# Job Isolation and AWX

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/job-isolation-and-awx/26348>\
**Category:** AWX Project\
**Tags:** awx\
**Created:** [December 20, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/job-isolation-and-awx/26348 "2017-12-20T21:03:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Robin\_Miller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@Robin\_Miller](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Robin_Miller)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/job-isolation-and-awx/26348/1 "2017-12-20T21:03:42Z")

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I’m confused about the Job Isolation functionality in AWX. The documentation indicates that it should be on by default ([https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/docs/process\_isolation.md](https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/docs/process_isolation.md)), but in practice it seems to be permanently disabled ([https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/installer/image\_build/files/settings.py#L29](https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/installer/image_build/files/settings.py#L29)) - in the web UI it is off and can’t be enabled due to AWX coming with config that disables it.

I’d gotten used to jobs being isolated from each other on Tower, and am now hitting problems where concurrent jobs may occasionally have both written a localhost temp file at the same time and the same place on localhost, and then get into trouble. Basically, I got used to the idea that any given job could treat the localhost filesystem as being ‘its own’.

Is Job Isolation just not possible on AWX, or is that something coming in a future update?

Thanks,  
Robin

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**Author:** ![Bill\_Nottingham1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58f4c7/32.png) [@Bill\_Nottingham1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bill_Nottingham1)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 3:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/job-isolation-and-awx/26348/2 "2017-12-21T15:23:43Z")

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Robin Miller (robincello@gmail.com) said:

> I'm confused about the Job Isolation functionality in AWX. The  
> documentation indicates that it should be on by default  
> ([https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/docs/process\_isolation.md](https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/docs/process_isolation.md)), but  
> in practice it seems to be permanently disabled  
> ([https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/installer/image\_build/files/settings.py#L29](https://github.com/ansible/awx/blob/devel/installer/image_build/files/settings.py#L29))  
> - in the web UI it is off and can't be enabled due to AWX coming with  
> config that disables it.
> 
> I'd gotten used to jobs being isolated from each other on Tower, and am now  
> hitting problems where concurrent jobs may occasionally have both written a  
> localhost temp file at the same time and the same place on localhost, and  
> then get into trouble. Basically, I got used to the idea that any given job  
> could treat the localhost filesystem as being 'its own'.
> 
> Is Job Isolation just not possible on AWX, or is that something coming in a  
> future update?

My understanding is that it was an initial limitation of the container env,  
and it will be fixed at some point.

Bill