HPC installation with Apptainer

Use Apptainer when Docker is unavailable on an HPC system. The CBIcall image is immutable; project files and the optional cbicall-core resource bundle remain on the host and are bind-mounted at runtime.

1. Pull a released image

Load Apptainer if your site provides it through environment modules, then pull a versioned image:

module load apptainer 2>/dev/null || true

export SIF_IMAGE=/absolute/path/to/cbicall_1.3.0.sif
apptainer pull "$SIF_IMAGE" docker://manuelrueda/cbicall:1.3.0

Keep the .sif file for later interactive and scheduled runs. Pinning the image tag avoids an unnoticed change from latest.

2. Choose the workflow source

Workflow source	CBIcall bundle required?	Recommended HPC setup
workflow_provider: cbicall-core (default)	Yes	Run the CBIcall SIF and bind the resource and project directories as shown below.
workflow_provider: nf-core	No	Install CBIcall on the host, then use the site's Nextflow and Apptainer modules so nf-core can launch its task containers normally.

The remaining commands on this page cover bundled cbicall-core workflows.

3. Install the resource bundle

Choose a persistent host directory:

export CBICALL_DATA=/absolute/path/to/cbicall-data
mkdir -p "$CBICALL_DATA"

apptainer exec \
  --bind "$CBICALL_DATA":/cbicall-data \
  "$SIF_IMAGE" \
  cbicall install-resources --outdir /cbicall-data

Verify the mounted installation:

apptainer exec \
  --bind "$CBICALL_DATA":/cbicall-data \
  --env CBICALL_DATA=/cbicall-data \
  "$SIF_IMAGE" \
  cbicall doctor

Manual resource-download recovery

If the automatic Google Drive download fails, print the registered file list:

apptainer exec \
  --bind "$CBICALL_DATA":/cbicall-data \
  "$SIF_IMAGE" \
  cbicall install-resources --outdir /cbicall-data --print-manual-download

Place every listed file in $CBICALL_DATA, then resume:

apptainer exec \
  --bind "$CBICALL_DATA":/cbicall-data \
  "$SIF_IMAGE" \
  cbicall install-resources --outdir /cbicall-data --skip-download

Use --verify-resource-id-only to verify the small catalog-pinned identifier before downloading the archive. Add --remove-parts after successful verification when disk space is limited.

4. Run an analysis

Keep the parameters YAML and input data under one project directory. Bind that directory at the same absolute path so paths in the YAML remain valid:

export PROJECT_DIR=/absolute/path/to/project

apptainer exec \
  --bind "$CBICALL_DATA":/cbicall-data \
  --bind "$PROJECT_DIR":"$PROJECT_DIR" \
  --env CBICALL_DATA=/cbicall-data \
  --pwd "$PROJECT_DIR" \
  "$SIF_IMAGE" \
  cbicall run -p "$PROJECT_DIR/parameters.yaml" -t 4

The run directory is written directly to the host project directory. Normal execution does not require a writable copy of /usr/share/cbicall.

5. Run an integration test

Use a new or empty host directory to retain the test outputs:

export TEST_DIR=/absolute/path/to/cbicall-wes-test
mkdir -p "$TEST_DIR"

apptainer exec \
  --bind "$CBICALL_DATA":/cbicall-data \
  --bind "$TEST_DIR":"$TEST_DIR" \
  --env CBICALL_DATA=/cbicall-data \
  "$SIF_IMAGE" \
  cbicall test --wes-bash -t 1 --workspace "$TEST_DIR"

Slurm

Use the same binds inside the scheduled job. A complete template is available in run_cbicall_apptainer_slurm.sh.

On the CNAG GenE cluster, the template uses research for the 10-hour WES example and research_long for the two-day WGS example. Use the standard partition whenever the job can finish within its 12-hour limit. The script does not request a QoS because GenE selects its single QoS automatically.

Site-specific workflow development

The packaged workflow definitions are intentionally immutable. Developers who need to modify a workflow, registry, or Bash runtime profile should use a version-matched source checkout and bind that checkout explicitly. Normal users need only the SIF, project directory, and resource bundle.

Notes

• The host home directory is normally visible inside Apptainer unless restricted by site policy.
• The CBIcall SIF is separate from any Nextflow task-container cache used by external nf-core workflows.
• The bundled MToolBox mtDNA workflow runs on x86_64 only.