LSF Version 7.3 - Administering Platform LSF

Using LSF with Non-Shared File Systems
688 Administering Platform LSF
Some networks do not share files between hosts. LSF can still be used on these
networks, with reduced fault tolerance. See Using LSF with Non-Shared File
Systems on page 688 for information about using LSF in a network without a shared
file system.
Using LSF with Non-Shared File Systems
LSF installation
To install LSF on a cluster without shared file systems, follow the complete
installation procedure on every host to install all the binaries, man pages, and
configuration files.
Configuration files
After you have installed LSF on every host, you must update the configuration files
on all hosts so that they contain the complete cluster configuration. Configuration
files must be the same on all hosts.
Master host
You must choose one host to act as the LSF master host. LSF configuration files and
working directories must be installed on this host, and the master host must be
listed first in
lsf.cluster.cluster_name.
You can use the parameter LSF_MASTER_LIST in
lsf.conf to define which hosts
can be considered to be elected master hosts. In some cases, this may improve
performance.
For Windows password authentication in a non-shared file system environment,
you must define the parameter LSF_MASTER_LIST in
lsf.conf so that jobs will
run with correct permissions. If you do not define this parameter, LSF assumes that
the cluster uses a shared file system environment.
Fault tolerance
Some fault tolerance can be introduced by choosing more than one host as a
possible master host, and using NFS to mount the LSF working directory on only
these hosts. All the possible master hosts must be listed first in
lsf.cluster.cluster_name. As long as one of these hosts is available, LSF
continues to operate.
Remote File Access
Using LSF with non-shared file space
LSF is usually used in networks with shared file space. When shared file space is not
available, use the
bsub -f command to have LSF copy needed files to the execution
host before running the job, and copy result files back to the submission host after
the job completes.
LSF attempts to run a job in the directory where the
bsub command was invoked.
If the execution directory is under the user’s home directory,
sbatchd looks for the
path relative to the user’s home directory. This handles some common
configurations, such as cross-mounting user home directories with the
/net
automount option.