Re: [Condor-users] need help ! condor-G and RMS

[Prashant Lal <lalp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Noreen

Hope this will help you. You can also see this link http://www.cs.wisc.edu/condor/condorg/versusG.html

Answers to some frequently asked questions

1. Do I need to have a Condor pool installed to use Condor-G?
   No, you do not. Condor-G is only the job management part of Condor. It makes perfect sense to install Condor-G on just one machine within an organization. Note that access to remote resources using a Globus interface will be done through that one machine using Condor-G.
2. I am an existing Condor pool administrator, and I want to be able to let my users access resources managed by Globus, as well as access the Condor pool. Should I install Condor-G?
   Yes.
3. I want to install Globus on my Condor pool, and have external users submit jobs into the pool. Do I need to install Condor-G?
   No, you do not need to install Condor-G. You need to install Globus, to get the "Condor jobmanager setup package." See the Condor-G home page for a link to Globus.
4. I just bought a 64-node cluster. Should I install Condor or another system such as PBS, or LSF, or GridEngine?
   Answer: It is up to you. We obviously would rather see you run only Condor on your new cluster, but your decision depends on what you're most experienced and comfortable with. If you install a different batch system, you can still install Globus on the front end, and you can use Condor-G to let external users submit jobs to run on your cluster.
5. I am the administrator at Physics, and I have a 64-node cluster running Condor. The administrator at Chemistry is also running Condor on her 64-node cluster. We would like to be able to share resources. Do I need to install Globus and Condor-G?
   You may, but you do not have a need to. Condor has a feature called flocking, which lets multiple Condor pools share resources. By setting configuration variables, jobs may be executed on either cluster. Flocking is good (better than Condor-G) because all the Condor features continue to work. Examples of features are checkpointing remote system calls. Unfortunately, flocking only works between Condor pools. So, access to a resource managed by PBS, for example, will still require Globus and Condor-G to submit jobs into the PBS queue.
6. Why would I want to use Condor-G?
   If you have more than a trivial set of work to get done, you will find that you spend a great deal of time managing your jobs without Condor. Your time would be better spent working with your results. For example, imagine you want to run 1000 jobs on the NCSA Itanium cluster without Condor-G. To use the Globus interface directly, you will type 'globusrun' 1000 times. Now imagine that you want to check on the status of your jobs. Using 'globus-job-status' 1000 times will not be much fun. And, heaven help you if you find a bug and need to cancel your thousand jobs. This will be followed by resubmitting all 1000 jobs. Under Condor-G, job submission and management is simplified. Condor-G will also ease submission and management of jobs when job flow is complex. For example, if the first 100 jobs must run before any of the next 100 jobs, and once those 200 jobs are done, the next 700 may start. The last 100 may run only after the first 900 finish. Condor DAGMan manages all of the dependencies for you. You can avoid writing a rather complex Perl script.
7. What piece of software is most like Condor?
   Condor is comparable to LSF, Sun GRID Engine, or PBS.
8. What piece of software is most like Condor-G?
   Condor-G is most like globus-job-submit, or a web job-submission portal.
9. Can I install both a Globus interface to a Condor pool and Condor-G at the same time?
   Yes. In fact, you might want to. (See question 2 above.)
10. Which version of Condor-G should I choose? The NMI version of Condor-G, the GPT package available from the Condor-G website, or the contrib module from the Condor-G website?
    If you already have an existing Condor pool, use the contrib module.
    
    If you are simply looking for a way to get onto a Grid, and you have no interest in installing a Condor pool, then there are two equally good choices. Either install Condor as a Submit-only machine and add the Condor-G contrib module, or install the NMI version.
    
    If you are an experienced Globus administrator, and you want to give your users a way to submit to other resources, consider using the GPT packages from the Condor website. (Note that at some point in the future, the goal of the NMI project is for the NMI software to be the preferred distribution of experienced Globus administrators.)
11. What is Glidein?
    Glidein provides a way to temporarily add a Globus resource to a local Condor pool. Condor-G is not required to use glidein. Glidein uses Globus resource-management software to run jobs. It works by executing the portions of Condor software on the Globus resource. Then, Condor may execute the user's jobs. There are several benefits to working in this way. Checkpoints can be made of the jobs running on the Globus resource, and remote system calls can be supported. Condor can also dynamically schedule jobs across the Grid.
12. What is planned for future Condor-G versions?
    In the short term, there are a few minor queuing features missing from Condor-G, such as sending job-completion e-mail. Globus 2.2 adds file-staging to Globus resources, so a future Condor-G will be able to transfer all of a job's data files to a remote site, and not just stdin, stdout, and stderr. A Windows port of Globus is expected sometime in late 2002 or 2003, and when that is complete, Condor-G will run on Windows.

On Tue, 2005-02-08 at 15:33, Amun Noreen wrote:
> Hi everyone!!!
>
> As Condor-G is considered to be a submit machine only, it is at the top of 
> Globus. But please tell me do I need a "Resouce Management System", if i 
> need condor-G with Globus. If no need then WHY?, If it is needed then please 
> suggest me any Free, Open source and platform independent RMS.
>
> Waiting anxiously for reply !!!
>
> ___________
> Amun Noreen
> ___________
>
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Thanks and Regards

P r a s h a n t  L a l

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