Overview

The core value of Application Center is to simplify complex scheduler CLI workflows and script writing into GUI operations. This helps new users get started with HPC platforms faster and lowers the learning curve. Task management therefore provides flexible task template customization: after advanced users/administrators define templates, regular users can submit and manage HPC tasks through a wizard.

Two Execution Modes in Application Center

• CWL-based task mode

This is the task mode that has long been provided by the Fastone software stack. It uses Common Workflow Language (CWL) to define task workflows. In this mode, CWL-based task templates typically need to be created with help from the Fastone support team.

Typical scenarios: complex workflows in life sciences; cloud workloads that create/destroy clusters with tasks.

• Scheduler-oriented task mode

This mode was introduced in version 24.03. It is designed to better match user habits in traditional HPC scenarios such as CAE. It simplifies task scheduling and is suitable for non-workflow workloads or scenarios where scheduler-level job information matters. In this mode, you can create task templates by following this documentation.

Typical scenarios: single-job workloads in traditional HPC (for example, CAE); tasks that need scheduler status visibility.

Feature comparison of the two modes:

	CWL-based task mode (CWL tasks)	Scheduler-oriented task mode (Direct tasks)
Task definition language	CWL	Fastone custom YAML format
Scheduling flow	Two-level scheduling for workflows	Directly schedules jobs to the scheduler
Dynamic cluster per task	Supported (FCC-E resource pool only)	Not supported
Status display	Shows CWL workflow status	Shows scheduler main-task/job status
Multi-step workflow	Supported via CWL	Supported via task scripts
Shell script templates	Not directly supported	Supported natively
Parameter linkage	Not supported	Supports linkage with scheduler metrics (CPU/partition, etc.)