COMPLEX(5)

NAME
complex - xxQS_NAMExx complexes configuration file format

DESCRIPTION
Complex reflects the format of the xxQS_NAMExx complex configuration. The definition of complex attributes provides all pertinent information concerning the resource attributes a user may request for a xxQS_NAMExx job via the -l option and for the interpretation of these parameters within the xxQS_NAMExx system.

The xxQS_NAMExx complex object defines all entries which are used for configuring the global, the host, and queue object. The system has a set of pre defined entries, which are assigned to a host or queue per default. In a addition can the user define new entries and assign them to one or multiple objects. Each load value has to have its corresponding complex entry object, which defines the type and the relational operator for it.

  defining resource attributes
The complex configuration should not be accessed directly. In order to add or modify complex entries, the options -Mc and -mc should be used instead. While the -Mc option takes a complex configuration file as an argument and overrides the current configuration, the -mc option bring up an editor filled in with the current complex configuration.

The provided list contains all definitions of resource attributes in the system. Adding a new entry means to provide: name, shortcut, type, relop, requestable, consumable, default, and urgency. The fields are described below. Changing one is easily done by updating the field to change and removing an entry by deleting its definition. An attribute can only be removed, when it is not referenced in a host or queue object anymore. Also does the system have a set of default resource attributes which are always attached to a host or queue. They cannot be deleted nor can the type of such an attribute be changed.

  working with resource attributes
Before a user can request a resource attribute it has to be attached to the global, host, or cqueue object. The resource attribute exists only for the objects, it got attached to ( if it is attached to the global object(qconf -me global), it exits system wide, host object: only on that host (qconf -me NAME): cqueue object: only on that cqueue (qconf -mq NAME)).

When the user attached a resource attribute to an object, one also has to assign a value to it; the resource limit. Another way to get a resource attribute value is done by configuring a load sensor for that attribute.

  Default queue resource attributes
In its default form it contains a selection of parameters in the queue configuration as defined in The queue configuration parameters being requestable for a job by the user in principal are:

    qname
    hostname
    notify
    calendar
    min_cpu_interval
    tmpdir
    seq_no
    s_rt
    h_rt
    s_cpu
    h_cpu
    s_data
    h_data
    s_stack
    h_stack
    s_core
    h_core
    s_rss
    h_rss

  Default host resource attributes
The standard set of host related attributes consists of two categories. he first category is built by several queue configuration attributes which are particularly suitable to be managed on a host basis. These attributes are:

    slots
    s_vmem
    h_vmem
    s_fsize
    h_fsize
(please refer to for details).

Note: Defining these attributes in the host complex is no contradiction to having them also in the queue configuration. It allows maintaining the corresponding resources on a host level and at the same time on a queue level. Total virtual free memory (h_vmem) can be managed for a host, for example, and a subset of the total amount can be associated with a queue on that host.

The second attribute category in the standard host complex are the default load values Every periodically reports load to The reported load values are either the standard xxQS_NAMExx load values such as the CPU load average (see or load values defined by the xxQS_NAMExx administration (see the load_sensor parameter in the cluster configuration and the xxQS_NAMExx Installation and Administration Guide for details). The characteristics definition for the standard load values is part of the default host complex, while administrator defined load values require extension of the host complex. Please refer to the file <xxqs_name_sxx_root>/doc/load_parameters.asc for detailed information on the standard set of load values.

  Overriding attributes
One attribute can be assigned to the global object, host object, and queue object at the same time. On the host level it might get its value from the user defined resource limit and a load sensor. In case that the attribute is a consumable, we have in addition to the resource limit and its load report on host level also the internal usage, which the system keeps track of. The merge is done as follows:

In general an attribute can be overridden on a lower level
   - global by hosts and queues
   - hosts by queues and load values or resource limits on the same level.

We have one limitation for overriding attributes based on its relational operator:

!=, == operators can only be overridden on the same level, but not on a lower level. The user defined value always overrides the load value.

>=, >, <=, < operators can only be overridden, when the new value is more restrictive than the old one.

In the case of a consumable on host level, which has also a load sensor, the system checks for the current usage, and if the internal accounting is more restrictive than the load sensor report, the internal value is kept; if the load sensor report is more restrictive, that one is kept.

Note, xxQS_NAMExx allows backslashes (\) be used to escape newline (\newline) characters. The backslash and the newline are replaced with a space (" ") character before any interpretation.

FORMAT
The principal format of a complex configuration is that of a tabulated list. Each line starting with a '#' character is a comment line. Each line despite comment lines define one element of the complex. A element definition line consists of the following 8 column entries per line (in the order of appearance):

  name
The name of the complex element to be used to request this attribute for a job in the -l option. A complex attribute name (see complex_name in may appear only once across all complexes, i.e. the complex attribute definition is unique.

  shortcut
A shortcut for name which may also be used to request this attribute for a job in the -l option. An attribute shortcut may appear only once across all complexes, so as to avoid the possibility of ambiguous complex attribute references.

  type
This setting determines how the corresponding values are to be treated xxQS_NAMExx internally in case of comparisons or in case of load scaling for the load complex entries:

•   With INT only raw integers are allowed.

•   With DOUBLE floating point numbers in double precision (decimal and scientific notation) can be specified.

•   With TIME time specifiers are allowed. Refer to for a format description.

•   With MEMORY memory size specifiers are allowed. Refer to for a format description.

•   With BOOL the strings TRUE and FALSE are allowed. When used in a load formula (refer to ) TRUE and FALSE get mapped into '1' and '0'.

•   With STRING all strings are allowed and is used for wildcard regular boolean expression matching. Please see manpage for expression definition.

    Examples:
     -l arch="*x24*|sol*"  :
          results in "arch=lx24-x86" OR "arch=lx24-amd64"
             OR "arch=sol-sparc" OR "arch=sol-sparc64"
             OR "arch=sol-x86" OR ...
     -l arch="sol-x??"  :
          results in "arch=sol-x86" OR "arch=sol-x64" OR ...
     -l arch="lx2[246]-x86"  :
          results in "arch=lx22-x86" OR "arch=lx24-x86"
             OR "arch=lx26-x86"
     -l arch="lx2[4-6]-x86"  :
          results in "arch=lx24-x86" OR "arch=lx25-x86"
             OR "arch=lx26-x86"
     -l arch="lx2[24-6]-x86"  :
          results in "arch=lx22-x86" OR "arch=lx24-x86"
             OR "arch=lx25-x86" OR "arch=lx26-x86"
     -l arch="!lx24-x86&!sol-sparc"  :
          results in NEITHER "arch=lx24-x86" NOR "arch=sol-sparc"
     -l arch="lx2[4|6]-x86"  :
          results in "arch=lx2[4" OR "arch=6"

•   CSTRING is like STRING except comparisons are case insensitive.

•   RESTRING is like STRING and it will be deprecated in the future.

•   HOST is like CSTRING but the expression must match a valid hostname.

  relop
The relation operator. The relation operator is used when the value requested by the user for this parameter is compared against the corresponding value configured for the considered queues. If the result of the comparison is false, the job cannot run in this queue. Possible relation operators are "==", "<", ">", "<=", ">=" and "EXCL". The only valid operator for string type attributes is "==".

The "EXCL" relation operator implements exclusive scheduling and is only valid for consumable boolean type attributes. Exclusive means the result of the comparison is only true if a job requests to be exclusive and no other exclusive or non-exclusive jobs uses the complex. If the job does not request to be exclusive and no other exclusive job uses the complex the comparison is also true.

  requestable
The entry can be used in a resource request if this field is set to 'y' or 'yes'. If set to 'n' or 'no' this entry cannot be used by a user in order to request a queue or a class of queues. If the entry is set to 'forced' or 'f' the attribute has to be requested by a job or it is rejected.

To enable resource request enforcement the existence of the resource has to be defined. This can be done on a cluster global, per host and per queue basis. The definition of resource availability is performed with the complex_values entry in and

  consumable
The consumable parameter can be set to either 'yes' ('y' abbreviated), 'no' ('n') or 'JOB' ('j'). It can be set to 'yes' and 'JOB' only for numeric attributes (INT, DOUBLE, MEMORY, TIME - see type above). If set to 'yes' or 'JOB' the consumption of the corresponding resource can be managed by xxQS_NAMExx internal bookkeeping. In this case xxQS_NAMExx accounts for the consumption of this resource for all running jobs and ensures that jobs are only dispatched if the xxQS_NAMExx internal bookkeeping indicates enough available consumable resources. Consumables are an efficient means to manage limited resources such a available memory, free space on a file system, network bandwidth or floating software licenses.

A consumable defined by 'y' is a per slot consumables which means the limit is multiplied by the number of slots being used by the job before being applied. In case of 'j' the consumable is a per job consumable. This resource is debited as requested (without multiplication) from the allocated master queue. The resource needs not be available for the slave task queues.

Consumables can be combined with default or user defined load parameters (see and i.e. load values can be reported for consumable attributes or the consumable flag can be set for load attributes. The xxQS_NAMExx consumable resource management takes both the load (measuring availability of the resource) and the internal bookkeeping into account in this case, and makes sure that neither of both exceeds a given limit.

To enable consumable resource management the basic availability of a resource has to be defined. This can be done on a cluster global, per host and per queue basis while these categories may supersede each other in the given order (i.e. a host can restrict availability of a cluster resource and a queue can restrict host and cluster resources). The definition of resource availability is performed with the complex_values entry in and The complex_values definition of the "global" host specifies cluster global consumable settings. To each consumable complex attribute in a complex_values list a value is assigned which denotes the maximum available amount for that resource. The internal bookkeeping will subtract from this total the assumed resource consumption by all running jobs as expressed through the jobs' resource requests.

Note: Jobs can be forced to request a resource and thus to specify their assumed consumption via the 'force' value of the requestable parameter (see above).

Note also: A default resource consumption value can be pre-defined by the administrator for consumable attributes not explicitly requested by the job (see the default parameter below). This is meaningful only if requesting the attribute is not enforced as explained above.

See the xxQS_NAMExx Installation and Administration Guide for examples on the usage of the consumable resources facility.

  default
Meaningful only for consumable complex attributes (see consumable parameter above). xxQS_NAMExx assumes the resource amount denoted in the default parameter implicitly to be consumed by jobs being dispatched to a host or queue managing the consumable attribute. Jobs explicitly requesting the attribute via the -l option to override this default value.

  urgency
The urgency value allows influencing job priorities on a per resource base. The urgency value effects the addend for each resource when determining the resource request related urgency contribution. For numeric type resource requests the addend is the product of the urgency value, the jobs assumed slot allocation and the per slot request as specified via -l option to For string type requests the resources urgency value is directly used as addend. Urgency values are of type real. See under for an overview on job priorities.

SEE ALSO
xxQS_NAMExx Installation and Administration Guide.

COPYRIGHT
See for a full statement of rights and permissions.