A zombie is a running job that fails authentication when communicating with the ecflow_server. As zombie icon will be visible in ecflowview (see Figure 10 17). There are a wide variety of reasons why a zombie is created. The most common causes are due to user action:

Rarer causes include:

The default behaviour of the ecFlow server is to block the job. The child command continues attempting to contact the ecFlow server. This is done for a period of 24 hours. This period is configurable see ECF_TIMEOUT on ecflow_client. The jobs can also be configured, so that if the server denies the communication, then the command can be set to fail immediately. (See ECF_DENIED on ecflow_client). ecflowview provides a dialog that lists all the zombies and the actions that can be taken. These include:

Figure 10 17 Zombie icon

Figure 10 18 Zombie tab available from right-clicking on ecFlow server node