HP XC System Software User's Guide Version 3.2

10 Using LSF-HPC
The Load Sharing Facility (LSF-HPC) from Platform Computing Corporation is a batch system
resource manager used on the HP XC system.
On an HP XC system, a job is submitted to LSF-HPC, which places the job in a queue and allows
it to run when the necessary resources become available. In addition to launching jobs, LSF-HPC
provides extensive job management and information capabilities. LSF-HPC schedules, launches,
controls, and tracks jobs that are submitted to it according to the policies established by the HP
XC site administrator.
Two types of LSF are available for installation on the HP XC:
• LSF-HPC
This product is the popular batch system produced by Platform Computing Corporation
that has become an industry standard. For full information about LSF-HPC, see the standard
LSF-HPC documentation set, which is described in the “Related Software Products and
Additional Publications” section of this manual. LSF-HPC manpages are also available
online on the HP XC system.
• LSF-HPC integrated with SLURM (LSF-HPC)
This product is the High Performance LSF product from Platform Computing Corporation
that has been integrated with SLURM to take advantage of SLURM's scalable, efficient
resource management and parallel job support.
The intended primary use of the HP XC system determined which of these LSF-HPC products
was installed.
This chapter introduces you to LSF-HPC integrated with SLURM in the HP XC environment. It
provides an overview of how LSF-HPC integrated with SLURM works, and discusses some of
the features and differences of LSF-HPC compared to LSF-HPC integrated with SLURM on an
HP XC system.
This chapter also contains an important discussion of how LSF-HPC and SLURM work together
to provide the HP XC job management environment. A description of SLURM is provided in
Chapter 9 (page 91).
This chapter addresses the following topics:
• “Information for LSF-HPC” (page 95)
• “Overview of LSF-HPC Integrated with SLURM” (page 96)
• “Differences Between LSF-HPC and LSF-HPC Integrated with SLURM” (page 98)
• “Job Terminology” (page 99)
• “Using LSF-HPC Integrated with SLURM in the HP XC Environment” (page 101)
• “Submitting Jobs” (page 101)
• “How LSF-HPC and SLURM Launch and Manage a Job” (page 102)
• “Determining the LSF Execution Host” (page 104)
• “ Determining Available System Resources” (page 104)
• “Getting Information About Jobs” (page 107)
• “Translating SLURM and LSF-HPC JOBIDs” (page 110)
• “Working Interactively Within an Allocation” (page 111)
• “LSF-HPC Equivalents of SLURM srun Options” (page 114)
10.1 Information for LSF-HPC
The information for LSF-HPC is provided in the LSF documentation. This documentation is on
the HP XC installation disk and manpages are online.
10.1 Information for LSF-HPC 95