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3.40 showbf

3.40.1 Synopsis

showbf [-A] [-a account] [-c class] [-d duration] [-D] [-f features] [-g group] [-L] [-m [==|>|>=|<|<=] memory] [-n nodecount] [-p partition] [-q qos] [-u user] [-v] [--blocking]

3.40.2 Overview

Shows what resources are available for immediate use.

The results Moab returns do not include resources that may be freed due to preemption.

This command can be used by any user to find out how many processors are available for immediate use on the system. It is anticipated that users will use this information to submit jobs that meet these criteria and thus obtain quick job turnaround times. This command incorporates down time, reservations, and node state information in determining the available backfill window.

If specific information is not specified, showbf will return information for the user and group running but with global access for other credentials. For example, if -q qos is not specified, Moab will return resource availability information for a job as if it were entitled to access all QOS based resources (i.e., resources covered by reservations with a QOS based ACL), if -c class is not specified, the command will return information for resources accessible by any class.

The showbf command incorporates node configuration, node utilization, node state, and node reservation information into the results it reports. This command does not incorporate constraints imposed by credential based fairness policies on the results it reports.

3.40.3 Access

By default, this command can be used by any user or administrator.

3.40.4 Parameters

Parameter	Description
ACCOUNT	Account name.
CLASS	Class/queue required.
DURATION	Time duration specified as the number of seconds or in [DD:]HH:MM:SS notation.
FEATURELIST	Colon separated list of node features required.
GROUP	Specify particular group.
MEMCMP	Memory comparison used with the -m flag. Valid signs are >, >=, ==, <=, and <.
MEMORY	Specifies the amount of required real memory configured on the node, (in MB), used with the -m flag.
NODECOUNT	Specify number of nodes for inquiry with -n flag.
PARTITION	Specify partition to check with -p flag.
QOS	Specify QOS to check with -q flag.
USER	Specify particular user to check with -u flag.

3.40.5 Flags

Flag	Description
-A	Show resource availability information for all users, groups, and accounts. By default, showbf uses the default user, group, and account ID of the user issuing the command.
-a	Show resource availability information only for specified account.
--blocking	Do not use cache information in the output. The --blocking flag retrieves results exclusively from the scheduler.
-d	Show resource availability information for specified duration.
-D	Display current and future resource availability notation.
-g	Show resource availability information only for specified group.
-h	Help for this command.
-L	Enforce Hard limits when showing available resources.
-m	Allows user to specify the memory requirements for the backfill nodes of interest. It is important to note that if the optional MEMCMP and MEMORY parameters are used, they must be enclosed in single ticks (') to avoid interpretation by the shell. For example, enter showbf -m '==256' to request nodes with 256 MB memory.
-n	Show resource availability information for a specified number of nodes. That is, this flag can be used to force showbf to display only blocks of resources with at least this many nodes available.
-p	Show resource availability information for the specified partition.
-q	Show information for the specified QOS.
-r	Show resource availability for the specified processor count.
-u	Show resource availability information only for specified user.

3.40.6 Examples

Example 3-43:

In this example, a job requiring up to 2 processors could be submitted for immediate execution in partition ClusterA for any duration. Additionally, a job requiring 1 processor could be submitted for immediate execution in partition ClusterB. Note that by default, each task is tracked and reported as a request for a single processor.

> showbf
Partition     Tasks  Nodes   StartOffset      Duration       StartDate
---------     -----  -----  ------------  ------------  --------------
ALL               3      3      00:00:00      INFINITY  11:32:38_08/19
ReqID=0
ClusterA          1      1      00:00:00      INFINITY  11:32:38_08/19
ReqID=0
ClusterB          2      2      00:00:00      INFINITY  11:32:38_08/19
ReqID=0

StartOffset is the amount of time remaining before resources will be available.

Example 3-44:

In this example, the output verifies that a backfill window exists for jobs requiring a 3 hour runtime and at least 16 processors. Specifying job duration is of value when time based access is assigned to reservations (i.e., using the SRCFG TIMELIMIT ACL)

> showbf -r 16 -d 3:00:00
Partition    Tasks  Nodes   Duration    StartOffset    StartDate
---------    -----  -----   --------    -----------    ---------
ALL          20     20      INFINITY    00:00:00       09:22:25_07/19

Example 3-45:

In this example, a resource availability window is requested for processors located only on nodes with at least 512 MB of memory.

> showbf -m ' =512'
Partition    Tasks  Nodes   Duration    StartOffset    StartDate
---------    -----  -----   --------    -----------    ---------
ALL          20     20      INFINITY    00:00:00       09:23:23_07/19
ClusterA     10     10      INFINITY    00:00:00       09:23:23_07/19
ClusterB     10     10      INFINITY    00:00:00       09:23:23_07/19