I do it like this:
hadoop fs -put workflow.xml some_dir/
oozie job --oozie http://your_host:11000/oozie -config cluster_conf.xml -run
and my cluster_conf.xml looks like this (please check your ports first they depend on Hadoop distro):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<configuration>
<property>
<name>nameNode</name>
<value>hdfs://my_nn:8020</value>
</property>
<property>
<name>jobTracker</name>
<value>my_jt:8050</value>
</property>
<property>
<name>oozie.wf.application.path</name>
<value>/user/my_user/some_dir/workflow.xml</value>
</property>
</configuration>