Preface

The Sun N1 Grid Engine 6.1 Administration Guide provides background information about how to set up and administer a system of networked computer hosts that run N1^TM Grid Engine 6.1 software.

Who Should Use This Book

The background information and instructions in this guide are intended for experienced system administrators.

How This Book Is Organized

The Sun N1 Grid Engine 6.1 Administration Guide includes the following chapters.

• Chapter 1, Configuring Hosts and Clusters provides general background about hosts and clusters, along with detailed instructions for how to configure them.

• Chapter 2, Configuring Queues and Queue Calendars describes queues, which serve as containers for different categories of jobs. The chapter includes complete instructions for how to configure cluster queues and queue instances.

• Chapter 3, Configuring Complex Resource Attributes explains how the grid engine system uses the complex to define all the pertinent information concerning the resource attributes a user can request for a job. The administrator configures complex resource attributes to match the requirements of the environment. This chapter provides detailed instructions for how to configure resource attributes.

• Chapter 4, Managing User Access provides background information about different types of users of the grid engine system. The chapter provides instructions on how to set up and maintain user access and project access.

• Chapter 5, Managing Policies and the Scheduler provides full background information about the types of user policies that are available. The chapter provides instructions on how to match these policies to the computing environment. The chapter also describes how to configure and modify the scheduler.

• Chapter 6, Managing Resource Quotas explains how to use the resource quotas feature of the N1 Grid Engine software to limit resources by user, project, host, cluster queue, or parallel environment.

• Chapter 7, Managing Special Environments describes how the grid engine system fits in with parallel environments, and provides detailed instructions on how to configure them. The chapter also describes how to set up and use checkpointing environments.

• Chapter 8, Other Administrative Tasks describes how to gather reporting and accounting statistics, how to automatically back up your grid engine system configuration files, and how to use files and scripts to add or modify objects such as queues, hosts, and environments.

• Chapter 9, Fine Tuning, Error Messages, and Troubleshooting describes some ways to fine-tune your grid engine system. It also explains how the grid engine system retrieves error message and describes how to run the software in debug mode.

• Chapter 10, Configuring DBWriter describes how you can modify the DBWriter portion of the ARCo feature.

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Note –

Some of the material in this guide appeared originally in the “How-To” section of the Sun Grid Engine project web site. Updated frequently, this web site is of special value to administrators of the grid engine system and is well worth consulting.

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Typographic Conventions

The following table describes the typographic conventions that are used in this book.

Table P–1 Typographic Conventions

Typeface	Meaning	Example
AaBbCc123	The names of commands, files, and directories, and onscreen computer output	Edit your .login file. Use ls -a to list all files. machine_name% you have mail.
AaBbCc123	What you type, contrasted with onscreen computer output	machine_name% su Password:
aabbcc123	Placeholder: replace with a real name or value	The command to remove a file is rm filename.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new terms, and terms to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in the User's Guide. A cache is a copy that is stored locally. Do not save the file. Note: Some emphasized items appear bold online.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default UNIX® system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P–2 Shell Prompts

Shell	Prompt
C shell	machine_name%
C shell for superuser	machine_name#
Bourne shell and Korn shell	$
Bourne shell and Korn shell for superuser	#