Create a Job

You create a job via a manifest that defines the job’s behavior. You can add an askanna.yml file to your project code. In the askanna.yml file you can specify a job. After specifying the job, you can push/upload your code to AskAnna and AskAnna will create the job.

Job definition

An example of a job definition:

name of the job:
  job:
    - pip install -r requirements.txt
    - python train_your_model.py --input_file ${AA_PAYLOAD_PATH}
  output:
    result: models/model_summary.json
    artifact:
      - models/

name of the job (required)

The job definition starts with the name of the job. You cannot use the following names as a job name:

• push-target
• environment
• cluster
• image
• worker
• variables

job (required)

Here you list the commands that you want to execute in the run. In the above example, the first command executed is installing the requirements. If that command finished successful, we will also run a second command that triggers a Python script.

output

In the output you can define which files you want to store. There are two options:

1. result
2. artifact

In result you can refer to a single file that contains the result of the run. For example, a JSON file with the summary of a train job. Or the prediction served by a predict job.

In artifact you can list directories or files that you want to save as artifact of the run.

Environment

In the askanna.yml file you can specify the default environment for the project, or a specific environment image that should be used for the job:

name of the job:
  environment:
    image: askanna/python:3.11
  job:
    - ...

Read more about 'Environments'

Notifications

It's possible to receive notifications for a job:

name of the job:
  job:
    - ...
  notifications:
    all:
      email:
        - [email protected]
    error:
      email:
        - [email protected]

Read more about 'Notifications'

Schedule

It's possible to schedule a job:

name of the job:
  job:
    - ...
  schedule:
    - "@weekly"

Read more about 'Scheduling a Job'

Use variables

In the job definition, you can also use variables. In the job example above the ${AA_PAYLOAD_PATH} is a variable. A variable can be used as a parameter in the job manifest and is also available as environment variables in the run environment. Variables are created on different levels:

• AskAnna variables
• Project variables
• Payload variables

In the job definition you can refer to the different variables via ${VARIABLE_NAME}.

AskAnna variables

AskAnna variables are always available in every job. The list of AskAnna variables:

Payload

When you run a job, it’s possible to send a JSON data body. This JSON file is made available in the run environment. You can get the location of the payload file via the variable AA_PAYLOAD_PATH. This variable is also set as an environment variable.

Project variables

Project variables are variables defined on project level. On the project page you can find the section variables. Here you can manage variables. The project variables are available via the name you defined and for both the job definition, as also as environment variables in the run environment.

For more information check the variables documentation.

Payload variables

There are two use cases for adding a JSON file to a request. The first is adding data that can be used in the run. Another use case is that the JSON body contains variables that can be used in the run.

AskAnna scans the first 10,000 characters of the payload JSON file. Every key will become a variable name, and every value the value of that variable. In case the Payload variable and Project variable has the same name, AskAnna will use the value of the Payload variable.

Example of a JSON payload:

{
  "FROM_DATE": "2020-09-07",
  "UNTIL_DATE": "2020-09-11",
  "TRAINED_MODEL_ID": "k68o-Mi2L-mYte-7E54"
}

In the job definition you can use these JSON keys as variables:

name of the job:
  job:
    - askanna artifact get --id ${TRAINED_MODEL_ID} --output "models/"
    - pip install -r requirements.txt
    - python your_model.py --from_date ${FROM_DATE} --until_date ${UNTIL_DATE}

In the above example, we use Payload variables to define which trained model and period we want to use to run the model. With this setup you can easily switch between models and periods.

Time zone

The AskAnna platform runs by default on servers that are configured to run on time zone UTC. However, if you want to run a job in a time zone of your choice, then you can configure this.

name of the job:
  job:
    - ...
  timezone: Europe/Amsterdam

Also, you can set the default time zone for all jobs:

push-target: ...
timezone: Europe/Amsterdam

name of the job:
  job:
    - ...

If you set both the time zone for all jobs, and a different time zone for the job, then the latest will applied when you run that job.

For time zones, we use the tz database. In the askanna.yml config, you can refer to any TZ database name from the list of tz database time zones:

Open the list of TZ database time zones

When you run a job where the time zone is set, the time zone is set to the specified time zone at the startup of the worker. So, for example, if you now run the date command in a job, you will see the date and time of the specified time zone. We also set the time zone as environment variable TZ in the run environment.