# The Experimental workflow

The workflow consists of these steps:
  - **book nodes** by submitting a job to the //OAR// scheduler
  - **submit experimental tasks**, with //Minus//

===== Book nodes with OAR =====

The booking of the testbed in order to launch and experiment is done the the OAR tool and the oarsub command.
This is explained here: 

 * [[Reserve|Book the testbed]]

The state of reservation of the CorteXlab testbed can be visualized here: http://xp.cortexlab.fr/drawgantt/


===== Submit experimental tasks =====

Once inside a running OAR job, you can submit one or several **Experimental tasks** by using minus:

<code>$ minus task submit <task_file_name></code>

All submitted minus tasks are enqueued in a simple FIFO and will execute sequentially.

Of course, to be able to schedule experimental tasks, you need to have a running OAR job.

When your OAR job ends, all running and remaining tasks are aborted and removed for the FIFO.

===== Interactive or batch experiments =====

When submitting or reserving an OAR job, you have the choice between interactive or batch:
  - In //interactive// mode, an interactive subshell is instanciated where you work interactively. The job ends as soon as the interactive shell is closed
  - In //batch// mode, you pass to command ''oarsub'' the name of an executable file which will be run as soon as the job starts. It is thus possible to write scripts which submit several experimental tasks (for example, to explore the variation of experimental parameters), and to submit OAR jobs which will be run automatically and asynchrously (even during the night).