Understanding the full cost of running workflows in Terra

Beth Sheets
  • Updated

Workflow run costs

Workflow run costs reflect the amount of time your workflow used compute resources from GCP Batch. These costs are displayed directly in the Workflow Submission user interface, under Submission History.

For instructions on setting up cost reporting, see How much did my workflow cost?


Workflow file storage costs

Every workflow submission creates intermediate and output files that are saved in your workspace bucket, under the submissions/ directory. These files persist after a run completes, and storage costs accumulate over time.

To manage these storage costs, you can configure lifecycle rules in your Workspace Settings. Lifecycle rules automatically delete files in specified directories after a set number of days.

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What changes when you enable lifecycle rules:

Enabling lifecycle rules also changes the directory structure for future workflow submissions. Files are separated into two directories:

  • submissions/intermediates/ — temporary files generated during workflow execution
  • submissions/final-outputs/ — final output files

You can then apply a lifecycle rule specifically to the submissions/intermediates/ directory to automatically remove short-lived files you no longer need, while preserving final outputs. Below is an example setting for deleting intermediate files associated with workflows after 7 days.

 

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To configure lifecycle rules, go to your Workspace Settings and look for the Lifecycle Rules section.

 


Workflow logging costs

Workflows generate logs to help you review and troubleshoot jobs. Google's Logs Explorer manages these logs and Terra has set a default retention period of 30 days.

You can adjust the log retention period in your Workspace Settings uisng the Workspace Analysis Log Retention section.

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If you see a spike in cloud logging costs while running workflows, we recommend decreasing the log retention period. A shorter retention period reduces the volume of logs stored in Google Cloud and lowers the associated cost.

Keep in mind that reducing retention means logs will be removed sooner. If you need to troubleshoot a failed run, review the relevant logs before the retention period expires.

Additionally, you can also delete logs associated with a workflow submission directly by:

  1. Go to Workflow Submissions

  2. Select the Submission of interest

  3. Select the Run of interest within the Submission and open it in Terra's Job Manager

  4. On the right side for the details of the run, click the "backend log" icon

  5. This opens Logs Explorer, where there is a "delete" icon for this specific workflow run

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