Overview of HPC Job Manager
Applies To: Windows HPC Server 2008
Windows HPC Server 2008 provides an integrated application platform for running, managing, and developing parallel computing applications. HPC Job Manager is your primary interface for submitting jobs to a cluster.
Using HPC Job Manager, you can submit, monitor, and manage all of your compute jobs from a single location.
Note
You can also use the Command Prompt window, HPC PowerShell, or HPC Basic Profile web service interface to submit, manage, and view jobs on a cluster. For more information, see Online Resources.
In this topic:
Basic HPC job terms
Basic HPC cluster resource terms
Opening HPC Job Manager
Basic HPC job terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Job |
A resource request that is submitted to the Job Scheduler service that contains, or will contain one or more tasks. |
Task |
The execution of a user application. A task cannot be run independently of a job. However, it is possible for a job to contain only a single task. Each job has a set of tasks that must run before the job is complete. To have tasks run in a specific order, you must define dependencies between the tasks. |
Job Template |
A custom submission policy that is created by the cluster administrator to define the job parameters for an application. Job templates provide defaults and restrain values of job properties to assist users in creating jobs that meet their needs and conform to resource allocation policies. For more information, see Understanding Job Templates. |
Job or Task Description File |
A user-named XML file that contains job or task specifications. This file allows you to preserve a job or task as a pattern for future submissions. When you create a new job or task from a description file, you can modify any of the properties before submission. For more information, see Save a Job or Task to a File. |
Queue |
A list of jobs that have been submitted to the Job Scheduler service to be run by the cluster. A set of scheduling policies determines the order in which to run jobs from the queue. Cluster administrators configure the scheduling policies. |
Job Scheduler service |
A service that is responsible for queuing jobs and tasks, allocating resources, dispatching the tasks to the compute nodes, and monitoring the status of the job, tasks, and nodes. |
Basic HPC cluster resource terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Cluster |
The top-level organizational unit of an HPC cluster, comprising a set of nodes, a queue, and jobs. |
Node |
A single, named host in the cluster. |
Node Group |
A collection of nodes. The three default groups are head nodes, compute nodes, and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) broker nodes. Cluster administrators can create additional groups and assign nodes to one or more groups. |
Core |
An individual CPU on a node. For example, a dual-core processor is considered two cores. |
Socket |
In terms of the Job Scheduler service, a socket is a set of processors with a dedicated memory bus. This is also known as a non-uniform memory access (NUMA) node. |
Opening HPC Job Manager
To submit jobs to your HPC cluster, you must have the client utilities in HPC Pack 2008 installed on your computer. The client utilities include HPC Job Manager.
To open HPC Job Manager
Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft HPC Pack, and then click HPC Job Manager.
The first time you open HPC Job Manager, the Select Head Node dialog box appears. Click the head node of the HPC cluster that you want to connect to, then click OK.
If you want to connect to a different cluster, in the File menu, click Select Head Node, then click the head node of the HPC cluster that you want to connect to.