Using Parallel Job Queues

Distributed MPI jobs must be submitted via batch queues that have been configured to handle parallel jobs. This parallel capability is just one of the many characteristics that a system administrator can assign when setting up a batch queue.

You can use the command bqueues -l to find out which job queues support parallel jobs, as shown in Figure 2-1.

The bqueues -l output contains status information about all the queues currently defined. Look for a queue that includes the line:

JOB_STARTER: pam

which means it is able to handle parallel (distributed MPI) jobs. In the example shown in Figure 2-1, the queue hpc is defined in this way.

The pam entry may be followed by a -t or -v. The -t option suppresses printing of process status upon completion and -v specifies that the job is to run in verbose mode.

Figure 2-1 Finding a Parallel Queue With bqueues -l

If no queues are currently configured for parallel job support, ask the system administator to set one or more up in this way.

Once you know the name of a queue that supports parallel jobs, submit your Sun MPI jobs explicitly to them. For example, the following command submits the job hpc-job to the queue named hpc for execution on four processes.

hpc-demo% bsub -q hpc -n 4 hpc-job

Additional examples are provided in "Submitting Jobs in Batch Mode" and "Submitting Interactive Batch Jobs".

To use LSF Batch commands, your PATH variable must include the directory where the LSF Base, Batch, and Parallel components were installed. The default installation directory is /opt/SUNWlsf/bin. Likewise, your PATH variable must include the ClusterTools software installation directory; the default location for ClusterTools components is /opt/SUNWhpc/bin.