Allocating license shares to clusters and interactive jobs

With License Scheduler, you can allocate shares of license features across clusters and between LSF jobs and interactive jobs run through the LSF Task Manager (taskman).

  • You can globally enable a share of all license features for interactive tasks.

  • You can configure the allocation of license shares to:

Change the share number between clusters for a feature

Limit the scope of license usage and change the share number between LSF jobs and interactive tasks for a feature

Enabling a share of licenses for interactive tasks

To globally enable one share of the licenses for interactive tasks, you must set the ENABLE_INTERACTIVE parameter in lsf.licensescheduler.

In lsf.licensescheduler, edit the Parameters section:

Begin Parameters
...
ENABLE_INTERACTIVE = y
...
End Parameters

Tip:

By default, ENABLE_INTERACTIVE is not set. License Scheduler allocates licenses equally to each cluster and does not distribute licenses for interactive tasks.

Configuring allocation for specific features

To specify ALLOCATION for a specific feature, you set the ALLOCATION keyword in the Features section of lsf.licensescheduler. This feature ignores the global setting of the ENABLE_INTERACTIVE parameter because ALLOCATION is configured for the feature.

In lsf.licensescheduler, edit the Features section:

Begin Feature
NAME = AppX
DISTRIBUTION = LanServer1 (Lp1 1)
ALLOCATION = Lp1 (Cluster1 1 Cluster2 1 interactive 1)
End Feature

Default ALLOCATION setting

ALLOCATION is not configured. The ENABLE_INTERACTIVE parameter is not set.

Each cluster receives one share. Interactive tasks receive no shares.

Example

For two clusters and 12 licenses,

Begin Feature
NAME = AppX
DISTRIBUTION = LanServer (Lp1 1)
End Feature

Six licenses are allocated to each cluster. No licenses are allocated to interactive tasks.

Changing the ALLOCATION configuration

You can edit the default ALLOCATION configuration, resulting in the following scenarios. Each example contains two clusters and 12 licenses of a specific feature.

Example 1

ALLOCATION is not configured. The ENABLE_INTERACTIVE parameter is not set.

Begin Parameters
...
ENABLE_INTERACTIVE = n
...
End Parameters
Begin Feature
NAME = AppX
DISTRIBUTION = LanServer (Lp1 1)
End Feature

Six licenses are allocated to each cluster. No licenses are allocated to interactive tasks.

Example 2

ALLOCATION is not configured. The ENABLE_INTERACTIVE parameter is set.

Begin Parameters
...
ENABLE_INTERACTIVE = y
...
End Parameters

Begin Feature
NAME = AppX
DISTRIBUTION = LanServer (Lp1 1)
End Feature

Four licenses are allocated to each cluster. Four licenses are allocated to interactive tasks.

Example 3

In the following example, the ENABLE_INTERACTIVE parameter does not affect the ALLOCATION configuration of the feature.

ALLOCATION is configured. The ENABLE_INTERACTIVE parameter is set.

Begin Parameters
...
ENABLE_INTERACTIVE = y
...
End Parameters
Begin Feature
NAME = AppY
DISTRIBUTION = LanServer (Lp1 1)
ALLOCATION = Lp1(cluster1 1 cluster2 0 interactive 1)
End Feature

The ENABLE_INTERACTIVE setting is overridden for feature AppY. Licenses are shared equally between cluster1 and interactive tasks. Six licenses of AppY are allocated to cluster1. Six licenses are allocated to interactive tasks.

Example 4

In the following example, the ENABLE_INTERACTIVE parameter does not affect the ALLOCATION configuration of the feature.

ALLOCATION is configured. The ENABLE_INTERACTIVE parameter is not set.

Begin Parameters
...
ENABLE_INTERACTIVE = n
...
End Parameters

Begin Feature
NAME = AppZ
DISTRIBUTION = LanServer (Lp1 1)
ALLOCATION = Lp1(cluster1 0 cluster2 1 interactive 2)
End Feature

The ENABLE_INTERACTIVE setting is ignored for feature AppZ. Four licenses of AppZ are allocated to cluster2. Eight licenses are allocated to interactive tasks.