@Marvin is there a way to remove old unused exited containers from previous flow runs on my ec2 instance when a new flow runs?

There doesn't seem to be a direct feature in Prefect for automatically removing old, unused containers after each flow run. However, you can implement a custom solution using Docker's Python SDK to clean up these containers. Here's a basic outline of what you could do: 1. Use Docker SDK: Utilize Docker's Python SDK to interact with the Docker daemon on your EC2 instance. You can list all containers and filter by those that are exited. 2. Remove Containers: Implement a cleanup script that removes these containers. This script can be triggered at the start or end of your flow runs. Here's a simple example using Docker's Python SDK:

python
import docker

def cleanup_containers():
    client = docker.from_env()
    # List all containers with status 'exited'
    exited_containers = client.containers.list(filters={"status": "exited"})
    for container in exited_containers:
        print(f"Removing container {container.name}")
        container.remove()

# Call this function at the start or end of your flow
cleanup_containers()

You can integrate this function into your Prefect flow by calling it at the appropriate point in your flow logic. For more details on using Docker with Prefect, you might want to check this documentation. If you run into any issues or need more advanced handling, feel free to ask.

Isnt there a cleaner way to do it? Like by adding it to the worker or something?

It seems there isn't a built-in feature in Prefect to automatically clean up exited Docker containers through the worker itself. The documentation and available resources don't mention a direct mechanism for this within the Prefect worker setup. However, you can incorporate the cleanup logic into your Docker worker setup by extending the worker script or using a custom entrypoint script that includes container cleanup before starting the worker process. For more information on setting up Docker workers, you can refer to the Prefect Docker infrastructure documentation. If you have any further questions or need more detailed guidance, feel free to ask.

@Marvin what is the

auto_remove: true

then?

The

auto_remove: true

option in Docker is a feature that automatically removes the container once it has finished executing. When this option is set, Docker will clean up the container's file system and metadata as soon as the container exits, thus preventing accumulation of exited containers. This can be particularly useful in environments where containers are frequently started and stopped, such as in CI/CD pipelines or with Prefect flow runs, as it reduces the need for manual cleanup of exited containers. If you're using Docker-based infrastructure with Prefect, you can set this option in your Docker deployment configuration to ensure that containers are automatically removed after execution. However, it seems the specific documentation or examples on how to set this option in Prefect's deployment configuration wasn't directly found in the search results. For more details on configuring Docker with Prefect, you might want to explore the Prefect Docker infrastructure documentation.