Workspace usage

When you execute a workflow, it is automatically run within a dedicated workspace namespace in the cluster. This namespace is associated with your username and means we can log who has executed a workflow making it easier to filter logs and identify workflow issues.

When a workflow is executed, up to three workspaces can be involved:

• The deploying workspace, which wrote and deployed the workflow to their own workspace. This is defined in the URL for the Workflow Runner call:

• The calling workspace, which specifies workflow inputs, if required, and can view workflow outputs upon completion, this is set by the username of the account being used to execute the workflow
• The executing workspace, in which the workflow is actually executed and against which the resource usage is logged, this cannot currently be configured by the user, so is set equal to the calling workspace (above)

For now, the executing workspace is always set to that of the calling workspace, but in future User-Services will allow these two to differ, as applications are deployed to the Hub for other users to run within the application's own workspace.

In future this will support with billing, as different workspaces will allow specific workflows to be run within them and charge the calling users. You will also be able to specify a different workspace to your own in future so that you can execute a workflow defined as a User-Service within the specified executing workspace, but this is expected future functionality and is not currently available.