Managing Your Allocations¶

Allocations require management – balance checks, resource allocation, requesting more time, etc.

Checking for an Active Allocation¶

To determine if there is an active allocation, check Job Submission.

For information on how to run the query, look at our documentation on our sbank Allocations Accounting System or email [email protected] and ask for all active allocations.

Using sbank to Determine the Balance of an Allocation¶

To determine which platforms have an active balance, check our allocation accounting system sbank.

• To obtain the allocation balance, check the sbank command sbank-list-allocations.
• DD projects with a negative balance will not be able to run jobs until they have requested additional time; see the "Getting More Time" subsection below.
• INCITE and ALCC PIs automatically receive an email summary of project usage. If this is a DD project, please email [email protected].

Allocation Expiration¶

Projects and allocations at the ALCF are different. A particular project might have multiple allocations of time. For example, a discretionary project that has been approved more than three times will have three allocations (two are probably expired) but just one project. Projects will not expire -- allocations will. If allocations are expired, or have no hours left, jobs will not be able to run. Consult the two above sections to determine active allocations.

Getting More Time¶

To request an extension of your existing discretionary allocation or to request additional hours, please complete an allocation renewal request here.

Sub-allocations¶

Suballocations let PIs control who in their team can run jobs, how much they are allowed to consume (allocation amount), and when they are allowed to run jobs (start and end dates).

Step 1: Create Suballocations (Project PI):¶

PI creates suballocations

sbank new sub <allocationid> --name <nameofsuballoc>

Step 2: Manage Suballocations (Project PI):¶

PI adds users to suballocations¶

sbank e sub <projectname>::<nameofsuballoc> --add-user="<username1> <username2> ..."

PI can change the name of a suballocation¶

sbank e sub <suballocationID> --name=<new_name_of_suballocation>

By default, the primary suballocation (which is the default suballocation created when the allocation is created by ALCF) is unrestricted, i.e., enabled for all project members. That means all project members can submit jobs against the primary suballocation by default. All other suballocations are restricted by default, and users have to be added for each of them.

To change the default for the primary suballocation to restrict usage, PI must first edit the suballocation:¶

sbank-edit-suballocation --restrict <primary suballocation id>

Then add users with this command:¶

sbank e sub <primary suballocation id> --add-user="<username1> <username2> ..."

PI changes start and end dates for a suballocation:¶

sbank e sub <suballocationID> -S <start_date> -E <end_date>

PI adds hours to a suballocation:¶

sbank e sub <projectname>::<nameOfSourceSuballoc> --hours-to-move <hours> --to-suballocation <projectname>::<nameOfDestSuballoc>

Step 3: Submit Jobs (Project team):¶

Submit jobs to a suballocation. Note that the user should be on the suballocation’s user list. Once submanagement is enabled for a project allocation, all job submissions must specify the suballocationID or the suballocationName.

Example:

#Specify suballocationID
qsub -l select=10,walltime=30:00,filesystems=eagle:home -A <suballocationID> -q demand test.sh

#Specify suballocation name
qsub -l select=10,walltime=30:00,filesystems=eagle:home -A <projectname>::<suballocationName> -q demand test.sh

Useful commands:¶

List all suballocations for a project that shows the number of jobs run, charges, allocation balance, suballocation name, and list of users:

sbank-list-allocations -r polaris -p <projectname> -f "+subname users_list"