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Execute a Workflow

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This guide walks through executing an HSF workflow end to end, from finding it in IDP to verifying the output is visible in the catalog.

Before you begin​

  • You have been added to the HSF Users group (or HSF Admins).
  • HSF has been deployed and post-deployment configuration is complete.
  • You know which workflow you want to run. Go to How workflows work for the full list of default workflows.

Steps​

Complete the following five steps to run a workflow and confirm its output.

Step 1: Find the workflow in IDP​

Workflows are published in the IDP workflows catalog. To locate the one you want to run, do the following:

  1. Navigate to IDP in your Harness account.
  2. Select Workflows from the left navigation.
  3. Browse or search for the workflow you want to run.
tip

If you do not see the workflow you are looking for, it may not be registered in IDP yet. Ask your HSF Admin to run Register Custom IDP Templates to sync the latest workflows.

Step 2: Execute the workflow​

Submitting the workflow form starts the provisioning pipeline. To submit it, do the following:

  1. Click the workflow to open it.
  2. Click Execute.
  3. Fill in the required inputs. Each field has a description explaining what it expects; go to the individual workflow reference page for a full breakdown of all inputs and valid values.
  4. Click Create to submit.

Step 3: Monitor the execution​

After submitting, HSF starts the Create and Manage IACM Workspaces pipeline in the background. To monitor progress:

  1. After clicking Create, select Show Logs to see the initial output.
  2. Scroll down in the logs panel. You will see a link to the running Create and Manage IACM Workspaces pipeline. Click it to open the pipeline execution view.
  3. Monitor the pipeline run. Once it completes, it will automatically trigger the Provision Workspace pipeline.

Step 4: Respond to approval requests​

At two points during execution, an HSF Admin will receive an email notification asking them to approve the next step:

  1. Entity creation approval: review the summary of what will be provisioned and approve or reject.
  2. Terraform plan approval: review the full resource diff and confirm the changes are expected before approving.

Approvals are completed directly inside the pipeline execution view in Harness.

note

If no approval notification arrives within a few minutes of submission, check that the HSF Admins group has notification settings configured. Go to Post-deployment configuration to review the notification setup.

Step 5: Verify the output​

Once the workflow completes successfully, confirm the following:

  • Navigate to IDP → Catalog and search for the resource that was provisioned. The workflow output is automatically registered as a catalog entry.
  • Navigate to IaCM → Workspaces and confirm the workspace was created in the correct project.

Update an existing resource​

You do not need to re-run the workflow from IDP to update a resource. Because each workflow creates an IaCM workspace, you can update it directly:

  1. Navigate to IaCM → Workspaces and find the workspace for the resource you want to update.
  2. Under Variables → OpenTofu Variables, update the relevant variable.
  3. Save the variable, then run Provision Workspace on the workspace to apply the change (this will go through the approval flow again).

Troubleshooting​

If a pipeline step fails during workflow execution, start with the execution view:

  • Open the pipeline execution view: navigate to the pipeline run link visible in the IDP execution log, or find it directly under the Solutions Factory project in Harness.
  • Check the step logs: click the failed step to expand its log output. Most failures will have a clear error message.
HSF workflow pipeline fails immediately at start in Harness

An account-level OPA policy is most likely blocking execution. Check the policy evaluation output on the failed pipeline and confirm the policy set with your Harness admin.

HSF approval notification email never arrives after submitting an IDP workflow

The HSF Admins group has no notification settings configured. Add a notification channel to the group, then re-run the workflow.

Image pull failure in an HSF workflow pipeline due to DockerHub rate limiting

The DockerHub connector is using anonymous authentication and has been rate limited. Add credentials to the hsf_dockerhub_connector connector.

IDP catalog entry does not appear after an HSF workflow completes successfully

Run the Register Custom IDP Templates workflow to re-sync the catalog, then reload the IDP catalog page.

Next steps​

You have executed a workflow and confirmed its output in the catalog. Continue with the following: