Understanding Jobs and Tasks
Applies To: Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2, Microsoft HPC Pack 2012, Microsoft HPC Pack 2012 R2
A Microsoft® HPC Pack job is a resource request that is submitted to the HPC Job Scheduler Service and that contains, or will contain, one or more tasks. A job requests "X number of Y resources for a Z amount of time." For example, a job might request eight nodes in the "Have Big Memory" group for two hours. After a job is submitted to the HPC Job Scheduler Service, it is placed in the queue where it waits until the resources necessary to run its tasks become available.
In HPC Pack, a task is a discrete command that a job runs. A task can run an application directly, or it can consist of batch files or scripts that perform multiple activities. Task properties define how a task needs to run. A task can include properties such as the input, output, and error files to be used. You can also specify task properties that are similar to those of the job in terms of required nodes, number of required processors, the run time limit, and node exclusivity.