Re: [HTCondor-users] START with dynamic slots

[John M Knoeller <johnkn@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

What version of HTCondor?   There were some changes in the 24.x series that changed how often some of the attributes that PREEMPT might reference update more frequently.   But nothing that would make static slots behave differently that dynamic slots except the LoadAvg attribute.

I do see some  problems with your configuration however.

  PREEMPT = (SUSPEND)
  KILL = (PREEMPT)

Is the same thing as configuring

  PREEMPT = undefined
  KILL = undefined

I think you meant to do this ?

   PREEMPT = $(SUSPEND)
   KILL = $(PREEMPT)

But you really should not do this.  SUSPEND, PREEMPT and KILL should not have the same value, because that means you want to SUSPEND and PREEMPT  jobs at the same time, I couldn't even guess what the result of that would be.

I think you want something like this to be your config

  START = (KeyboardIdle > 600)

  PREEMPT = (KeyboardIdle < 60)
  SUSPEND = false

  WANT_VACATE = true

  MaxJobRetirementTime = 0

-tj

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From: HTCondor-users <htcondor-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Francisco Leite de Castro <frankie.lc@xxxxxxxxx>

Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2025 5:42 PM
To: HTCondor-Users Mail List <htcondor-users@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [HTCondor-users] START with dynamic slots

I have the following configuration in my local HTCondor config file:

# make sure user idle time is counted

UPDATE_INTERVAL = 50
DISCONNECTED_KEYBOARD_IDLE_BOOST = 0
SLOTS_CONNECTED_TO_KEYBOARD = 1024 * 1024
SLOTS_CONNECTED_TO_CONSOLE = 1024 * 1024

# start jobs if user is away to 10 minutes and stop jobs as soon as user is back

START = (KeyboardIdle > 600)

SUSPEND = (KeyboardIdle < 60)

PREEMPT = (SUSPEND)
KILL = (PREEMPT)

However, this configuration doesn’t work until I add the following to the properties file:

use FEATURE : StaticSlots

As soon as I switch to dynamic slots, the START logic no longer works.

I’m fairly certain that the explanation is somewhere in the manual, but I haven’t been able to locate it yet.

Could someone please clarify this behavior or point me in the right direction?

Many thanks!