Connect to a deployed ZenML

Learning about the ZenML server.

This is an older version of the ZenML documentation. To read and view the latest version please visit this up-to-date URL.

Connect to a deployed ZenML

Although the basic functionalities of ZenML work perfectly on your local machine, you need to connect to a deployed ZenML server to use remote services and infrastructure.

ZenML Server

When you first get started with ZenML, it is based on the following architecture on your machine.

Scenario 1: ZenML default local configuration

The SQLite database that you can see in this diagram is used to store information about pipelines, pipeline runs, stacks, and other configurations. In the previous pages, we used the zenml up command to spin up a local rest server to serve the dashboard as well. The diagram for this will look as follows:

Scenario 2: ZenML with a local REST Server

In Scenario 2, the zenml up command implicitly connects the client to the server.

In order to move into production, you will need to deploy this server somewhere centrally so that the different cloud stack components can read from and write to the server. Additionally, this also allows all your team members to connect to it and share stacks and pipelines.

Scenario 3: Deployed ZenML Server

Deployment

Further down in the Platform Guide, you can find a guide on the different deployment strategies. This will help you deploy a ZenML Server on the backend of your choice.

Connect your client to the server

When ZenML is deployed, the client can be explicitly connected. This is how you do it:

zenml connect --url https://<your-own-deployment> --username default

You will be prompted for your password:

Connecting to: 'https://<your-own-deployment>'...
Password for user zenml (press ENTER for empty password) []:

In order to use the zenml connect command, you need to first deploy a remote ZenML server. If you are the person who is setting up it for your organization and looking for detailed documentation regarding the deployment, head on over to the Platform Guide to set it up on your infrastructure of choice.

And just like that, your client should be connected to the server. You can verify this by running zenml status:

Using configuration from: '/home/apenner/.config/zenml'
Local store files are located at: '/home/apenner/.config/zenml/local_stores'
Connected to a ZenML server: '<your-own-deployment>'
The current user is: 'zenml'
The active workspace is: 'default' (global)
The active stack is: 'default' (global)

Similar to the local case, you can now run zenml show to open the dashboard of the server that you are currently connected to.

Finally, if you would like to disconnect from the current ZenML server and revert to using the local default database, simply run zenml disconnect.