Moab® HPC Workload Manager

Moab Commands (excerpt)

Some of the most used Moab commands for non-administrators working on a HPC-C5 cluster.

MOAB commands	Brief explanation
msub	Submits a job and queues it in an input queue [msub]
checkjob	Displays detailed job state information [checkjob]
showq	Displays information about active, eligible, blocked, and/or recently completed jobs [showq]
showbf	Shows what resources are available for immediate use [showbf]
showstart	Returns start time of submitted job or requested resources [showstart]
canceljob	Cancels a job (opsoleted!) [canceljob]
mjobctl	Cancel a job and more job control options [mjobctl]

Moab Commands

Job Submission : msub

Batch jobs are submitted by using the command msub. The main purpose of the msub command is to specify the resources that are needed to run the job. msub will then queue the batch job. However, starting of batch job depends on availability of the requested resources and the fair sharing value.

msub Command Parameters

The syntax and use of msub can be displayed via:

$ man msub

msub options can be used from the command line or in your job script.

msub Options
Command line	Script	Purpose
-l resources	#MSUB -l resources	Defines the resources that are required by the job. See the description below for this important flag.
-N name	#MSUB -N name	Gives a user specified name to the job.
-o filename	#MSUB -o filename	Defines the file-name to be used for the standard output stream of the batch job. By default the file with defined file name is placed under your job submit directory. To place under a different location, expand file name by the relative or absolute path of destination.
-q queue	#MSUB -q queue	Defines the queue class
-v variable=arg	#MSUB -v variable=arg	Expands the list of environment variables that are exported to the job
-S Shell	#MSUB -S Shell	Declares the shell (state path+name, e.g. /bin/bash) that interpret the job script
-m bea	#MSUB -m bea	Send email when job begins (b), ends (e) or aborts (a).
-M name@uni.de	#MSUB -M name@uni.de	Send email to the specified email address "name@uni.de".

For cluster specific msub options, read:

Moab NEMO Options

msub -l resource_list

The -l option is one of the most important msub options. It is used to specify a number of resource requirements for your job. Multiple resource strings are separated by commas.

msub -l resource_list
resource	Purpose
-l nodes=2:ppn=16	Number of nodes and number of processes per node
-l walltime=600 -l walltime=01:30:00	Wall-clock time. Default units are seconds. HH:MM:SS format is also accepted.
-l pmem=1000mb	Maximum amount of physical memory used by any single process of the job. Allowed units are kb, mb, gb. Be aware that processes are either MPI tasks memory for all MPI tasks or all threads of the job.
-l advres=res_name	Specifies the reservation "res_name" required to run the job.
-l naccesspolicy=policy	Specifies how node resources should be accessed, e.g. -l naccesspolicy=singlejob reserves all requested nodes for the job exclusively. Attention, if you request nodes=1:ppn=4 together with singlejob you will be charged for the maximum cores of the node.

Note that all compute nodes do not have SWAP space, thus DO NOT specify '-l vmem' or '-l pvmem' or your jobs will not start.

msub Examples

Serial Programs

To submit a serial job that runs the script job.sh and that requires 5000 MB of main memory and 3 hours of wall clock time

a) execute:

$ msub -N test -l nodes=1:ppn=1,walltime=3:00:00,pmem=5000mb   job.sh

or b) add after the initial line of your script job.sh the lines (here with a high memory request):

#MSUB -l nodes=1:ppn=1
#MSUB -l walltime=3:00:00
#MSUB -l pmem=200000mb
#MSUB -N test

and execute the modified script with the command line option -q gpu:

$ msub -q gpu job.sh

Note, that msub command line options overrule script options.

Multithreaded Programs

Multithreaded programs operate faster than serial programs on CPUs with multiple cores.
Moreover, multiple threads of one process share resources such as memory.

For multithreaded programs based on Open Multi-Processing (OpenMP) number of threads are defined by the environment variable OMP_NUM_THREADS. By default this variable is set to 1 (OMP_NUM_THREADS=1).

To submit a batch job called OpenMP_Test that runs a fourfold threaded program omp_executable which requires 6000 MByte of total physical memory and total wall clock time of 3 hours:

generate the script job_omp.sh containing the following lines:

#!/bin/bash
#MSUB -l nodes=1:ppn=4
#MSUB -l walltime=3:00:00
#MSUB -l mem=6000mb
#MSUB -v EXECUTABLE=./omp_executable
#MSUB -v MODULE=<placeholder>
#MSUB -N OpenMP_Test

#Usually you should set
export KMP_AFFINITY=compact,1,0
#export KMP_AFFINITY=verbose,compact,1,0 prints messages concerning the supported affinity
#KMP_AFFINITY Description: https://software.intel.com/en-us/node/524790#KMP_AFFINITY_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE

module load ${MODULE}
export OMP_NUM_THREADS=${MOAB_PROCCOUNT}
echo "Executable ${EXECUTABLE} running on ${MOAB_PROCCOUNT} cores with ${OMP_NUM_THREADS} threads"
startexe=${EXECUTABLE}
echo $startexe
exec $startexe

Using Intel compiler the environment variable KMP_AFFINITY switches on binding of threads to specific cores and, if necessary, replace <placeholder> with the required modulefile to enable the OpenMP environment and execute the script job_omp.sh:

$ msub job_omp.sh

Note, that msub command line options overrule script options, e.g.,

$ msub -l mem=2000mb job_omp.sh

overwrites the script setting of 6000 MByte with 2000 MByte.

MPI Parallel Programs

MPI parallel programs run faster than serial programs on multi CPU and multi core systems. N-fold spawned processes of the MPI program, i.e., MPI tasks, run simultaneously and communicate via the Message Passing Interface (MPI) paradigm. MPI tasks do not share memory but can be spawned over different nodes.
Multiple MPI tasks can not be launched by the MPI parallel program itself but via mpirun, e.g. 4 MPI tasks of my_par_program:

$ mpirun -n 4 my_par_program

Generate a wrapper script job_ompi.sh for OpenMPI containing the following lines:

#!/bin/bash
module load mpi/openmpi/<placeholder_for_version>
# Use when loading OpenMPI in version 1.8.x
mpirun --bind-to core --map-by core -report-bindings my_par_program
# Use when loading OpenMPI in an old version 1.6.x
mpirun -bind-to-core -bycore -report-bindings my_par_program

Attention: Do NOT add mpirun options -n <number_of_processes> or any other option defining processes or nodes, since MOAB instructs mpirun about number of processes and node hostnames. Use ALWAYS the MPI options --bind-to core and --map-by core|socket|node (OpenMPI version 1.8.x). Please type mpirun --help for an explanation of the meaning of the different options of mpirun option --map-by.

Considering 4 OpenMPI tasks on a single node, each requiring 1000 MByte, and running for 1 hour, execute:

$ msub -l nodes=1:ppn=4,pmem=1000mb,walltime=01:00:00 job_ompi.sh

Multithreaded + MPI parallel Programs

Multithreaded + MPI parallel programs operate faster than serial programs on multi CPUs with multiple cores. All threads of one process share resources such as memory. On the contrary MPI tasks do not share memory but can be spawned over different nodes.

Multiple MPI tasks using OpenMPI must be launched by the MPI parallel program mpirun. For multithreaded programs based on Open Multi-Processing (OpenMP) number of threads are defined by the environment variable OMP_NUM_THREADS. By default this variable is set to 1 (OMP_NUM_THREADS=1).

For OpenMPI a job-script to submit a batch job called job_ompi_omp.sh that runs a MPI program with 4 tasks and an fivefold threaded program ompi_omp_program requiring 6000 MByte of physical memory per process/thread (using 5 threads per MPI task you will get 5*6000 MByte = 30000 MByte per MPI task) and total wall clock time of 3 hours looks like:

#!/bin/bash
#MSUB -l nodes=2:ppn=10
#MSUB -l walltime=03:00:00
#MSUB -l pmem=6000mb
#MSUB -v MPI_MODULE=mpi/ompi
#MSUB -v OMP_NUM_THREADS=5
#MSUB -v MPIRUN_OPTIONS="--bind-to core --map-by socket:PE=5 -report-bindings"
#MSUB -v EXECUTABLE=./ompi_omp_program
#MSUB -N test_ompi_omp

module load ${MPI_MODULE}
TASK_COUNT=$((${MOAB_PROCCOUNT}/${OMP_NUM_THREADS}))
echo "${EXECUTABLE} running on ${MOAB_PROCCOUNT} cores with ${TASK_COUNT} MPI-tasks and ${OMP_NUM_THREADS} threads"
startexe="mpirun -n ${TASK_COUNT} ${MPIRUN_OPTIONS} ${EXECUTABLE}"
echo $startexe
exec $startexe

Execute the script job_ompi_omp.sh:

$ msub job_ompi_omp.sh

With the mpirun option --bind-to core MPI tasks and OpenMP threads are bound to physical cores.
With the option --map-by socket:PE=<value> (neighbored) MPI tasks will be attached to different sockets and each MPI task is bound to the (in <value>) specified number of cpus. <value> must be set to ${OMP_NUM_THREADS}.
Old OpenMPI version 1.6.x: With the mpirun option -bind-to-core MPI tasks and OpenMP threads are bound to physical cores.
With the option -bysocket (neighbored) MPI tasks will be attached to different sockets and the option -cpus-per-proc <value> binds each MPI task to the (in <value>) specified number of cpus. <value> must be set to ${OMP_NUM_THREADS}.
The option -report-bindings shows the bindings between MPI tasks and physical cores.
The mpirun-options --bind-to core', --map-by socket|...|node:PE=<value> should always be used when running a multithreaded MPI program. (OpenMPI version 1.6.x: The mpirun-options -bind-to-core, -bysocket|-bynode and -cpus-per-proc <value> should always be used when running a multithreaded MPI program.)

Interactive Jobs

Policies of interactive batch jobs are cluster specific and can be found here:

NEMO interactive jobs

Handling job script options and arguments

Job script options and arguments as followed:

$ ./job.sh -n 10

can not be passed while using msub command since those will be interpreted as command line options of job.sh (like $1 = -n, $2 = 10).

Solution A:

Submit a wrapper script, e.g. wrapper.sh:

$ msub wrapper.sh

which simply contains all options and arguments of job.sh. The script wrapper.sh would at least contain the following lines:

#!/bin/bash
./job.sh -n 10

Solution B:

Add after the header of your BASH script job.sh the following lines:

## check if $SCRIPT_FLAGS is "set"
if [ -n "${SCRIPT_FLAGS}" ] ; then
   ## but if positional parameters are already present
   ## we are going to ignore $SCRIPT_FLAGS
   if [ -z "${*}"  ] ; then
      set -- ${SCRIPT_FLAGS}
   fi
fi

These lines modify your BASH script to read options and arguments from the environment variable $SCRIPT_FLAGS. Now submit your script job.sh as followed:

$ msub -v SCRIPT_FLAGS='-n 10' job.sh

Moab Environment Variables

Once an eligible compute jobs starts on the compute system, MOAB adds the following variables to the job's environment:

MOAB variables
Environment variables	Description
MOAB_CLASS	Class name
MOAB_GROUP	Group name
MOAB_JOBID	Job ID
MOAB_JOBNAME	Job name
MOAB_NODECOUNT	Number of nodes allocated to job
MOAB_PARTITION	Partition name the job is running in
MOAB_PROCCOUNT	Number of processors allocated to job
MOAB_SUBMITDIR	Directory of job submission
MOAB_USER	User name

Interpreting PBS exit codes

The PBS Server logs and accounting logs record the ‘exit status’ of jobs.
Zero or positive exit status is the status of the top-level shell.
Certain negative exit statuses are used internally and will never be reported to the user.
The positive exit status values indicate which signal killed the job.
Depending on the system, values greater than 128 (or on some systems 256, see wait(2) or waitpid(2) for more information) are the value of the signal that killed the job.
To interpret (or ‘decode’) the signal contained in the exit status value, subtract the base value from the exit status.
For example, if a job had an exit status of 143, that indicates the jobs was killed via a SIGTERM (e.g. 143 - 128 = 15, signal 15 is SIGTERM).

Job termination

The exit code from a batch job is a standard Unix termination signal.
Typically, exit code 0 means successful completion.
Codes 1-127 are generated from the job calling exit() with a non-zero value to indicate an error.
Exit codes 129-255 represent jobs terminated by Unix signals.
Each signal has a corresponding value which is indicated in the job exit code.

Job termination signals

Specific job exit codes are also supplied by the underlying resource manager of the cluster's batch system which is TORQUE. More detailed information can be found in the corresponding documentation:

TORQUE exit codes

Submitting Termination Signal

Here is an example, how to 'save' a msub termination signal in a typical bwHPC-submit script.

[...]
exit_code=$?
echo "### Calling YOUR_PROGRAM command ..."
mpirun -np 'NUMBER_OF_CORES' $YOUR_PROGRAM_BIN_DIR/runproc ... (options)  2>&1
[ "$exit_code" -eq 0 ] && echo "all clean..." || \
   echo "Executable ${YOUR_PROGRAM_BIN_DIR}/runproc finished with exit code ${$exit_code}"
[...]

Do not use 'time' mpirun! The exit code will be the one submitted by the first (time) program and not the msub exit code.
You do not need an exit $exit_code in the scripts.

Start time of job or resources : showstart

The following command can be used by any user to displays the estimated start time of a job based a number of analysis types based on historical usage, earliest available reservable resources, and priority based backlog.

Access

By default, this command can be run by any user.

Showstart Parameters

Parameter	Description
DURATION	Duration of pseudo-job to be checked in format [[[DD:]HH:]MM:]SS (default duration is 1 second)
-e	Estimate method. By default, Moab will use the reservation based estimation method.
-f	Use feedback. If specified, Moab will apply historical accuracy information to improve the quality of the estimate.
-g	Grid mode. Obtain showstart information from remote resource managers. If -g is not used and Moab determines that job is already migrated, Moab obtains showstart information form the remote Moab where the job was migrated to. All resource managers can be queried by using the keyword "all" which returns all information in a table. $ showstart -g all head.1 Estimated Start Times [ Remote RM ] [ Reservation ] [ Priority ] [ Historical ] [ c1 ] [ 00:15:35 ] [ ] [ ] [ c2 ] [ 3:15:38 ] [ ] [ ]
-l qos=<QOS>	Specifies what QOS the job must start under, using the same syntax as the msub command. Currently, no other resource manager extensions are supported. This flag only applies to hypothetical jobs by using the proccount[@duration] syntax.
JOBID	Job to be checked
PROCCOUNT	Number of processors in pseudo-job to be checked
S3JOBSPEC	XML describing the job according to the Dept. of Energy Scalable Systems Software/S3 job specification.

Note: You cannot specify job flags when running showstart, and since a job by default can only run on one partition. Showstart fails when querying for a job requiring more nodes than the largest partition available.

Showstart Examples

To show estimated start time of job <job_ID> enter

$ showstart -e all <job_ID>

Furthermore start time of resource demands, e.g. 16 processes @ 12 h, can be displayed

$ showstart -e all 16@12:00:00

For a list of all options of showstart read the manpage of showstart

List of your submitted jobs : showq

Displays information about active, eligible, blocked, and/or recently completed jobs. Since the resource manager is not actually scheduling jobs, the job ordering it displays is not valid. The showq command displays the actual job ordering under the Moab Workload Manager. When used without flags, this command displays all jobs in active, idle, and non-queued states.

Access

By default, this command can be run by any user.

However, the -c, -i, and -r flags can only be used by Moab administrators.

Flags

Flag	Description
-b	display blocked jobs only
-c	display details about recently completed jobs (see example, JOBCPURGETIME)
-g	display grid job and system id's for all jobs
-i	display extended details about idle jobs
-l	display local/remote view. For use in a Grid environment, displays job usage of both local and remote compute resources.
-p	display only jobs assigned to the specified partition
-r	display extended details about active (running) jobs
-R	display only jobs which overlap the specified reservation
-v	Display local and full resource manager job IDs as well as partitions. If specified with the '-i' option, will display job reservation time.
-w	display only jobs associated with the specified constraint. Valid constraints include user, group, acct, class, and qos.

Examples

These are examples as shown on the Adaptive Homepage (external links).

Showq example on the bwUniCluster for one specific user only (Name and Pop-ID is fiction. Run as MOAB-Admin.).

$ # use UID for option in showq --->
$ showq -u kn_pop332211
active jobs------------------------
JOBID              USERNAME      STATE PROCS   REMAINING            STARTTIME

8370992            kn_pop33    Running     1  2:05:09:17  Wed Jan 13 15:59:01
8370991            kn_pop33    Running     1  2:05:09:17  Wed Jan 13 15:59:01
8370993            kn_pop33    Running     1  2:05:10:20  Wed Jan 13 16:00:04
[...]
8371040            kn_pop33    Running     1  2:05:11:41  Wed Jan 13 16:01:25

50 active jobs          50 of 7072 processors in use by local jobs (0.71%)
                        434 of 434 nodes active      (100.00%)

eligible jobs----------------------
JOBID              USERNAME      STATE PROCS     WCLIMIT            QUEUETIME

0 eligible jobs   

blocked jobs-----------------------
JOBID              USERNAME      STATE PROCS     WCLIMIT            QUEUETIME

0 blocked jobs   

Total jobs:  50

The summary of your active jobs shows how many jobs of yours are running, how many processors are in use by your jobs and how many nodes are in use by all active jobs.
Use showq -u $USER for your own jobs.
For further options of showq read the manpage of showq.

Shows free resources : showbf

The showbf command can be used by any user to find out how many processors are available for immediate use on the system. It is anticipated that users will use this information to submit jobs that meet these criteria and thus obtain quick job turnaround times. This command incorporates down time, reservations, and node state information in determining the available backfill window.
Note If specific information is not specified, showbf will return information for the user and group running but with global access for other credentials.

Access

By default, this command can be used by any user or administrator.

Flags

-A Show resource availability information for all users, groups, and accounts. By default, showbf uses the default user, group, and account ID of the user issuing the command.

Flag	Description
-a	Show resource availability information only for specified account
-d	Show resource availability information for specified duration
-D	Display current and future resource availability notation
-f	Show resource availability information only for specified feature
-g	Show resource availability information only for specified group
-h	Help for this command
-L	Enforce Hard limits when showing available resources
-m	Allows user to specify the memory requirements for the backfill nodes of interest. It is important to note that if the optional MEMCMP and MEMORY parameters are used, they MUST be enclosed in single ticks (') to avoid interpretation by the shell. For example, enter showbf -m '==256' to request nodes with 256 MB memory.
-n	Show resource availability information for a specified number of nodes. That is, this flag can be used to force showbf to display only blocks of resources with at least this many nodes available.
-p	Show resource availability information for the specified partition
-q	Show information for the specified QOS
-u	Show resource availability information only for specified user

Parameters

Parameter	Description
ACCOUNT	Account name
CLASS	Class/queue required
DURATION	Time duration specified as the number of seconds or in [DD:]HH:MM:SS notation
FEATURELIST	Colon separated list of node features required
GROUP	Specify particular group
MEMCMP	Memory comparison used with the -m flag. Valid signs are >, >=, ==, <=, and <.
MEMORY	Specifies the amount of required real memory configured on the node, (in MB), used with the -m flag.
NODECOUNT	Specify number of nodes for inquiry with -n flag
PARTITION	Specify partition to check with -p flag
QOS	Specify QOS to check with -q flag
USER	Specify particular user to check with -u flag

Examples

The following command displays what resources are available for immediate use for the whole partition.

$ showbf
Partition     Tasks  Nodes      Duration   StartOffset       StartDate
---------     -----  -----  ------------  ------------  -------------- 
ALL             371    129      INFINITY      00:00:00  11:30:26_01/14

The request for 16 nodes can be run immediately on all partitions.

$ showbf -n 16 -d 2:00:00
Partition     Tasks  Nodes      Duration   StartOffset       StartDate
---------     -----  -----  ------------  ------------  --------------
ALL             392    132      INFINITY      00:00:00  11:35:01_01/14

This request for 64 nodes returned nothing, meaning it could not be fulfilled immedately.

$ showbf -n 64 -d 2:00:00
Partition     Tasks  Nodes      Duration   StartOffset       StartDate
---------     -----  -----  ------------  ------------  --------------

The last example request displays an error message. Too much nodes requested!

$ showbf -n 256 -d 2:00:00
resources not available

For further options of showbf read the manpage of showbf.

Detailed job information : checkjob

Checkjob displays detailed job state information and diagnostic output for a specified job. Detailed information is available for queued, blocked, active, and recently completed jobs.

Access

End users can use checkjob to view the status of their own jobs only.

Output

Attribute	Value	Description
Account	<STRING>	Name of account associated with job
Actual Run Time	[[[DD:]HH:]MM:]SS	Length of time job actually ran. This info is only displayed in simulation mode.
Allocated Nodes	Square bracket delimited list of node and processor ids	List of nodes and processors allocated to job
Applied Nodeset^**	<STRING>	Nodeset used for job's node allocation
Arch	<STRING>	Node architecture required by job
Attr	Square bracket delimited list of job attributes	Job Attributes (i.e. [BACKFILL][PREEMPTEE])
Available Memory^**	<INTEGER>	The available memory requested by job. Moab displays the relative or exact value by returning a comparison symbol (>, <, >=, <=, or ==) with the value (i.e. Available Memory <= 2048).
Available Swap^**	<INTEGER>	The available swap requested by job. Moab displays the relative or exact value by returning a comparison symbol (>, <, >=, <=, or ==) with the value (i.e. Available Swap >= 1024).
Average Utilized Procs^*	<FLOAT>	Average load balance for a job
Avg Util Resources Per Task^*	<FLOAT>
BecameEligible	<TIMESTAMP>	The date and time when the job moved from Blocked to Eligible.
Bypass	<INTEGER>	Number of times a lower priority job with a later submit time ran before the job
CheckpointStartTime^**	[[[DD:]HH:]MM:]SS	The time the job was first checkpointed
Class	[<CLASS NAME> <CLASS COUNT>]	Name of class/queue required by job and number of class initiators required per task.
Dedicated Resources Per Task^*	Space-delimited list of <STRING>:<INTEGER>	Resources dedicated to a job on a per-task basis
Disk	<INTEGER>	Amount of local disk required by job (in MB)
Estimated Walltime	[[[DD:]HH:]MM:]SS	The scheduler's estimated walltime. In simulation mode, it is the actual walltime.
EnvVariables^**	Comma-delimited list of <STRING>	List of environment variables assigned to job
Exec Size^*	<INTEGER>	Size of job executable (in MB)
Executable	<STRING>	Name of command to run
Features	Square bracket delimited list of <STRING>s	Node features required by job
Flags
Group	<STRING>	Name of UNIX group associated with job
Holds	Zero or more of User, System, and Batch	Types of job holds currently applied to job
Image Size	<INTEGER>	Size of job data (in MB)
IWD (Initial Working Directory)	<DIR>	Directory to run the executable in
Job Messages^**	<STRING>	Messages attached to a job
Job Submission^**	<STRING>	Job script submitted to RM
Memory	<INTEGER>	Amount of real memory required per node (in MB)
Max Util Resources Per Task^*	<FLOAT>
NodeAccess^*
Nodecount	<INTEGER>	Number of nodes required by job
Opsys	<STRING>	Node operating system required by job
Partition Mask	ALL or colon delimited list of partitions	List of partitions the job has access to
PE	<FLOAT>	Number of processor-equivalents requested by job
Per Partition Priority^**	Tabular	Table showing job template priority for each partition
Priority Analysis^**	Tabular	Table showing how job's priority was calculated:
Job PRIORITY^*	Cred( User:Group:Class)	Serv(QTime)
QOS	<STRING>	Quality of Service associated with job
Reservation	<RSVID ( <TIME1 - <TIME2> Duration: <TIME3>)	RESID specifies the reservation id, TIME1 is the relative start time, TIME2 the relative end time
TIME3	The duration of the reservation
Req	[<INTEGER>] TaskCount: <INTEGER> Partition: <partition>	A job requirement for a single type of resource followed by the number of tasks instances required and the appropriate partition
StartCount	<INTEGER>	Number of times job has been started by Moab
StartPriority	<INTEGER>	Start priority of job
StartTime		Time job was started by the resource management system
State	One of Idle, Starting, Running, etc	Current Job State
SubmitTime		Time job was submitted to resource management system
Swap	<INTEGER>	Amount of swap disk required by job (in MB)
Task Distribution^*	Square bracket delimited list of nodes
Time Queued
Total Requested Nodes^**	<INTEGER>	Number of nodes the job requested
Total Requested Tasks	<INTEGER>	Number of tasks requested by job
User	<STRING>	Name of user submitting job
Utilized Resources Per Task^*	<FLOAT>
WallTime	[[[DD:]HH:]MM:]SS of [[[DD:]HH:]MM:]SS	Length of time job has been running out of the specified limit

In the above table, fields marked with an asterisk (^*) are only displayed when set or when the -v flag is specified. Fields marked with two asterisks (^**) are only displayed when set or when the -v -v flag is specified.

Arguments

Argument	Format	Default	Description	Example
--flags	--flags=future	(none)	Evaluates future eligibility of job (ignore current resource state and usage limitations)	$ checkjob -v --flags=future 8370992 Display reasons why idle job is blocked ignoring node state and current node utilization constraints.
-l (Policy level)	<POLICYLEVEL> HARD, SOFT, or OFF	(none)	Reports job start eligibility subject to specified throttling policy level.	$ checkjob -l SOFT 8370992 $ checkjob -l HARD 8370992
-n (NodeID)	<NODEID>	(none)	Checks job access to specified node and preemption status with regards to jobs located on that node.	checkjob -n uc1n320 8370992
-r (Reservation)	<RSVID>	(none)	Checks job access to specified reservation <RSVID>.	checkjob -r rainer_kn_resa.1 8370992
-v (Verbose)		(n/a)	Sets verbose mode. If the job is part of an array, the -v option shows pertinent array information before the job-specific information. Specifying the double verbose ("-v -v") displays additional information about the job. See more infos here!	checkjob -v 8370992

8370992 = JobId (see examples above)

Parameters

Parameters, descriptions (a lot!) and examples can be found in Adaptive documentation page.

Adaptive Checkjob Command Reference
Use this informations if you'd like to do some analyses why your job is hold or blocked!

For further options of checkjob see the manual page of checkjob
```
$ man checkjob
```

Checkjob Examples

Here is an example from the bwUniCluster.

showq -u $USER   # show my own jobs
active jobs------------------------
JOBID              USERNAME      STATE PROCS   REMAINING            STARTTIME
8370992            kn_popnn    Running     1  2:03:56:50  Wed Jan 13 15:59:01
8370991            kn_popnn    Running     1  2:03:56:50  Wed Jan 13 15:59:01
[...]
8371040            kn_popnn    Running     1  2:03:59:14  Wed Jan 13 16:01:25

49 active jobs          49 of 7072 processors in use by local jobs (0.69%)
                        434 of 434 nodes active      (100.00%)
eligible jobs----------------------
JOBID              USERNAME      STATE PROCS     WCLIMIT            QUEUETIME
0 eligible jobs   

blocked jobs-----------------------
JOBID              USERNAME      STATE PROCS     WCLIMIT            QUEUETIME
0 blocked jobs   

Total jobs:  49
$
$ # now, see what's up with the first job in my queue
$ 
$ checkjob 8370992
job 8370992

AName: Nic_cit_09_Apo_zal_07_cl2_07_cl3_07_cl5_07_2.moab
State: Running 
Creds:  user:kn_pop'nnnnn'  group:kn_kn  account:konstanz  class:singlenode
WallTime:   20:04:28 of 3:00:00:00
BecameEligible: Wed Jan 13 15:58:11
SubmitTime: Wed Jan 13 15:57:58
  (Time Queued  Total: 00:01:03  Eligible: 00:00:58)

StartTime: Wed Jan 13 15:59:01
TemplateSets:  DEFAULT
NodeMatchPolicy: EXACTNODE
Total Requested Tasks: 1

Req[0]  TaskCount: 1  Partition: uc1
Memory >= 4000M  Disk >= 0  Swap >= 0
Dedicated Resources Per Task: PROCS: 1  MEM: 4000M
NodeSet=ONEOF:FEATURE:[NONE]

Allocated Nodes:
[uc1n320:1]

SystemID:   uc1
SystemJID:  8370992

IWD:            /pfs/data2/home/kn/kn_kn/kn_pop139522/fastsimcoal25/Midas_RAD_anchored/Nic_cit_09_Apo_zal_07_cl2_07_cl3_07_cl5_07/1col_DIV-resize_admix_zal1st_starlike_cl2-base_CL-growths_GL-bottlegrowth_onlyintramig/new_est/run_2
SubmitDir:      /pfs/data2/home/kn/kn_kn/kn_pop139522/fastsimcoal25/Midas_RAD_anchored/Nic_cit_09_Apo_zal_07_cl2_07_cl3_07_cl5_07/1col_DIV-resize_admix_zal1st_starlike_cl2-base_CL-growths_GL-bottlegrowth_onlyintramig/new_est/run_2
Executable:     /opt/moab/spool/moab.job.voNyde

StartCount:     1
BypassCount:    1
Partition List: uc1
Flags:          BACKFILL,FSVIOLATION,GLOBALQUEUE
Attr:           BACKFILL,FSVIOLATION
StartPriority:  -3692
PE:             1.00
Reservation '8370992' (-20:04:34 -> 2:03:55:26  Duration: 3:00:00:00)
[...]

You can use standard Linux pipe commands to filter the very detailed checkjob output.

Is the job still running?

$ checkjob 8370992 | grep ^State
State: Running

Write your own checkjob wrapper to modify the checkjob output to have it all one's own way. Here's an example (cut/paste it if you'd like to use this one):

#!/bin/bash
# cj Display Moab-Jobstatus (checkjob wrapper)
# 'rainer.rutka@uni-konstanz.de "2015-09-21 ~1.1
# $1 = Moab Job-Nummer, $2 = Sleep-Time in seconds
shopt -s extglob        # "+"-Zeichen/Integerpruefung

rev=$(tput rev)
res=$(tput sgr0)
resc=$(tput setf 0)
gruen=$(tput setf 2)
rot=$(tput setf 4)

[ "$1" == "-h" ] && { echo "usage: $(basename "$0") (int)Moab-Job-Number [(int)Intervall/Sekunden(Default:30s)]"; exit 0; }
[ "$1" ] || { echo "Moab-Jobnummer fehlt..."; exit 1; } && { jobid="$1"; }
[ ! -z "${jobid##+([0-9])}" ] && { echo "<${jobid}> ist keine Zahl!"; exit 1; }
[ "$2" ] && { let schlaf="$2"; } || { let schlaf=30; }
[ ! -z "${2##+([0-9])}" ] && { echo "<${2}> ist keine Zahl!"; exit 1; }

let sekunden=0
let von=1
let bis=73
let rechts=1
pos () { tput cup ${1} ${2}; }

dauer () {
   pos 0 90
   let gesamt=$[$sekunden*$schlaf]
   pos 0 38
    echo 'Wartezeit:'
   [ "$gesamt" -lt 60 ] && { pos 0 49; echo "${gruen}${gesamt}s${resc}"; }
   [ "$gesamt" -ge 60 ] && { pos 0 49; echo "${gruen}$[$gesamt / 60]m$[$gesamt % 60]s ${resc}"; 
   [ "$gesamt" -ge 3600 ] && { pos 0 49; echo "${gruen}$[$gesamt / 3600]h$[$gesamt % 3600 / 60]m$[$gesamt % 60]s ${resc}"; }
}

checkit () {
   tput clear
   pos 0 1
   echo "${resc}Job: ${gruen}${jobid}${resc} Status: "
   pos 0 60
   echo "Intervall: ${schlaf}s"

   pos 1 1
   echo '>'

   while true
   do
      status=$(checkjob ${jobid} | grep ^State:)
      pos 0 22
      echo "<${rot}${status/State:}${resc}>" 
      dauer
      [ "${status/State:}" == "" ] && { let sekunden=0; echo "${rot} ERROR! ${resc}"; exit 1; }
      [ "${status/State:}" == " Completed " ] && { echo "${gruen} Job ${jobid} ist fertig!${resc}"; exit 0; }
      [ "${status/State:}" == " Removed " ] && { echo "${rot} Job ${jobid} wurde gelöscht!${resc}"; exit 1; }
      [ "$rechts" == "$bis" ] && { let rechts="$von"; checkit ${jobid} ${schlaf} ; } || let rechts++
      pos 1 $rechts
      sleep ${schlaf}
      echo -n .
      let sekunden++;
   done
}
checkit ${*}

Using the same Job-ID as above the output of the script (named 'cj'):

$ cj -h
usage: cj (int)Moab-Job-Number [(int)Intervall/Sekunden(Default:30s)]
$ cj 8370992 10 # update every 10 seconds
 Job: 8370992 Status: < Running >     Wartezeit: 30m50s     Intervall: 10s
 >.........................................

Blocked job information : checkjob -v

This command allows to check the detailed status and resource requirements of your active, queued, or recently completed job. Additionally, this command performs numerous diagnostic checks and determines if and where the job could potentially run. Diagnostic checks include policy violations, reservation constraints, preemption status, and job to resource mapping. If a job cannot run, a text reason is provided along with a summary of how many nodes are and are not available. If the -v flag is specified, a node by node summary of resource availability will be displayed for idle jobs.

If your job is blocked do not delete it!

Job Eligibility

If a job cannot run, a text reason is provided along with a summary of how many nodes are and are not available. If the -v flag is specified, a node by node summary of resource availability will be displayed for idle jobs. For job level eligibility issues, one of the following reasons will be given:

Reason	Description
job has hold in place	one or more job holds are currently in place
insufficient idle procs	there are currently not adequate processor resources available to start the job
idle procs do not meet requirements	adequate idle processors are available but these do not meet job requirements
start date not reached	job has specified a minimum start date which is still in the future
expected state is not idle	job is in an unexpected state
state is not idle	job is not in the idle state
dependency is not met	job depends on another job reaching a certain state
rejected by policy	job start is prevented by a throttling policy

If a job cannot run on a particular node, one of the following 'per node' reasons will be given:

Description	Reason
Class	Node does not allow required job class/queue
CPU	Node does not possess required processors
Disk	Node does not possess required local disk
Features	Node does not possess required node features
Memory	Node does not possess required real memory
Network	Node does not possess required network interface
State	Node is not Idle or Running

Example

A blocked job has hit a limit and will become idle if resource get free. The "-v (verbose)" mode of 'checkjob' also shows a message "BLOCK MSG:" for more details.

checkjob -v 8370992
[...]

 BLOCK MSG: job <jobID> violates active SOFT MAXPROC limit of 750 for acct mannheim
  partition ALL (Req: 160  InUse: 742) (recorded at last scheduling iteration)

In this case the job has reached the account limit of mannheim while requesting 160 core when 742 were already in use.
The most common cause of blocked jobs is a violation of MAXPROC or MAXPS limits, indicating that your group has scheduled too many outstanding processor seconds at the same time.

The Limits imposed by the Scheduler

This refers to limits on the number of jobs in the queue which are enforced by the scheduler. The largest factors in determining limits in numbers of jobs are the Maximum Processor Seconds (MAXPS) and the Maximum Processors (MAXPROC) for each account. The MAXPS is the total number of processor core seconds (ps) allocated for each (group) account. It is based on fairshare values in dependency of the configured values for your <OE> (Konstanz, Ulm, etc. ...) .
Users can submit as many jobs but they cannot be scheduled to run if their groups MAXPROC or MAXPS value is exceeded. They instead enter into a "HOLD" state. If the limits of the group is not reached but the resources are not available, the jobs enter into "IDLE" state and will run once the requested resources become available.

Canceling own jobs : canceljob

Caution: This command is deprecated. Use mjobctl -c instead!

The canceljob <JobId> command is used to selectively cancel the specified job(s) (active, idle, or non-queued) from the queue.

Note that only own jobs can be cancelled.

Access

This command can be run by any Moab Administrator and by the owner of the job.

Flag	Name	Format	Default	Description	Example
-h	HELP		n./a.	Display usage information	$ canceljob -h
	JOB ID	<STRING>	(none)	a jobid, a job expression, or the keyword 'ALL'

Example Use of Canceljob

Example use of canceljob run on the bwUniCluster

[...calc_repo-0]$ msub bwhpc-fasta-example.moab
8374356              # this is the JobId
$
$ checkjob 8374356
job 8374356
AName: fasta36_job
State: Idle 
Creds:  user:kn_pop235844  group:kn_kn  account:konstanz  class:multinode
WallTime:   00:00:00 of 00:10:00
BecameEligible: Fri Jan 15 12:10:53
SubmitTime: Fri Jan 15 12:10:43
  (Time Queued  Total: 00:00:10  Eligible: 00:00:08)
[...]

$ checkjob 8374356 | grep ^State:
State: Idle              # state is 'Idle'

$ # now cancel the job
$ canceljob 8374356
job '8374356' cancelled

$ checkjob 8374356 | grep ^State:
State: Removed      # state turned into 'Removed'

See: E-Mail notification after a job was cancelled/removed

Moab Job Control : mjobctl

The mjobctl command controls various aspects of jobs. It is used to submit, cancel, execute, and checkpoint jobs. It can also display diagnostic information about your own jobs.

Canceling own jobs : mjobctl -c

If you want to cancel a job that has been submitted, please do not use the PBS/Torque qdel (n./a.) or the deprecated canceljob commands.

Instead, use mjobctl -c <jobid>.

Flag	Format	Default	Description	Example
-cl	JobId	(none)	Cancel a job.	see: example use of mjobctl -c

Example Use of mjobctl -c

Canceling a job on the bwUniCluster

[...-calc_repo-0]$ msub bwhpc-fasta-example.moab
8374426

$ checkjob 8374426 | grep ^State
State: Idle                # job is 'Idle'

$ mjobctl -c 8374426
job '8374426' cancelled    # job is cancelled

checkjob 8374426 | grep ^State
State: Removed             # now, job is removed

$ # my own checkjob wrapper
cj 8374426
 Job: 8374426 Status: < Removed >     Wartezeit: 1m30s         Intervall: 30s
 Job 8374426 wurde gelöscht!
$

checkjob wrapper

NEMO/Moab/General

Moab® HPC Workload Manager

Moab Commands (excerpt)

Job Submission : msub

msub Command Parameters

msub -l resource_list

msub Examples

Serial Programs

Multithreaded Programs

MPI Parallel Programs

Multithreaded + MPI parallel Programs

Interactive Jobs

Handling job script options and arguments

Moab Environment Variables

Interpreting PBS exit codes

Job termination

Job termination signals

Submitting Termination Signal

Start time of job or resources : showstart

Access

Showstart Parameters

Showstart Examples

List of your submitted jobs : showq

Access

Flags

Examples

Shows free resources : showbf

Access

Flags

Parameters

Examples

Detailed job information : checkjob

Access

Output

Arguments

Parameters

Checkjob Examples

Blocked job information : checkjob -v

Job Eligibility

Example

The Limits imposed by the Scheduler

Canceling own jobs : canceljob

Access

Example Use of Canceljob

Moab Job Control : mjobctl

Canceling own jobs : mjobctl -c

Example Use of mjobctl -c

Other Mjobctl-Options

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