Process Accounting on a Linux Cluster

[Dan Yocum]

Users are only allowed access to a master or I/O node on a cluster and
jobs are submitted from there.  This is an integral part of all batch
and beowulf processing systems.

Dan

Gary Stiehr wrote:
> 
> Hi,
>         Do you allocate certain nodes to certain jobs or do you just let your
> users start jobs at any time on any node?
> 
> Thank you,
> Gary Stiehr
> gary at umsl.edu
> 
> Dan Yocum wrote:
> >
> > Gary Stiehr wrote:
> >
> > > 1.) Has anyone had experience with process accounting on a Linux
> > > cluster?  We are interested in knowing who is using what resources
> > > (simply for our information).  I found a package psacct that is(was?)
> > > maintained by the FSF. (I looked at gnu.org but didn't see much
> > > information about it.)  Anyway, I can use this program on each
> > > individual node and then collect all of the statistics individually, but
> > > I was just wondering if anyone had come up with a different way (or if
> > > you know of any other Linux process accounting packages).
> >
> > At Fermilab they use psacct with a frontend called facct (Fermi
> > accounting; cute, eh?  ;), since psacct just provides the data, but
> > doesn't really present it in a meaningful format.
> >
> > In any case, facct is open source and available here as an RPM package:
> >
> > ftp://linux1.fnal.gov/linux/611/i386/Fermi/workgroups/Farms/RPMS/facct-2.0-2.i386.rpm
> >
> > The source RPM is up one dir and under SRPMS/facct-2.0-2.src.rpm.
> >
> > I have not used this package, so you should direct any and all questions
> > to Terry Jones: jonest at fnal.gov.  Tell 'im I sent ya - you'll get a good
> > snide remark out of that.  ;-)
> >
> > > 3.) Does anyone limit the amount of resources that each user can use?
> > > Or assign certain nodes to certain users?  If so, which types of
> > > programs do you use.
> >
> > Generally, this is written into the job submission software - LSF has
> > this capability, and I'm sure other packages do, too.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Dan
> >
> > --
> > Dan Yocum, Sr. Linux Consultant
> > Linuxcare, Inc.
> > 630.697.8066 tel
> > yocum at linuxcare.com, http://www.linuxcare.com
> >
> > Linuxcare. Support for the revolution.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Beowulf at beowulf.org
> > http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf


-- 
Dan Yocum, Sr. Linux Consultant
Linuxcare, Inc.
630.697.8066 tel
yocum at linuxcare.com, http://www.linuxcare.com

Linuxcare. Support for the revolution.