HP XC System Software Installation Guide Version 3.1

L Installing and Using PBS Professional
This appendix addresses the following topics:
• “PBS Professional Overview” (page 177)
• “Before You Begin” (page 177)
• “Plan the Installation” (page 177)
• “Perform Installation Actions Specific to HP XC” (page 177)
• “Configure PBS Professional under HP XC” (page 178)
• “Replicate Execution Nodes” (page 179)
• “Enter License Information” (page 179)
• “Start the Service Daemons” (page 180)
• “Set Up PBS Professional at the User Level” (page 180)
• “Run HP MPI Tasks” (page 180)
L.1 PBS Professional Overview
PBS Professional™, distributed by Altair®, is an implementation of NASA’s Portable Batch System (PBS).
It provides a workload management solution for high-performance computing systems and Linux clusters.
You can install PBS Professional on an HP XC system as an alternative to installing the Load Sharing
Facility (LSF) from Platform Computing.
To download kits and obtain documentation for PBS Professional, see the following Web site:
http://www.altair.com/software/pbs_abo.htm
L.2 Before You Begin
Before you install PBS Professional, follow the installation instructions in the PBS Pro Quick Start Guide.
The information in this appendix documents the minimum installation and configuration of PBS Professional
on an HP XC cluster. See the PBS Professional Administrator Guide for information about other configuration
options.
L.3 Plan the Installation
Determine the type of installation you require for each node of the system. Choose one of the following
installation types for each node based on how you intend to use the node:
• You must designate one node of the cluster (possibly the HP XC head node) as the PBS server. This
node runs the server and scheduler daemons. Other documentation might refer to the PBS server as
the front-end node.
• You can designate a number of nodes to run user tasks, referred to as PBS execution nodes. Execution
nodes run the PBS Professional MOM (Machine Oriented Miniserver) daemon.
On an HP XC system, you designate the compute nodes to function as PBS execution nodes. You can
choose to use all the compute nodes or a subset of the compute nodes. The PBS server node (front-end
node) is automatically designated as an execution node. See “Add Nodes to the PBS Professional
Configuration” (page 179) for more information.
• Optionally, you can designate a number of PBS client nodes. Client nodes do not run any daemons
and are not used to execute user tasks. The PBS Professional software is installed on all client nodes,
enabling these nodes to interact with the PBS server (the front-end node).
You can submit user tasks and monitor the tasks from a client node. In an HP XC system, typically
one or more nodes (other than the head node) are designated for interactive logins. Because these
servers are not used as compute nodes, you can configure them as PBS clients.
L.4 Perform Installation Actions Specific to HP XC
Follow this installation procedure:
1. Install the PBS server node (front-end node) first, using the installation script provided by the software
vendor, and specify the following values:
L.1 PBS Professional Overview 177