LSF Version 7.3 - Administering Platform LSF

Administering Platform LSF 567
C HAPTER
37
Job Starters
A job starter is a specified shell script or executable program that sets up the
environment for a job and then runs the job. The job starter and the job share the
same environment. This chapter discusses two ways of running job starters in LSF
and how to set up and use them.
Contents
◆ About Job Starters on page 567
◆ Command-Level Job Starters on page 568
◆ Queue-Level Job Starters on page 570
◆ Controlling Execution Environment Using Job Starters on page 571
About Job Starters
Some jobs have to run in a particular environment, or require some type of setup to
be performed before they run. In a shell environment, job setup is often written into
a wrapper shell script file that itself contains a call to start the desired job.
A job starter is a specified wrapper script or executable program that typically
performs environment setup for the job, then calls the job itself, which inherits the
execution environment created by the job starter. LSF controls the job starter
process, rather than the job. One typical use of a job starter is to customize LSF for
use with specific application environments, such as Alias Renderer or IBM Rational
ClearCase.
Two ways to run job starters
You run job starters two ways in LSF. You can accomplish similar things with either
job starter, but their functional details are slightly different.
Command-level Are user-defined. They run interactive jobs submitted using lsrun, lsgrun, or ch.
Command-level job starters have no effect on batch jobs, including interactive
batch jobs run with
bsub -I.
Use the LSF_JOB_STARTER environment variable to specify a job starter for
interactive jobs. See Controlling Execution Environment Using Job Starters on page
571 for detailed information.