New T3D NQS Queues

The ARSC T3D has been a pretty busy machine lately and we'll be making some changes to the NQS structure, at the next downtime (T3D only), the night of January 16th.

The current queue structure is:

  Queue Name  # of  Max jobs   Time limit  When queue
               PEs  per queue  on queue    is enabled

  m_128pe_5m   128     1        5 minutes  always
  m_128pe_8h   128     1        8 hours    Friday 6PM to Sunday 4AM
  m_64pe_24h    64     1       24 hours    always
  m_64pe_10m    64     1       10 minutes  always
  m_32pe_24h    32     1       24 hours    always
  m_16pe_24h    16     2       24 hours    always
  m_8pe_24h      8     2       24 hours    always

This will be changing after the downtime on January 16th to:

  Queue Name  # of  Max jobs   Time limit  When queue
               PEs  per queue  on queue    is enabled

  m_128pe_5m   128     1        5 minutes  after downtimes
  m_128pe_8h   128     1        8 hours    Friday 6PM to Sunday 4AM
  m_64pe_24h    64     1       24 hours    always
  m_64pe_10m    64     1       10 minutes  always
  m_32pe_24h    32     1       24 hours    always
  m_16pe_24h    16     2       24 hours    always
  m_8pe_24h      8     2       24 hours    always

There are also two additional restrictions on NQS users at ARSC:

1. No user may have more than 2 NQS jobs executing at the same time (currently in effect).
2. No more than 120 PEs can be in use by the NQS jobs outside of when the 128 PE queues are enabled (effective after the downtime on January 16th). We have added this restriction to ensure at least some interactive access during the week days for code developers.

If you have questions or comments about this queue structure, Mike Ess is the person to contact. The ARSC T3D has been at 65% utilization over the past three months and it is a difficult task keeping all users happy.

Accessing 128 PEs and Large Interactive Configurations

It is not always possible to access 128 PEs in a predictable way now that the ARSC T3D is more active. To help with this access, after downtime this Tuesday, January 16, we will open the 128PE, 5 minute NQS queue first and let all accumulated jobs (5 minutes or less) execute. Then when the 128 PE jobs are complete we will activate the other T3D queues.

So if you would like to execute on 128 PEs for less than 5 minutes, submit your NQS job before 5PM on Tuesday January 16th. This procedure is an experiment, and if it goes well be may make it a regular part of Tuesday downtime. If you have any questions about this please contact Mike Ess.

Similarly access to large (64 PEs and 128 PEs) interactive configurations is difficult nowadays because of the almost continual use of the 32 and 64 PE NQS queues. If you have need for interactive use of large PE configurations please contact Mike Ess or User Services and we will make some arrangement for after the downtime.

PGHPF is Running at ARSC

The Portland Group has kindly extended ARSC's license to use their HPF compiler until February 29th. Please contact Mike Ess if you have any problems or results from using pghpf. The instructions for using pghpf at ARSC were described in newsletter #65 (12/15/95).

---

Current Editors:

Ed Kornkven	ARSC HPC Specialist	ph: 907-450-8669
Kate Hedstrom	ARSC Oceanographic Specialist	ph: 907-450-8678
Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
University of Alaska Fairbanks
PO Box 756020
Fairbanks AK 99775-6020

E-mail Subscriptions:

Subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) the e-mail edition of the ARSC HPC Users' Newsletter.

Archives:

Back issues of the ASCII e-mail edition of the ARSC T3D/T3E/HPC Users' Newsletter are available by request. Please contact the editors.