Batch Job Management with Torque/OpenPBS

The batch system on titan uses OpenPBS, a free customizable batch system. Jobs are submitted by users with qsub from titan.physics.umass.edu, and are scheduled to run using a fair-share algorithm which prioritizes jobs based on all users' recent cpu utilization. This means, for example, that a user who wants to run a few quick jobs will not have to wait for another user who has hundreds of 10-hour long jobs already in the system.

Submitting jobs with qsub

Specify job resource requirements (e.g. time, memory, etc. ) with the '-l' option.

To send a job myjob.csh requesting 8:00 of cpu time, use:

> qsub -l cput=08:00:00 myjob.csh

List Job Identifiers

Print a list of job identifiers of all jobs in the system by user bbrau:

> qselect -u bbrau

Query the system with qstat

List all jobs:

> qstat

and which nodes they're running on:

> qstat -n

Full disclosure:

> qstat -f

of just one job using its job identifier:

> qstat -f 1908.titan.physics.umass.edu

Learn about the batch system with qmgr

Print the server configuration:

> qmgr -c 'print server'

Find out about node titan12:

qmgr -c 'print node titan12'

Node Status with qnodes

List them all:

> qnodes

or just the ones that aren't up:

> qnodes -l

* Delete jobs with qdel*

>qdel 1908.titan.physics.umass.edu

or do it with a qselect to pick all of your jobs

> qdel `qselect -u bbrau`

All the gory details are in: [[http://www.doesciencegrid.org/public/pbs/pbs.v2.3_admin.pdf][The OpenPBS Administrator's Guide]

And of course on titan, you can read the man pages for most of the commands:

> man qstat

-- BenjaminBrau - 25-Mar-2010