HP XC System 3.x Software - Manual (Page 24)

SLURM commands HP XC uses the Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management (SLURM) for
system resource management and job scheduling. Standard SLURM commands
are available through the command line. SLURM functionality is described in
Chapter 9 “Using SLURM” . Descriptions of SLURM commands are available in
the SLURM manpages. Invoke the man command with the SLURM command
name to access them.
HP-MPI commands You can run standard HP- MPI commands from the command line. Descriptions
of HP-MPI commands are available in the HP-MPI documentation, which is
supplied with the HP XC system software.
Modules commands The HP XC system uses standard Modules commands to load and unload
modulefiles, which are used to configure and modify the user environment.
Modules commands are described in
“Overview of Modules” .
1.4 Application Development Environment
The HP XC system provides an environment that enables developing, building, and running applications
using multiple nodes with multiple cores. These applications can range from parallel applications using
many cores to
serial application s using a single core.
1.4.1 Parallel Applications
The HP XC parallel application development environment allows parallel application processes to be
started and stopped together on a large number of application processors, along with the I/O and process
control structures to manage these kinds of applications.
Full details and examples of how to build, run, debug, and troubleshoot parallel applications are provided
in
“Developing Parallel Applications” .
1.4.2 Serial Applications
You can build and run serial application s under the HP XC development environment. A serial application
is a command or application that does not use any form of parallelism.
Full details and examples of how to build, run, debug, and troubleshoot serial applications are provided
in
“Building Serial Applications” .
1.5 Run-Time Environment
This section describes LSF-HPC, SLURM, and HP- MPI , and how these components work together to
provide the HP XC run-time environment. LSF-HPC focuses on scheduling (and managing the workload)
and SLURM provides efficient and scalable resource management of the compute nodes.
Another HP XC environment features standard LSF without the interaction with the SLURM resource
manager.
1.5.1 SLURM
Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management (SLURM) is a resource management system that is integrated
into the HP XC system. SLURM is suitable for use on large and small Linux clusters. It was developed by
Lawrence Livermore National Lab and Linux Networks. As a resource manager, SLURM allocates exclusive
or unrestricted access to resources (application and compute nodes) for users to perform work, and provides
a framework to start, execute and monitor work (normally a parallel job) on the set of allocated nodes.
A SLURM system consists of two daemons, one configuration file, and a set of commands and APIs. The
central controller daemon, slurmctld, maintains the global state and directs operations. A slurmd
daemon is deployed to each computing node and responds to job-related requests, such as launching jobs,
signalling, and terminating jobs. End users and system software (such as LSF-HPC) communicate with
SLURM by means of commands or APIs — for example, allocating resources, launching parallel jobs on
allocated resources, and terminating running jobs.
SLURM groups compute nodes (the nodes where jobs are run) together into “partitions”. The HP XC
system can have one or several partitions. When HP XC is installed, a single partition of compute nodes
is created by default for LSF-HPC batch jobs. The system administrator has the option of creating additional
partitions. For example, another partition could be created for interactive jobs.
24 Overview of the User Environment