How to use EP Grids

Logging in

See How to use Linux Servers for details.

Setting Up a Job

Here is a sample SGE script to get you going. Instead of manually running a binary, this would be how you run the binary in batch mode within SGE.

Running jobs

The most essential command to learn is qsub. The manual page will show you all the options, but at the very minimum you need to create a job script (see above) and submit it with qsub scriptname.

> qsub scriptname.sh
Your job 1234 ("scriptname") has been submitted

Monitoring jobs

qstat will show you what is currently running and what is queued up to be run when processors become available.

> qstat
job-ID  prior   name       user         state submit/start at     queue                slots ja-task-ID 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1234 0.00000 scriptname username     qw    06/12/2014 08:31:33                          1        

> qstat
job-ID  prior   name       user         state submit/start at     queue                slots ja-task-ID 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1234 0.00000 scriptname username     qw    06/12/2014 08:31:41 default@hostname         1        

Deleting jobs

qdel jobid will stop and remove a currently running job.

Monitoring storage

Use the quota command to determine how much disk space you’re currently using, and how much you’re currently allowed to use (your “quota”). For example:

> quota -vs
Disk quotas for user USERNAME (uid #####): 
     Filesystem   space   quota   limit   grace   files   quota   limit   grace
storage-server1:/vol/seas_home
                  7195M  10240M  10240M            423k   4295m   4295m        
storage-server2:/vol/scratch
                     0K   1600M      0K               0       0       0        
storage-server3:/vol/data
                 12879K    800M      0K               0       0       0        

The above output means that USERNAME is using 7GB out of 10GB allowed for their SEAS home directory, nothing in the scratch partition, and 12MB out of 800MB allowed on their group-specific data storage server.

Using other scripting languages

Check out this sample python SGE script to see how to wrap a script in a language besides BASH.

If you need to manage python modules, check this sample python SGE script with virtualenv.

Still need help?

See also How to use Linux Servers for more general assistance.