3.2. Custom Job Submission

To customize job submission we will need to first edit our custom desktop app YAML file as such:

# bc_desktop/local/cluster1.yml
---
title: "Cluster1 Desktop"
cluster: "cluster1"
submit: "submit/my_submit.yml.erb"

Notice we included the configuration option submit that points to our custom job submission YAML configuration file. This can be an absolute file path or a relative file path with respect to the bc_desktop/local/ directory.

We can now create and modify a job submission configuration file at:

bc_desktop/local/submit/my_submit.yml.erb

Since it has the extension .erb we can take advantage of the Ruby language to make the configuration file dynamic. In particular, you will now have access to the user-submitted form arguments defined as:

bc_num_hours

Default: "1"

A Ruby String containing the number of hours a user requested for the Desktop batch job to run.

bc_num_slots

Default: "1"

A Ruby String containing either the number of nodes or processors (depending on the type of resource manager the cluster uses) a user requested.

bc_account

Default: ""

A Ruby String that holds the account the user supplied to charge the job against.

bc_queue

Default: ""

A Ruby String that holds the queue the user requested for the job to run on.

bc_email_on_started

Default: "0"

A Ruby String that can either be "0" (do not send the user an email when the job starts) or "1" (send an email to the user when the job starts).

node_type

Default: ""

A Ruby String that can be used for more advanced job submission. This is an advanced option that is disabled by default and does nothing if you do enable it, unless you add it to a custom job submission configuration file.

Some examples on how to submit jobs using the above form attributes are given in the following sections for the given resource manager.

3.2.1. Slurm

For most cases of Slurm you will want to modify how the bc_num_slots (number of nodes) is submitted to the batch server.

This can be handled in your custom job submission configuration file as such:

# bc_desktop/local/submit/my_submit.yml.erb
---
script:
  native: [ "-N", "<%= bc_num_slots %>" ]

All batch script options are underneath the script configuration option. In particular since there is no option to modify number of nodes, we need to directly interact with the native command line arguments. This is specified as an array of sbatch arguments.

Note

It is recommended you use the corresponding batch script options before using the native fallback.

3.2.2. Torque

For most cases of Torque you will want to modify how the bc_num_slots (number of nodes) is submitted to the batch server.

This can be handled in your custom job submission configuration file as such:

# bc_desktop/local/submit/my_submit.yml.erb
---
script:
  native:
    resources:
      nodes: "<%= bc_num_slots %>:ppn=28"  # assumes cluster has 28 procs per node

All batch script options are underneath the script configuration option. In particular since there is no option to modify number of nodes, we need to directly interact with the native command line arguments.

For more information on the available options for the native attribute when using Torque please see the pbs-ruby documentation.

Note

It is recommended you use the corresponding batch script options before using the native fallback.

3.2.3. PBS Professional

For most cases of PBS Professional you will want to modify how the bc_num_slots (number of CPUs on a single node) is submitted to the batch server.

This can be handled in your custom job submission configuration file as such:

# bc_desktop/local/submit/my_submit.yml.erb
---
script:
  native: [ "-l", "select=1:ncpus=<%= bc_num_slots %>" ]

All batch script options are underneath the script configuration option. In particular since there is no option to modify number of nodes/cpus, we need to directly interact with the native command line arguments. This is specified as an array of qsub arguments.

If you would like to mimic how Torque handles bc_num_slots (number of nodes), then we will first need to change the form label of bc_num_slots that the user sees in the form. This can be done by modifying our Desktop app local YAML configuration file:

# bc_desktop/local/cluster.yml
---
title: "Cluster1 Desktop"
cluster: "cluster1"
attributes:
  bc_num_slots:
    label: "Number of nodes"
submit: "submit/my_submit.yml.erb"

Now when we go to the Desktop app form in our browser it will have the new label “Number of nodes” instead of “Number of CPUs on a single node”.

Next we will need to handle how we submit the bc_num_slots since it means something different now. So now modify the job submission configuration file as such:

# bc_desktop/local/submit/my_submit.yml.erb
---
script:
  native: [ "-l", "select=<%= bc_num_slots %>:ncpus=28" ] # assumes 28 procs per node

You can also append mem=...gb to the select=... statement if you’d like.

Note

It is recommended you use the corresponding batch script options before using the native fallback.