Configuration

The configuration sections contains dependencies, arguments and other process configuration values.

• Merge Rules
• Entry Point
• Arguments
• Dependencies
• Requirements
• Process Timeout
• Exclusive Execution
• Metadata
• Template
• Runner
• Debug

Merge Rules

Process configuration values can come from different sources: the section in the concord.yml file, request parameters, policies, etc. Here’s the order in which all configuration sources are merged before the process starts:

• environment-specific default values;
• defaultCfg policy values;
• the current organization’s configuration values;
• the current project’s configuration values;
• values from current active profiles
• configuration file send in the process start request;
• processCfg policy values.

Entry Point

The entryPoint configuration sets the name of the flow that will be used for process executions. If no entryPoint is specified the flow labelled default is used automatically, if it exists.

configuration:
  entryPoint: "main"
flows:
  main:
  - log: "Hello World"

Arguments

Default values for arguments can be defined in the arguments section of the configuration as simple key/value pairs as well as nested values:

configuration:
  arguments:
    name: "Example"
    coordinates:
      x: 10
      y: 5
      z: 0
flows:
  default:
    - log: "Project name: ${name}"
    - log: "Coordinates (x,y,z): ${coordinates.x}, ${coordinates.y}, ${coordinates.z}"

Values of arguments can contain expressions. Expressions can use all regular tasks:

configuration:
  arguments:
    listOfStuff: ${myServiceTask.retrieveListOfStuff()}
    myStaticVar: 123

The variables are evaluated in the order of definition. For example, it is possible to use a variable value in another variable if the former is defined earlier than the latter:

configuration:
  arguments:
    name: "Concord"
    message: "Hello, ${name}"

A variable’s value can be defined or modified with the set step and a number of variables are automatically set in each process and available for usage.

Dependencies

The dependencies array allows users to specify the URLs of dependencies such as:

• Concord plugins and their dependencies
• Dependencies needed for specific scripting language support
• Other dependencies required for process execution

configuration:
  dependencies:
  # maven URLs...
  - mvn://org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:2.4.12
  # or direct URLs
  - https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/codehaus/groovy/groovy-all/2.4.12/groovy-all-2.4.12.jar"
  - https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/commons/commons-lang3/3.6/commons-lang3-3.6.jar"

The artifacts are downloaded and added to the classpath for process execution and are typically used for task implementations.

Multiple versions of the same artifact are replaced with a single one, following standard Maven resolution rules.

Usage of the mvn: URL pattern is preferred since it uses the centrally configured list of repositories and downloads not only the specified dependency itself, but also any required transitive dependencies. This makes the Concord project independent of access to a specific repository URL, and hence more portable.

Maven URLs provide additional options:

• transitive=true|false - include all transitive dependencies (default true);
• scope=compile|provided|system|runtime|test - use the specific dependency scope (default compile).

Additional options can be added as “query parameters” parameters to the dependency’s URL:

configuration:
  dependencies:
  - "mvn://com.walmartlabs.concord:concord-client:1.72.0?transitive=false"

The syntax for the Maven URL uses the groupId, artifactId, optionally packaging, and version values - the GAV coordinates of a project. For example the Maven pom.xml for the Groovy scripting language runtime has the following definition:

<project>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.groovy</groupId>
  <artifactId>groovy-all</artifactId>
  <version>2.4.12</version>
  ...
</project>

This results in the path org/codehaus/groovy/groovy-all/2.4.12/groovy-all-2.4.12.jar in the Central Repository and any repository manager proxying the repository.

The mvn syntax uses the short form for GAV coordinates groupId:artifactId:version, so for example org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:2.4.12 for Groovy.

Newer versions of groovy-all use <packaging>pom</packaging> and define dependencies. To use a project that applies this approach, called Bill of Material (BOM), as a dependency you need to specify the packaging in between the artifactId and version. For example, version 2.5.2 has to be specified as org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:pom:2.5.2:

configuration:
  dependencies:
  - "mvn://org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:pom:2.5.2"

The same logic and syntax usage applies to all other dependencies including Concord plugins.

Requirements

A process can have a specific set of requirements configured. Requirements are used to control where the process is executed and what kind of resources it requires.

The server uses requirements.agent value to determine which agents it can set the process to. For example, if the process specifies

configuration:
  requirements:
    agent:
      favorite: true

and there is an agent with

concord-agent {
  capabilities = {
    favorite = true
  }
}

in its configuration file then it is a suitable agent for the process.

Following rules are used when matching requirements.agent values of processes and agent capabilities:

• if the value is present in capabilities but missing in requirements.agent is is ignored;
• if the value is missing in capabilities but present in requirements.agent then it is not a match;
• string values in requirements.agent are treated as regular expressions, i.e. in pseudo code capabilities_value.regex_match(requirements_value);
• lists in requirements.agent are treated as “one or more” match, i.e. if one or more elements in the list must match the value from capabilities;
• other values are compared directly.

More examples:

configuration:
  requirements:
    agent:
      size: ".*xl"
      flavor:
        - "vanilla"
        - "chocolate"

matches agents with:

concord-agent {
  capabilities = {
    size = "xxl"
    flavor = "vanilla"
  }
}

Custom jvm arguments can be specified in the requirements section of the configuration object. Concord Agent pass these arguments to the process’ JVM:

configuration:
  requirements:
    jvm:
      extraArgs:
        - "-Xms256m"
        - "-Xmx512m"

Note: Processes with custom jvm arguments can’t use the “pre-fork” mechanism and are usually slower to start.

Note: Consult with your Concord instance’s admin to determine what the limitations are for JVM memory and other settings.

Process Timeout

You can specify the maximum amount of time the process can spend in the running state with the processTimeout configuration. It can be useful to set specific SLAs for deployment jobs or to use it as a global timeout:

configuration:
  processTimeout: "PT1H"
flows:
  default:
  # a long running process

In the example above, if the process runs for more than 1 hour it is automatically cancelled and marked as timed out.

The parameter accepts duration in the ISO 8601 format.

A special onTimeout flow can be used to handle such processes:

flows:
  onTimeout:
  - log: "I'm going to run when my parent process times out"

Note that forms waiting for input and other process action are captured in a suspended state, which is not affecting process runtime and therefore also not the process timeout.

If an onTimeout flow fails, it is automatically retried up to three times.

Note: The process timeout is not applied to processes in SUSPENDED state.

Exclusive Execution

The exclusive section in the process configuration can be used to configure exclusive execution of the process:

configuration:
  exclusive:
    group: "myGroup"
    mode: "cancel"

flows:
  default:
    - "${sleep.ms(60000)}" # simulate a long-running task

In the example above, if another process in the same project with the same group value is submitted, it will be immediately cancelled.

If mode set to wait then only one process in the same group is allowed to run.

Note: this feature available only for project processes.

Metadata

Flows can expose internal variables as process metadata. Such metadata can be retrieved using the API or displayed in the process list in Concord Console.

configuration:
  meta:
    myValue: "n/a" # initial value

flows:
  default:
  - set:
      myValue: "hello!"

After each step, Concord sends the updated value back to the server:

$ curl -skn http://concord.example.com/api/v1/process/1c50ab2c-734a-4b64-9dc4-fcd14637e36c | jq '.meta.myValue'
"hello!"

Nested variables and forms are also supported:

configuration:
  meta:
    nested.value: "n/a"

flows:
  default:
  - set:
      nested:
        value: "hello!"

The value is stored under the nested.value key:

$ curl -skn http://concord.example.com/api/v1/process/1c50ab2c-734a-4b64-9dc4-fcd14637e36c | jq '.meta.["nested.value"]'
"hello!"

Example with a form:

configuration:
  meta:
    myForm.myValue: "n/a"

flows:
  default:
  - form: myForm
    fields:
    - myValue: { type: "string" }

Template

A template can be used to allow inheritance of all the configurations of another project. The value for the template field has to be a valid URL pointing to a JAR-archive of the project to use as template.

The template is downloaded for process execution and exploded in the workspace. More detailed documentation, including information about available templates, can be found in the templates section.

Runner

Concord Runner is the name of the default runtime used for actual execution of processes. Its parameters can be configured in the runner section of the configuration object. Here is an example of the default configuration:

configuration:
  runner:
    debug: false
    logLevel: "INFO"
    events:
      recordTaskInVars: false
      inVarsBlacklist:
        - "password"
        - "apiToken"
        - "apiKey"

      recordTaskOutVars: false
      outVarsBlacklist: []

• debug - enables additional debug logging, true if configuration.debug enabled;
• logLevel - logging level for the log task;
• events - the process event recording parameters:
  • recordTaskInVars - enable or disable recording of input variables in task calls;
  • inVarsBlacklist - list of variable names that must not be recorded if recordTaskInVars is true;
  • recordTaskOutVars - enable or disable recording of output variables in task calls;
  • outVarsBlacklist - list of variable names that must not be recorded if recordTaskInVars is true.

See the Process Events section for more details about the process event recording.

Debug

Enabling the debug configuration option causes Concord to log paths of all resolved dependencies. It is useful for debugging classpath conflict issues:

configuration:
  debug: true