PSNC DRMAA for SLURM

Introduction

PSNC DRMAA for  Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management (SLURM) is an implementation of  Open Grid Forum  DRMAA 1.0 (Distributed Resource Management Application API)  specification for submission and control of jobs to  Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management (SLURM). Using DRMAA, grid applications builders, portal developers and ISVs can use the same high-level API to link their software with different cluster/resource management systems.

This software also enables the integration of  SMOA Computing with the underlying SLURM system for remote multi-user job submission and control over Web Services.

Download

DRMAA for SLURM is distributed as a source package which can be downloaded directly from here or via the Downloads section.

Installation

To compile and install the library just go to main source directory and type::

  $ ./configure [options] && make
  $ sudo make install

The library was tested with Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management version 2.1.13. If you encountered any problems using the library on the different systems, please use the contact e-mails for reporting the problem.

Notable ./configure script options:

--with-slurm-inc SLURM_INCLUDE_PATH

Path to SLURM header files (i.e. directory containing slurm/slurm.h ). By default the library tries to guess the SLURM_INCLUDE_PATH and SLURM_LIBRARY_PATH based on location of the srun executable.

--with-slurm-lib SLURM_LIBRARY_PATH

Path to SLURM libraries (i.e. directory containing libslurm.a ).

--prefix INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY

Root directory where PSNC DRMAA for SLURM shall be installed. When not given library is installed in /usr/local.

--enable-debug

Compiles library with debugging enabled (with debugging symbols not stripped, without optimizations, and with many log messages enabled). Useful when you are to debug DRMAA enabled application or investigate problems with DRMAA library itself.

There are no unusual requirements for basic usage of library: ANSI C compiler and standard make program should suffice. If you have taken sources directly from SVN repository or wish to run test-suite you would need additional developer tools.

Configuration

During DRMAA session initialization (drmaa_init) library tries to read its configuration parameters from locations: /etc/slurm_drmaa.conf, ~/.slurm_drmaa.conf and from file given in SLURM_DRMAA_CONF environment variable (if set to non-empty string). If multiple configuration sources are present then all configurations are merged with values from user-defined files taking precedence (in following order: $SLURM_DRMAA_CONF, ~/.slurm_drmaa.conf, /etc/slurm_drmaa.conf).

Currently recognized configuration parameters are:

cache_job_state

According to DRMAA specification every drmaa_job_ps() call should query DRM system for job state. With this option one may optimize communication with DRM. If set to positive integer drmaa_job_ps() returns remembered job state without communicating with DRM for cache_job_state seconds since last update. By default library conforms to specification (no caching will be performed).

Type: integer, default: 0

job_categories

Dictionary of job categories. It's keys are job categories names mapped to native specification strings. Attributes set by job category can be overridden by corresponding DRMAA attributes or native specification. Special category name default is used when drmaa_job_category job attribute was not set.

Type: dictionary with string values, default: empty dictionary

Configuration file syntax

Configuration file is in form a dictionary. Dictionary is set of zero or more key-value pairs. Key is a string while value could be a string, an integer or another dictionary.

  configuration: dictionary | dictionary_body
  dictionary: '{' dictionary_body '}'
  dictionary_body: (string ':' value ',')*
  value: integer | string | dictionary
  string: unquoted-string | single-quoted-string | double-quoted-string
  unquoted-string: [^ \t\n\r:,0-9][^ \t\n\r:,]*
  single-quoted-string: '[^']*'
  double-quoted-string: "[^"]*"
  integer: [0-9]+

Native specification

DRMAA interface allows to pass DRM dependent job submission options. Those options may be specified directly by setting drmaa_native_specification job template attribute or indirectly by the drmaa_job_category job template attribute. The legal format of the native options looks like::

  -A My_job_name -s -N 1=10

List of parameters that can be passed in the drmaa_native_specification attribute:

Native specification	Description
-A, --account=\name	Charge job to specified accounts
--acctg-freq	Define the job accounting sampling interval
--comment	An arbitrary comment
-C, --constraint=\list	Specify a list of constraints
--contiguous	If set, then the allocated nodes must form a contiguous set
--exclusive	Allocate nodenumber of tasks to invoke on each nodes in exclusive mode when cpu consumable resource is enabled
--mem=\MB	Minimum amount of real memory
--mem-per-cpu=\MB	Maximum mount of real memory per allocated cpu required by a job
--mincpus=\n	Minimum number of logical processors (threads) per node
-N, --nodes=\N	Number of nodes on which to run (N = min[-max])
--ntasks-per-node=\n	Number of tasks to invoke on each node
-p, --partition=\partition	Partition requested
--qos=\qos	Quality of Serice
--requeue	If set, permit the job to be requeued
--reservation=\name	Allocate resources from named reservation
-s, --share	Job allocation can share nodes with other running jobs
-w, --nodelist=\hosts	Request a specific list of hosts

Description of each parameter can be found in man sbatch.

Release notes

• 1.0.0 - first public release

Known bugs and limitations

Library covers all  DRMAA 1.0 specification with exceptions listed below. It was successfully tested with  Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management (SLURM) 2.1.13 on Linux and passes 44/44 tests of the  official DRMAA test-suite (running as SLURM administrator). Using regular user account SLURM DRMAA passes 40/44 tests of the official DRMAA test-suite.

Known limitations:

• drmaa_control options DRMAA_CONTROL_HOLD, DRMAA_CONTROL_SUSPEND, DRMAA_CONTROL_RELEASE, DRMAA_CONTROL_RESUME are only available for users being SLURM administrators
• drmaa_wct_slimit not implemented
• optional attributes drmaa_deadline_time, drmaa_duration_hlimit, drmaa_duration_slimit, drmaa_transfer_files not implemented

Authors

The library was developed by:

• Michal Matloka - core implementation

This library relies heavily on the Fedstage DRMAA utils code developed by:

• Lukasz Ciesnik.

Contact

In case of any problems or questions regarding the DRMAA for SLURM do not hesitate to contact us:

• Mariusz Mamonski <mamonski at man.poznan.pl>
• Michal Matloka <michal.matloka at student.put.poznan.pl>

Developer tools

Although not needed for library user the following tools may be required if you intend to develop PSNC DRMAA for SLURM:

• GNU autotools (autoconf, automake, libtool),
•  Bison parser generator,

Links

DRMAA:  http://www.drmaa.org/
Open Grid Forum:  http://www.gridforum.org/
DRMAA 1.0 specification:  http://www.ogf.org/documents/GFD.133.pdf
Official DRMAA test-suite:  http://drmaa.org/testsuite.php
SMOA Computing:  http://larix.man.poznan.pl/wiki/SMOA_Computing
Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management (SLURM):  https://computing.llnl.gov/linux/slurm/
Bison:  http://www.gnu.org/software/bison/

License

Copyright (C) 2010 Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.