# VirtualFlow ## General Each VirtualFlow module can be installed and used individually. And it needs to be installed for each workflow which is run. Meaning, that if two workflows are to be run in parallel on a cluster, VirtualFlow will be installed in two freely chosable folders, and the workflow will run in each of them separately. A VirtualFlow module (VFLP or VFVS) can be installed via one of two ways: * [Via a tarball (tar.gz archive)](/documentation-vf1/installation/vflp.md#tarball-installation) * [Via Git/GitHub](/documentation-vf1/installation/vflp.md#cloning-the-github-repository) ## Installation Location Before installing a VirtualFlow module, the filesystem for the installation has to be chosen. For VirtualFlow, the filesystem has to be a shared storage which is available to all compute nodes which are used by VirtualFlow. Usually, there are two types of such filesystems available on a typical cluster: 1. The home filesystem 2. The scratch filesystem For VirtualFlow, the scratch filesystem should in almost all cases be used, because VirtualFlow can be I/O intensive. And the scratch filesystem is usually able to handle higher I/O loads than the home filesystem. In addition, it can be faster as well. Another reason why the home filesystem is normally not suitable is because the filesystem quota per user is often very low, too low for the often large amounts of input/output data used/generated by VirtualFlow. ## Tarball Installation The tar-archive versions of VirtualFlow modules can be downloaded from the VirtualFlow homepage: * VFLP: * VFVS: The files can also be obtained directly via the `wget` command, in the case of VFLP: ``` wget -O VFLP.tar.gz https://github.com/VirtualFlow/VFLP/archive/develop.tar.gz ``` And in the case of VFVS: ``` wget -O VFVS.tar.gz https://github.com/VirtualFlow/VFVS/archive/develop.tar.gz ``` After downloading the tar-archive, it can be simply installed by extracting it on the desired location. In the case of VFLP: ``` tar -xvzf VFLP.tar.gz ``` And in the case of VFVS: ``` tar -xvzf VFVS.tar.gz ``` ## Cloning the GitHub Repository VirtualFlow can also be installed by cloning the GitHub repository. In the case of VFLP: ``` git clone git@github.com:VirtualFlow/VFLP.git ``` And in the case of VFVS: ``` git clone git@github.com:VirtualFlow/VFVS.git ``` --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.virtual-flow.org/documentation-vf1/installation/vflp.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.