Terra:Batch Job Files

Job Files

While not the only method of submitted a job, job files fulfill the needs of most users.

The general idea behind job files follows:

• Make resource requests
• Add your commands and/or scripting
• Submit the job to the batch system

Several of the most important options are described below. These options are typically all that is needed to run a job on Terra.

Basic Terra/Slurm Job Specifications

Specification	Option	Example	Example-Purpose
Reset Env I	--export=NONE		Do not propagate environment to job
Reset Env II	--get-user-env=L		Replicate the login environment
Wall Clock Limit	-t [hh:mm:ss]	-t 01:15:00	Set wall clock limit to 1 hour 15 min
Job Name	-J [SomeText]	-J mpiJob	Set the job name to "mpiJob"
Node Count	-N [min[-max]]	-N 4	Spread all tasks/cores across 4 nodes
Total Task/Core Count	-n [#]	-n 16	Request 16 tasks/cores total
Memory Per Node	--mem=[K|M|G|T]	--mem=32768M	Request 32768 MB (32 GB) per node
Combined stdout/stderr	-j oe [OutputName].%j	-j oe mpiOut.%j	Collect stdout/err in mpiOut.[JobID]

It should be noted that Slurm divides processing resources as such: Nodes -> Cores/CPUs -> Tasks

A user may change the number of tasks per core. For the purposes of this guide, all cores will be associated with exactly a single task.

Optional Terra/Slurm Job Specifications

Specification	Option	Example	Example-Purpose
Set Allocation	-A ######	-A 274839	Set allocation to charge to 274839
Email Notification I	--mail-type=[type]	--mail-type=ALL	Send email on all events
Email Notification II	--mail-user=[address]	--mail-user=howdy@tamu.edu	Send emails to howdy@tamu.edu
Submit Test Job	--test-only		Submit test job for Slurm validation
Request Temp Disk	--tmp=M	--tmp=10240	Request at least 10 GB in temp disk space

Several examples of Slurm job files for Terra are listed below. For translating Ada/LSF job files, the Batch Job Translation Guide provides some reference.

Documentation for advanced options can be found under Advanced Documentation.