The Cardiff Windows cluster contains over 1000 Windows XP machines. Up to 200 are available for concurrent use by NGS users.
To make use of this resource, use the jobmanager name condorngs.cf.ac.uk/jobmanager-condor.
The machines in this cluster do not have a shared filesystem. In order for Condor to know which files need to be staged to the execution node, the Globus RSL specification must indicate all input and output data files.
For example, suppose we want to run the application largec.exe, which reads the file named by its first argument and also requires the file cloud.dll to be present. The executable generates the output files log.txt and data\map.dat. The executable expects the directory data to be present.
We can run this using the following command line (broken up onto multiple lines for readability):
| globus-job-run condorngs.cf.ac.uk/jobmanager-condor |
Contact the Cardiff Windows Condor pool |
| -x '& |
Add the following elements to the Globus RSL |
| (file_stage_in = ($(GLOBUSRUN_GASS_URL)/home/user/lc/input.txt input.txt)) |
Transfer the input file |
| (file_stage_in_shared = ($(GLOBUSRUN_GASS_URL)/home/user/lc/cloud.dll cloud.dll)) |
Stage the file "cloud.dll", indicating that it is safe to share between multiple jobs |
| (file_stage_in_shared = ($(GLOBUSRUN_GASS_URL)/dev/null data\dummy)) |
Create the directory "data" on the execution node by transferring a zero-length file |
| (file_stage_out = (log.txt $(GLOBUSRUN_GASS_URL)/home/user/lc/log.txt) (data\map.dat $(GLOBUSRUN_GASS_URL)/home/user/lc/map.dat)) |
Transfer both output files |
| ' |
|
| -s largec.exe |
Stage in and run the executable |
| input.txt |
Command line arguments |
Note: The $(GLOBUSRUN_GASS_URL) variable is only available when using the globus-job-run command and when staging the executable and/or standard IO files. For other situations:
- start a standalone GASS server using the command globus-gass-server -r -w and use the full GASS URL (e.g. https://my.host.name:3456/home/user/lc/input.txt);
- use a local GridFTP server (e.g. gsiftp://my.host.name//home/user/lc/input.txt); or
- stage files to and from condorngs, and use file: URLs (e.g. file:$(HOME)/input.txt).
