Add a Parametric Task
Applies To: Windows HPC Server 2008
A parametric task is a single task that runs multiple times with a set of different inputs. The index for your parametric sweep can apply to the instances of your application, and to your working directory, input, output, and error files.
Adding a parametric task
In HPC Cluster Manager, the option to add a task is available in the New Job, Modify Job, and Copy Job dialog boxes. As an example, the following procedure describes how to add a task in the New Job dialog box.
For information about using HPC Cluster Manager, see Overview of HPC Cluster Manager.
To create a parametric task
In Job Management, in the Actions pane, click New Job.
In the left pane of the New Job dialog box, click Task List.
Point to the Add button, click the down arrow, then click Parametric Task.
In the Parametric Task dialog box, type a name for your task.
Define the index for your parametric sweep as follows:
In Step 1 in the dialog box, set the start and end index values for your sweep.
In Step 2, choose the increment value for the sweep index.
You can verify your index series under Preview your sweep at the bottom of the dialog box.
Type the task command, relative to the working directory, in the Command line entry box. For example, type
myApp.exe *. This creates multiple indexed instances of you application.Specify the Working directory for your task. In general, a working directory should be indicated with a UNC path, not a relative or a local path. The working directory can include the wildcard character (*) if each step in the sweep needs a discrete working directory.
Specify the Standard input, Standard output, and Standard error file names relative to the working directory. Use the wildcard character (*) to represent a file number that will increment from one iteration to the next according to the index settings you chose in Step 5 of this procedure. For example: myInput*.dat.
Note
In a parametric sweep task, the input and output are usually a set of indexed files (for example, input1, input2, input3…, output1, output2, output3…).
Preview your parametric sweep task. If the task is not what you intended, make changes and preview again.
Click Save to add the task to your job and return to the New Job dialog box.
Additional considerations
A parametric sweep job contains a single task that runs multiple times with a set of different inputs. This is a change from Compute Cluster Server 2003, where a parametric sweep was a job with many tasks.
The New Single Task Job dialog box provides a quick way to submit a parametric task. When you use this method, you automatically accept all default job property values as defined by the job template that you use.
To open HPC Cluster Manager, click Start, point to All Programs, click Microsoft HPC Pack, and then click HPC Cluster Manager. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.