Agent Issue I m just trying prefect out using the backend se

Question

Agent Issue I m just trying prefect out using the backend server and running on an EC2 instance m5 large with 8080 and 4200 ports allowed external I have the server running the UI attached the graphql connected and I started an agent on the same machine For me I installed prefect using a conda activation so to start the agent i did the conda activation then prefect agent start command HOWEVER when I add a flow and run it it fails on `unexpected error NameError name prefect is not defined` This appears to me that it is not running in the condra activation and yes if thats true then the pip install will not be there Please advise how I can set the python environment of my local agent

Todd Lindstrom · Answer

I found this answer <https stackoverflow com questions 63881231 prefect modulenotfounderror when running from ui> But it assumes that there is a path and I think this is a different issue of getting the environment correct at agent launch

Kevin Kho · Answer

Hi < Todd Lindstrom> I think in general conda activation on the agent is quite tricky Even if you package everything in a Docker container and use a `docker agent` it s hard to but I think it can be done We normally recommend just using pip inside the image since the container provides isolation already Do you have another Python installation on the agent

Todd Lindstrom · Answer

well I was told in another thread that conda is the best way to ensure you have the right python version I guess that was correct for my mac implementation but on linux I suppose just using the default which on EC2 is just python 3 7 x which I think is fine

Todd Lindstrom · Answer

I ll just do a pip install on the machine and it will likely work

Todd Lindstrom · Answer

At some point we would probably want to run agents on separate EC2 instances with a load balancer or something like that is there any documentation on how to do that outside of kubernetes

Todd Lindstrom · Answer

otherwise if not thank you for the link that will solve my problem

Kevin Kho · Answer

Oh that is true though conda really easily lets you pin the Python version I think the agent itself is a lightweight process that I don t expect to need multiple processes Is the separate EC2 instances for failure handling

Kevin Kho · Answer

Yes you may need Docker with the link I provided to use the environment set up

Todd Lindstrom · Answer

multiple agents is a future thing but I m still facing the issue I removed conda from my instance and did pip install prefect

Todd Lindstrom · Answer

i started up the server the default tenant was already there created a project

Todd Lindstrom · Answer

added 2 flows and run it still says ```State Message Unexpected error NameError name prefect is not defined ```

Kevin Kho · Answer

What agent and runconfig are you using

Kevin Kho · Answer

Do you think you have multiple Python installations on the agent

Todd Lindstrom · Answer

Kevin thanks for your help I am past that error and now its just python debug Its finding the import prefect now

Kevin Kho · Answer

Oh nice job figuring it out