Argo Workflows

What is Argo?

Argo helps make Kubernetes more accessible to everyone. It provides services for creating workflows and jobs that build on Kubernetes. Argo is composed of the following services:

• Argo Workflows - orchestrate parallel jobs on K8. Represent workflows as DAGs and easily run compute intensive jobs.
• Argo CD - uses git repo as the source of truth and builds the deployment env to conform to the repo. Config is via a YAML file or Helm package.
• Argo Events - dependency manager that is events based. It can hook up and listen to sources like AWS SNS, SQS, GCP PubSub and execute workflows.

Why Argo?

Argo is a compelling solution for those that already build on K8. Argo does not reinvent K8 features, instead builds on them. It enables implementing each step in the workflow as a container. It provides artifact management that allows to specify the output from any step as input to another. Since everything is as containers, the entire workflow, including each step and their interactions can be managed as source code (in YAML). This is called container native workflow management. Thus a workflow that runs on one Argo env will run exactly the same on another, allowing for better portability.

Argo CLI commands

List workflows argo list

$ argo list -n <namespace> <flags>
$ argo list -n flood --running  # will list all running workflows in the flood namespace
$ argo list -n flood --completed  # for completed wf

example output:

NAME                                               STATUS                AGE   DURATION   PRIORITY
ingest-weather-data-compass-lisflood-japan-xb7pm   Running               4m    4m         0
flood-pipeline-ps8rf                               Running               42m   41m        0
jp-3hr-live-cgtrb                                  Running               44m   44m        0
jp-3hr-hist-lc89r                                  Running               2d    2d         0

Create / submit workflow using kubectl

You can use argo CLI or kubectl to submit or create workflows.

(base) ➜  ~ k create -n argo-local -f wf-resource-template-localfile.yaml 
workflow.argoproj.io/wf-resource-tmpl-55s7b created

Argo workflow definition files

Below is a sample argo workflow from argo doc website. A template starts by declaring the version it is based off, followed by kind and metadata (name, etc). The spec is the most important part. Spec in-turn has two main parts, entrypoint and templates.

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Workflow
metadata:
  generateName: hello-world-  # Name of this Workflow
spec:
  entrypoint: whalesay        # Defines "whalesay" as the "main" template
  templates:
  - name: whalesay            # Defining the "whalesay" template
    container:
      image: docker/whalesay
      command: [cowsay]
      args: ["hello world"]   # This template runs "cowsay" in the "whalesay" image with arguments "hello world"

The templates section accepts an array of objects. In Yaml, you prefix each element in an array of objects with a -. For, an array of elements, you enclose elements within [] in a single line or in a broken line.

Argo has the following template types:

• Container: specs to schedule a container. This follows the same spec used by K8s. So you can cross use the specs
• Script: convenience wrapper around a container and follows the same spec. It has an additional script field which you can specify which file to be executed.
• Resource: template to modify and operate on K8s resources
• Suspend: to suspend operations

Container template

An example container template is shown below. Notice the container object within the templates section of the spec which defines this is a container template.

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Workflow
metadata:
  generateName: wf-container-templ-
spec:
  entrypoint: container-template
  templates:
    - name: container-template
      container:
        image: python:3.8-slim
        command: [echo]
        args: ["Hello, from within container running argo workflow"]

Script template

A script template inherits from container template. It is a convenience wrapper to allow execution of scripts like Python. Note the script object which takes up the place of container:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Workflow
metadata:
  generateName: wf-script-tmpl-
spec:
  entrypoint: script-template
  templates:
    - name: script-template
      script:
        image: python:3.8-slim
        command: [python]
        source: |
          print("This script is embedded into the template and is executed")

In the case above, the Python script is embedded right into the workflow yaml file.

Resource template

A resource template is used to act on K8s or Argo resources, such as create child workflows. As an example below, we write a resource template to spawn another argo workflow that executes a Python script (using a script template). Notice the resource object within the template section of the workflow yaml. The manifest field takes an entire script template. There is one small caveat - the metadata uses name instead of generateName.

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Workflow
metadata:
  generateName: wf-resource-tmpl-
spec:
  entrypoint: resource-template
  templates:
    - name: resource-template
      resource:
        action: create
        manifest: |
          apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
          kind: Workflow
          metadata:
            name: wf-res-spawn
          spec:
            entrypoint: script-template
            templates:
              - name: script-template
                script:
                  image: python:3.8-slim
                  command: [python]
                  source: |
                    print("WF spawned by another res wf.")

Template invocation

Argo provides invoker templates that can invoke other workflows. There are two types of invoker templates:

• Steps: Defines a list of steps. Inner steps will run in parallel and outer lists will run sequentially
• DAG: Defines the tasks in a directed acyclic graph. A DAG specifies the interdependencies between tasks. This allows Argo to know which tasks can be run sequentially and which in parallel.

Steps template

The steps template resembles other templates seen so far, with the steps object in place of resource or script. The steps object accepts an array of objects, each with a name and template property. In the example below, the step template defines 3 steps, followed by a script template that has the actual logic for each of the steps.

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Workflow
metadata:
  name: wf-steps-template-serial
spec:
  entrypoint: steps-template
  templates:
    - name: steps-template
      steps:
      - - name: step1
          template: task-template
      - - name: step2
          template: task-template
      - - name: step3
          template: task-template

    - name: task-template
      script:
        image: python:3.8-slim
        command: [python]
        source: |
          print("Task - hello")

Outer steps: Note the double dash - - prefix for each of the step element in the template. The double dash signify these are outer tasks and by design, the execute in serial.

Inner steps: Parallel exec: In the case above, all the steps can execute in parallel as there is no inter-dependency between them. To make them execute in parallel, you remove a dash and indent the step as shown below:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Workflow
metadata:
  name: wf-steps-template-parallel
spec:
  entrypoint: steps-template
  templates:
    - name: steps-template
      steps:
      - - name: step1  # outer step
          template: task-template
        - name: step2  # inner step (single dash)
          template: task-template 
        - name: step3  # inner step
          template: task-template
      - - name: step4  # outer step
          template: task-template

    - name: task-template
      script:
        image: python:3.8-slim
        command: [python]
        source: |
          print("Task - hello")

When executed, the workflow looks like below. Note that steps1, 2, and 3 can run in parallel.

and the timeline tab looks like below:

Suspend template

This template can be used to add a pause / sleep timer between steps in a workflow. See example below:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Workflow
metadata:
  name: wf-suspend-template
spec:
  entrypoint: steps-template
  templates:
    - name: steps-template
      steps:
      - - name: step1  # outer step
          template: task-template
        - name: step2  # inner step (single dash)
          template: task-template 
      - - name: delay  # adds the delay
          template: suspend-template
      - - name: step4  # outer step
          template: task-template

    - name: task-template
      script:
        image: python:3.8-slim
        command: [python]
        source: |
          print("Task - hello")

    - name: suspend-template
      suspend:  # The suspend template
        duration: "10s"

DAG template

The DAG template solves the same workflow representation as the steps template. Instead of the you specifying which tasks to run in sequence or parallel, in a DAG, you flip the problem and specify which tasks have a dependency on which other task. The argo executor then attempts to run all tasks in parallel, except when blocked by a dependency. In a DAG, the steps are now called tasks.

Below is an example of a DAG that produces a diamond pattern workflow:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Workflow
metadata:
  name: wf-dag-template
spec:
  entrypoint: dag-template
  templates:
    - name: dag-template
      dag:
        tasks:
          - name: task1
            template: task-template
          - name: task2
            template: task-template 
            dependencies: [task1]
          - name: task3
            template: task-template
            dependencies: [task1]  # makes a binary branch pattern
          - name: task4
            template: task-template
            dependencies: [task2, task3]  # closes dag with a diamond pattern

    - name: task-template
      script:
        image: python:3.8-slim
        command: [python]
        source: |
          print("Task - hello")

Resources

• Medium.com: What is Argo and how it works on GKE
• Argo blog: Introductory article.
• Argo version on Dev cloud: 3.3.6