5.19) Interactive Jobs

Interactive jobs can be requested via the batch scheduler. These can be useful for tasks such as interactive data analysis and testing or debugging.

The commands to request interactive sessions are:

• qsh : queued interactive X-window session
• qrsh : queued “rsh” session, i.e. uses current terminal for user interaction

They both accept the same options, and have the same defaults and constraints as qsub, e.g. 1GB/core, maximum of 48 hours. In addition they also appear in the output of qstat and can be removed from the queue using qdel. However, unlike batch jobs interactive jobs will only run if the resources required are immediately available, i.e. they will not sit in the queue.

To launch an interactive X-windows session use:

$ qsh –cwd –V –l h_rt=2:00:00

This will launch a new terminal window, running on one of the compute nodes. You can then launch an application or task, when the new window appears.