GCS v9.0.1

The first patch release of Gridware Cluster Scheduler v9.0.1 is available. Packages can be found here: https://www.hpc-gridware.com/download-main/

Starting with patch 9.0.1, the new internal architecture of sge_qmaster is enabled, allowing the component to use
additional data stores that can be utilized by pools of threads.

• Listener threads: The listener thread pool was already available in earlier versions of Grid Engine. Starting with version 9.0.0 of Cluster Scheduler, this pool received a dedicated datastore to forward incoming requests faster to the component that ultimately has to process the request. New in version 9.0.1 is that this datastore includes more information so that the listener threads themselves can directly answer certain requests without having to forward them. This reduces internal friction and makes the cluster more responsive even in high load situations.

• Reader thread pool: The reader thread pool is activated and can now utilize a corresponding data store. This will boost the performance of clusters in large environments where also users tend to request the status of the system very often, by using client commands like qstat, qhost or other commands that send read-only requests to sge_qmaster. The additional data store needs to be enabled manually by setting following parameter in the qmaster_params of the cluster configuration:

  > qconf -mconf
  ...
  qmaster_params ...,DISABLE_SECONDARY_DS_READER=false
  ...
  

  Please note that requests answered by the reader thread pool might deliver slightly outdated data compared to the requests answered with data from the main data store because both data stores can be slightly out of sync. The maximum deviation can be configured by setting the MAX_DS_DEVIATION in milliseconds within in the qmaster_params.

  > qconf -mconf
  ...
  qmaster_params ...,MAX_DS_DEVIATION=1000 
  ...
  

  The default value is 1000 milliseconds. The value should be chosen carefully to balance the performance gain with the accuracy of the data.

  With one of the upcoming patches we will introduce an addition concept of automatic-sessions that will allow to synchronize the data stores more efficiently so that client commands can be enforced to get the most recent data.

• Enhanced monitoring: The monitoring of sge_qmaster has been enhanced to provide more detailed information about the utilization of the different thread pools. As also in the past the monitoring is enabled by setting the monitor time:

  > qconf -mconf
  ...
  qmaster_params ...,MONITOR_TIME=10
  ...
  

  qping will then show statistics about the handled requests per thread.

  qping -i 1 -f  <master_host> $SGE_QMASTER_PORT qmaster 1
  ...
  10/11/2024 12:54:53 | reader: runs: 261.04r/s (
     GDI (a:0.00,g:2871.45,m:0.00,d:0.00,c:0.00,t:0.00,p:0.00)/s 
     OTHER (ql:0)) 
     out: 261.04m/s APT: 0.0007s/m idle: 80.88% wait: 0.01% time: 9.99s
  10/11/2024 12:54:53 | reader: runs: 279.50r/s (
     GDI (a:0.00,g:3074.50,m:0.00,d:0.00,c:0.00,t:0.00,p:0.00)/s 
     OTHER (ql:0)) 
     out: 279.50m/s APT: 0.0007s/m idle: 79.08% wait: 0.01% time: 10.00s
  10/11/2024 12:54:53 | listener: runs: 268.65r/s (
     in (g:268.34 a:0.00 e:0.00 r:0.30)/s 
     GDI (g:0.00,t:0.00,p:0.00)/s) 
     out: 0.00m/s APT: 0.0001s/m idle: 98.42% wait: 0.00% time: 9.99s
  10/11/2024 12:54:53 | listener: runs: 255.37r/s (
     in (g:255.37 a:0.00 e:0.00 r:0.00)/s 
     GDI (g:0.00,t:0.00,p:0.00)/s) 
     out: 0.00m/s APT: 0.0001s/m idle: 98.54% wait: 0.00% time: 10.00s
  

Here is the download link to the full Release Notes of Gridware Cluster Scheduler v9.0.1