Re: [Condor-users] Newbie Question - Windows/Linux Pool

[Alan De Smet <adesmet@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I corresponded with Thomas directly, but in case it's of interest
to other people, here's my response to him.  I wasn't answering
exactly the same questions, so I didn't mention using a shared
filesystem for output.

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If I understand correctly, you want to do two things: 1. share
your Condor installation and configuration, and 2. Share input
files for actual jobs.


1. Sharing installation and configuration files

Generally speaking this should work fine, provided that all of
the computers have read access to the files.  You will likely
need to make them publicly readable.

As you note, Condor's Linux binaries include symlinks and hard
links, so that may be a problem on many shared file systems,
including Windows shares.  On the up side, the symlinks aren't
necessary.  I suggest untarring the Linux binaries onto a local
file system, then copying onto your share.  Of course, since you
only have two Linux computers, you could just install it locally
on each.  Even if you have local binaries, you can still share
configuration files on the shared file system.

The Windows binaries should install onto a Windows share without
problems.


2. Sharing input for jobs

This shouldn't require specific configuration.  Just put the
shared input files in a share, make it publicly readable, and
tell users where to find it.  Users should not specify it as an
input file, but just access it directly in their programs.

If only some of your execute nodes have access to the input data,
you may want to have the condor_startd advertise which data sets
it has.  If the division is static, STARTD_ATTRS is the easiest
option.  If the division is dynamic, you can use a small program
or script to determine which data sets are available at any given
moment, and configuration it as a STARTD_CRON_* job that will
update the ClassAd on the fly.  Either way, then users can
specify the data sets they need in their REQUIREMENTS in their
submit file.

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In general, Condor is happy to work with whatever shared
filesystem you have for storing binaries, sharing configuration
files, and input and output for jobs.  Note that Condor jobs
typically lack credentials, so you may need to provide world read
and possibly write access; the specifics will depend on the OS
and filesystem.

-- 
Alan De Smet                              Condor Project Research
adesmet@xxxxxxxxxxx                http://www.cs.wisc.edu/condor/