The PBS System and the qsub Command on the RCF

    The Research Computing Facility (RCF) provides a high-performance computing environment for USC users.

    almaak is now a research development resource intended for editing, compiling and submitting jobs to rcf-01 (and to the single-proc netras at rcf101-hpc116). The hpcc cluster (Linux Computing Resource) and rcf-01 (Sun Computing Resource) are USC's preferred environments for high-performance computing. Jobs that are compute-intensive and/or long-running (in terms of cpu time) must now be submitted to rcf-01.

    rcf-01 operates as a batch resource only. Users do not login or telnet to rcf-01. Jobs run on this facility, or on hpc-login1 (32 bit) or hpc-login2 (64 bit), may be submitted by way of the qsub command, which is part of the Portable Batch System (PBS) on the RCF.

    Access to hpcc and rcf-01 is be regulated and requires users to apply for accounts and provide rationale for their work. Anyone with an RCF account is eligible to apply. Please follow these links for more information:

      
      HPCC Allocation Policy
      HPCC Allocation Request Forms
      Help for New Users
      

    Once access has been approved, the PBS system (including the man pages) should be available to RCF users at all times. Normally access is set up (the setup file is sourced) automatically in the RCF or hpc master.login file. If access is not set up, the PBS setup file must be sourced in order to use the PBS system (as explained in the documentation linked below) using the following command:

      source /usr/usc/pbs/default/setup.csh

    The normal RCF access to the PBS system (or, if necessary, sourcing this setup file) also gives you access to the qsub and PBS man pages as follows:

      man qsub
      man pbs
      man pbs_resources_linux

    (The last of these is appropriate for all resources on rcf-01.)

    Further documentation for these new features of the RCF is being developed, and is available as follows:

    • Using the qsub command for batch queueing of statistics software jobs
    • rcf-01 documentation and policies
    • hpc (hpcc Linux Cluster) documentation and policies
    • Introduction to PBS
    • PBS -- The Portable Batch System Documentation
    • Using the PBS on almaak
    • Useful PBS commands
    • Research Computing Facility/High Performance Computing information page
    • Using the IBM Linux Cluster - hpc-login1 (32 bit) or hpc-login2 (64 bit)
    • login to the Linux cluster (once accounts are in order):
        ssh hpc-login1 (or equivalent command; 32 bit)
          ssh hpc-login2 (or equivalent command; 64 bit)
      • Frequently Asked Questions about the PBS system
      • Troubleshooting Error Messages and their Solutions

      Use of the RCF, the PBS system and the other features documented in this page and its links is supported by the ITS Customer Support Center, LVL Lower Commons, 213.740.5555, <consult@usc.edu>.