database script
  driver_scripts_path: "/path/to/machine_driver_scripts"
  env_repo_github: "https://github.com/..."  # Environment repository URL

production:
  <<: *common_settings
  dashboard_url: "/pun/sys/drona-composer"
  • cluster_name — Display name for the cluster, used internally and in form titles
  • modules_db_path — Path to the external script that retrieves available modules. Used by the module form element
  • driver_scripts_path — Absolute path to the machine_driver_scripts/ directory
  • env_repo_github — GitHub repository URL from which users can import environments

Cluster-Specific Adjustments​

User Environment Directory​

Drona checks a user-specific directory for personal environments. By default this is set to /scratch/user/$USER/drona_composer/environments. If your cluster uses a different path, update the user_envs_path in views/job_composer.py:

user_envs_path = f"/scratch/user/{os.getenv('USER')}/drona_composer/environments"

Temporary Directory​

Drona uses /tmp for temporary files during job processing. If your cluster uses a different location, update the relevant functions in:

  • machine_driver_scripts/utils.py — drona_add_additional_file(), drona_add_warning(), drona_add_mapping()
  • machine_driver_scripts/engine.py — set_dynamic_additional_files(), get_dynamic_map(), get_warnings()

Older Python Versions​

For clusters running Python 3.6, an alternate requirements file is provided. Copy requirements.txt.Python2.6.8 to requirements.txt and follow the normal setup process. You may also need to remove package-lock.json.

Texas A&M University High Performance Research Computing