The page describes the usage of the QCG-Broker Client, which is the command line text client for the QCG-Broker service.

QCG Submission host

• To submit and control their jobs in the QCG infrastructure users can use various tools.

One of such tools is QCG-SimpleClient? which is the commandline client for the QCG-Broker service.

IMPORTANT:

• For the PLGrid users it is recommended to use one the "official" QCG Access Machines with pre-installed client (e.g. qcg.man.poznan.pl)

ssh plg<USER>@qcg.man.poznan.pl

The RPM installation procedure for SL5/6 is described  here

User Requirements

• User's credential To secure the communication and to authenticate the user to the service the X509 proxy certificate is needed.

Configuration

For its work the client needs user credentials to be present and properly configured. Additionally every user can overwrite some global settings to adapt the client behavior to its own preferences.

For details please visit the QCG-Client Configuration page.

QCG Broker Client

The QCG-Client is a java based text client offering access to the QCG infrastructure from the command-line level. The QCG-Client is offered in two versions and the choice of the version depends on user's experience and needs:

• QCG-SimpleClient (recommended) is a set of tools (similar to ones offered by queuing systems) for managing of jobs. For user's convenience the simple format of description of jobs (based on #QCG directives) was proposed allowing in a simple way to describe the most popular use cases.
• QCG-AdvancedClient - the client intended for more experienced users requiring more advanced features like workflows, parameter sweep, tasks consisting of many groups of processes with different requirements. The job has to be described by XML document.

QCG Simple Client

The QCG Simple client is recommended for all users who do not need advanced capabilities of the QCG middleware like workflows, parallel jobs with topologies or parameter sweep jobs. In return, it offers access to the most frequently used functionality in a very simple and intuitive way. The QCG Simple client consists of a set of command line tools modeled after the set of tools known from popular queueing systems. All tasks submitted to be executed by QCG-Broker must be described in a formal way using the concept of directives known also from queueing systems.

qcg-* Tools

Set of tools allowing to submit/control tasks and to reserve/control resources managed by the QCG infrastructure.

The detailed description of the qcg-* tools

Submission and controlling of tasks:

•  qcg-cancel - cancel task(s)
•  qcg-clean - clean the working directories of given tasks
•  qcg-connect - connect with interactive session to the task
•  qcg-info - display detailed information about the given tasks
•  qcg-list - lists tasks in the system
•  qcg-peek - display ending of (stdout, stderr) streams
•  qcg-proxy - create user proxy certificate
•  qcg-refetch - retry/repeat the transfer of output files/directories
•  qcg-refresh_proxy - refresh user proxy certificate for given tasks
•  qcg-resub - resubmit the task to be processed once again
•  qcg-sub - submit the task to be processes by QCG services

Resources reservation and controll:

•  qcg-rcancel - cancel reservation(s)
•  qcg-reserve - reserve resources
•  qcg-rinfo - display information about the given reservation(s)
•  qcg-rlist - list reservation in the system

QCG-Simple description format

Every task submitted to the system has to be described in a formal way. The current section describes the QCG-Simple format which is recommended and sufficient for most tasks. The format does not allow to describe more sophisticated scenarios like workflows, parameter sweep tasks, parallel tasks with topologies. Such scenarios are supported by the XML format called QCG-JobProfile. The QCG-Simple description format is similar to the concept used in queueing systems. The document submitted to be processed by the system is an script with QCG directives and invocation of user code. The QCG directives are lines starting with the #QCG string and inform the system how to process the task (eg. about resource requirements and input/output files and directories).

The detailed description of the #QCG directives

List of #QCG directives:

•  application - name of the application
•  argument - argument of the application
•  assistant - auxiliary script started together with the main application
•  deadline- deadline for the task execution
•  environment - environment variable
•  error - path for the standard error
•  executable - path to the executable
•  grant- name of the grant
•  host - name of the candidate host
•  include - include description file
•  input - path of the standard input file
•  memory - memory requirements
•  memory-per-slot - memory-per-slot requirements
•  module- name of the required module
•  monitor - task monitoring script
•  name- human readable name of the task
•  native - parameters/requirements passed directly to the queueing system
•  nodes - requested topology of the parallel application
•  not-after - execute not later then
•  not-before - do not execute before
•  note - human readable description of the task
•  notify - notify about changes of task status
•  output - location for the standard output file
•  parameter-sweep - parameter-sweep task definition
•  persistent - do not remove the working directory
•  postprocess - task epilog
•  preprocess - task prolog
•  procs - number of requested slots/processes
•  properties - node properties
•  queue - selected queueu
•  reservation - reservation identifier
•  stage-in-dir - input directory
•  stage-in-file - input file
•  stage-out-dir - output directory
•  stage-out-file - output file
•  use-reservation - use the advance reservation mechanism
•  use-scratch - use the scratch space
•  walltime - execution duration
•  watch-output - monitor the output and send notifications about the progress
•  variable - description variable (replaced only in values of QCG directives)

Description variables

The following set of variables is allowed in descriptions:

• HOSTNAME - name of the resource on which the task is running,
• HOME - home directory of the user,
• TASK_DIR - gsiftp:// lisk to the task working directory
• JOB_ID - experiment identifier
• TASK_ID - task identifier
• USER_DN - User's Distinguished Name (in PEM format /C=PL/O=GRID/O=PSNC/CN=Tomasz Piontek)
• PROCESS_GROUP - identifier of the group of processes
• NOTE - value of the "note" directive.

#QCG output={JOB_ID}.output
#QCG stage-out-file=file.output->file.${NOTE}

Remote files/directories

The following transfer protocols are supported in descriptins:

• GridFTP,
• FTP,
• HTTP/HTTPS,
• iRods (authorization by user/password)

Currently transfer of HTTP/HTTPS directories and output files is not supported.

IMPORTANT: There is no HTTPS server's authorization. QCG-Broker does no validate remote server's certificates.

For detailed description of remote file's syntax visit the QCG-Client transfer syntax page.

Tasks examples

Please visit the QCG-Simple examples page for description examples.

Contact

Please report all problems and send questions to the qcg@… address.