Selecting Queue by Sequence Number

Another way to change the default scheme for queue selection is to set the global cluster configuration parameter queue_sort_method to seq_no instead of to the default load. In this case, the system load is no longer used as the primary method to select queues. Instead, the sequence numbers that are assigned to the queues by the queue configuration parameter seq_no define a fixed order for queue selection. The queues must be suitable for the considered job, and they must be available. See the queue_conf(5) and sched_conf(5) man pages for more details.

This queue selection policy is useful if the machines that offer batch services at your site are ranked in a monotonous price per job order. For example, a job running on machine A costs 1 unit of money. The same job costs 10 units on machine B. And on machine C the job costs 100 units. Thus the preferred scheduling policy is to first fill up host A and then to use host B. Host C is used only if no alternative remains.

If you have changed the method of queue selection to seq_no, and the considered queues all share the same sequence number, queues are selected by the default load.