Modify Resource Properties with SDM

If you don't have enough money to build a large SGE cluster to satisfy your computing needs, you may have ended up with a smaller stand-alone SGE cluster.  And if there is  another group in your organization in a similar situation, then, both groups may wish to combine their stand-alone SGE clusters so that both groups can use each other group's resources when there are some resources that are not being used.

However, in reality, there are some barriers to merge their stand-alone clusters into a bigger cluster.  Miha has described an excellent summary on some of these issue. Some users may want to have higher priority on their own resources when they need some work done or the cluster is busy.  Another issue with merging the clusters is how to come up with a fare-share entitlement based on their resource contribution since often time their resources are not identical.

SDM may resolve these issues by providing Service Level Objectives (SLO).  The following example shows how to add a custom resource property to a resource (host) so that SDM can identify who owns the resource.  The example was done using 6.2 Beta2 binaries.

Step 1. Dump the current resource properties of a resource into a file

node1# sdmadm sr -r node3 -all > /var/tmp/node3.properties
node1# cat /var/tmp/node3.properties
service    id    state    type flags usage annotation
-----------------------------------------------------
spare_pool node3 ASSIGNED host       51             
    hardwareCpuArchitecture=sparcv9
    hardwareCpuCount=4
    operatingSystemName=Solaris
    resourceHostname=node3

Step 2. Edit the dumped resource property file.

1. Remove unnecessary lines
2. Add the following lines:

    static=false  [not needed with 6.2 FCS release]
    owner=groupB

node1# cat /var/tmp/node3.properties
    hardwareCpuArchitecture=sparcv9
    hardwareCpuCount=4
    operatingSystemName=Solaris
    resourceHostname=node3
    static=false
    owner=groupB

Step 3. Modify the corresponding resource property.

node1# sdmadm mr -r node3 -f /var/tmp/node3.properties
node1# sdmadm sr -r node3 -all
service    id    state    type flags usage annotation
-----------------------------------------------------
spare_pool node3 ASSIGNED host       51              
    hardwareCpuArchitecture=sparcv9
    hardwareCpuCount=4
    operatingSystemName=Solaris
owner=groupB
    resourceHostname=node3

Now the host, node3, has an additional resource property, owner, attached to it.   This is an essential property to manage multiple, stand-alone clusters, owned by different groups, so that SDM can overcome the above mentioned issues with merging the clusters. SDM can  provide additional resources, if they are available from other group's cluster, without merging the stand-alone clusters by using the ownership property.  When they are not needed any more, SDM can move the resources back to the owner's cluster.

Stay tuned for an example on how SDM manages two different, stand-alone clusters to fulfill additional on-demand resource requirements. 

Posted at 05:30PM Aug 04, 2008 by Chansup Byun in Grid  |  Comments[0]