17.0 Object triggers > About object triggers

Conventions

17.0 About object triggers

Moab triggers are configurable actions that respond to an event occurring on a Moab object. A trigger is attached to an object and consists of both an event that may take place on the object and the action that the trigger will take.

Image 17-1: Trigger attachment

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Triggers are a powerful tool. Extreme caution should be taken when using them. They are useful in creating automatic responses to well-understood Moab events; however, by default triggers run as root and do exactly as they are told, meaning they require great thought and consideration to ensure that they act appropriately in response to the event.

Use case

An administrator wants to create the following setup in Moab:

When a node's temperature exceeds 34°C, Moab reserves it. If the temperature increases to more than 40°C, Moab requeues all jobs on the node. If the node's temperature exceeds 50°C, Moab shuts it down. Moab removes the node's reservation and unsets the variables when the node cools to less than 25°C.

The administrator wants to receive an email whenever any of these events occur. All of this can be configured in Moab using triggers. To see a full example for this use case, see Node maintenance example.