For workspaces in basic mode under the same Alibaba Cloud account, you can use the cross-workspace cloning feature to isolate the development environment from the production environment. You can also use this feature to clone and migrate nodes, such as computing or sync nodes, across workspaces. This topic describes how node dependencies are handled during cross-workspace cloning.
The cross-workspace cloning feature will stop providing services from June 30, 2025. For more information, see Notice on the discontinuation of DataWorks cross-workspace cloning.
How it works
When you clone nodes across workspaces, DataWorks automatically renames output names in the destination workspace. This distinguishes nodes that belong to different workspaces under the same Alibaba Cloud account, keeping node dependencies intact across the clone operation.
For example, if the output name of task_A in project_1 is project_1.task_A_out, cloning it to project_2 renames the output to project_2.task_A_out.
Limitations
| Constraint | Details |
|---|---|
| Cross-region | Cross-workspace cloning cannot be used across regions. |
| Version compatibility | Nodes in a workflow of an earlier version cannot be cloned directly to a workspace in the latest version. Clone the nodes to a folder under Business Flow first, then clone the entire workflow to the destination workspace. |
Node owner assignment
Before starting a clone operation, set the owner of cloned nodes to Default or Clone Task Creator. The final owner is determined as follows:
If the original node owner is the workspace administrator:
After cloning, the owner is set to the original owner. If the original owner is not a member of the destination workspace, the clone task creator becomes the owner automatically.
If the original node owner is the clone task creator:
After cloning, the owner is set to the original owner. If the original owner is not a member of the destination workspace, the system prompts you to change the owner:
-
Agree — the clone task creator becomes the owner and the clone task succeeds.
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Disagree — the clone task is canceled.
Complete workflow cloning
When you clone all nodes in a workflow, each node's output name is updated to use the destination workspace prefix. This keeps dependencies between nodes in the same workflow consistent after cloning.
Example: task_A in project_1 (output: project_1.task_A_out) is cloned to project_2. The output name becomes project_2.task_A_out.
Cross-workspace dependency cloning
When a node depends on a node in a third workspace, that cross-workspace dependency is preserved after cloning. The cloned node in the destination workspace continues to depend on the same node in the original third workspace.
Example: task_B in project_1 depends on task_A in project_3. Cloning task_B to project_2 preserves this relationship — task_B in project_2 still depends on task_A in project_3.
