Re: [HTCondor-users] ProcD issues

[Todd Tannenbaum <tannenba@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 4/24/2013 4:26 PM, John Lambert wrote:
> We've been having some trouble with ProcD. Whenever a machine changes
> states (usually going from backfill to unclaimed) ProcD has the
> following error on Windows 8 machines (not entirely sure if it's
> exclusive to them...)
>
> 04/23/13 17:39:41 CreateFile error: 2
> 04/23/13 17:39:41 ProcFamilyClient: failed to start connection with ProcD
> 04/23/13 17:39:41 unregister_subfamily: ProcD communication error
> 04/23/13 17:39:41 ERROR "ProcD has failed" at line 621 in file
> c:\condor\execute\dir_1756\userdir\src\condor_utils\proc_family_proxy.cpp
>
> The ProcD.STARTD logs don't mention any errors, so I'm not sure what
> happened.
>
> Anyway, I was wondering what alternatives to ProcD existed. The ProcD
> wisdom page mentions a killfamily class method. Is this a UNIX exclusive
> thing? How can I configure the rest of my daemons to not use ProcD? Any
> light you guys can shine on this would be greatly appreciated.

Hi John -

Thanks for the heads-up re potential issues w/ the PROCD on Windows 8. 
We do not yet do automated regression testing on Windows 8 but will be 
starting soon (our build/test pool has Windows 7, and we just added in a 
Windows 8 machine but haven't fully configured it yet....soon...).

To disable the procd you can set
  USE_PROCD = False
in your condor_config and then restart HTCondor (I don't think a 
reconfig will do it here, I think you'll need a full stop and start of 
the service). This setting works the same on all platforms.  In general 
use of a PROCD is advisable for scalability issues (see below) esp if 
you have an execute machine with a lot of slots, although the 
scalability impact of disabling the procd may actually be less on 
Windows than on Unix-type platforms.  But everything should still work 
with the PROCD disabled.  Info on USE_PROCD knob from the manual 
cut-n-pasted below.

p.s. look forward to meeting you next week in Madison @ HTCondor Week 2013!

regards,
Todd


USE_PROCD
    This boolean variable determines whether the condor_procd will be 
used for managing process families. If the condor_procd is not used, 
each daemon will run the process family tracking logic on its own. Use 
of the condor_procd results in improved scalability because only one 
instance of this logic is required. The condor_procd is required when 
using privilege separation (see Section 3.6.14) or group ID-based 
process tracking (see Section 3.12.11). In either of these cases, the 
USE_PROCD setting will be ignored and a condor_procd will always be 
used. By default, the condor_master will start a condor_procd that all 
other daemons that need process family tracking will use. A daemon that 
uses the condor_procd will start a condor_procd for use by itself and 
all of its child daemons.