Terms

The following list provides brief descriptions of LSF License Scheduler terms that we use in this guide.

  • allocation

  • blcollect

  • bld

  • collector

  • default license project

  • failover host

  • failover provision

  • group ownership

  • interactive job

  • license project

  • license server

  • lmgrd

  • non-shared license

  • ownership

  • preemption

  • service domain

  • shared license

  • token

allocation

The distribution of license tokens between different LSF clusters.

Allocation takes place before you share the tokens. Allocation is a superset of project-based distribution policies. You allocate license tokens across clusters or between interactive and LSF jobs.

blcollect

The LSF License Scheduler daemon that queries FLEXnet licensing software for license usage. blcollect can collect information from lmstat.

By default, license information is collected from FLEXnet licensing on one host. You can distribute the license collection on multiple hosts by running the license information collection daemon, blcollect.

If the data from all your license servers is collected in one central location, mbatchd has to wait for the license usage information of all your license servers from the output of lmstat. With LSF License Scheduler, you can distribute the query to collect the information in parallel from each license server.

bld

The LSF License Scheduler batch daemon.

collector

The term used to describe the LSF License Scheduler daemon blcollect that queries FLEXnet for license usage information.

With LSF License Scheduler, you can distribute the query to collect the information in parallel from each license server. Run the license collectors on any machines you want. Each collector can query one or more license servers.

default license project

A license project that is not specified in job submissions, but uses license features that are managed by LSF License Scheduler.

All jobs requiring a license feature that is managed by LSF License Scheduler, and which are not submitted to a configured project for the feature, are treated as jobs submitted to the default project. However, if LSF_LIC_SCHED_STRICT_PROJECT_NAME=y in lsf.conf and you have not configured a default project in DISTRIBUTION parameter, the job is rejected rather than submitted to the default project.

failover host

A candidate LSF License Scheduler host that runs the LSF License Scheduler daemon (bld), and can take over license management if the LSF License Scheduler host fails or loses its connection to the network.

You can configure LSF License Scheduler for failover in a LAN or a WAN configuration by listing the hosts in order of their preferred candidacy.

failover provision

The configuration of LSF License Scheduler hosts to take over license management in case of a host failure or network breakdown.

LSF License Scheduler can be configured for failover provision in both LANs and WANs:

  • In LSF, the LSF LIM daemon runs the LSF License Scheduler daemon (bld) on hosts you specify in an LSF host list.

  • In LSF License Scheduler, you specify a candidate host list— hosts that can take over license management if the LSF License Scheduler host fails.

group ownership

An extra level of hierarchy added to the distribution of license tokens among license projects.

Optionally group your projects, then grant license ownership and shares to the whole group. Preemption between license projects only occurs if the whole group has used more licenses than it owns.

interactive job

A non-LSF job that is run by the LSF Task Manager (taskman) tool outside of LSF, but is scheduled by LSF License Scheduler.

You can allocate licenses for interactive jobs.

license project

A project you configure in LSF License Scheduler and which you associate with your job submissions.

You submit jobs to license projects. LSF License Scheduler then distributes tokens among the license projects based on the shares you define for each license project in distribution policies.

Use the bsub ‑Lp option to submit jobs to license projects.

Tip:

Although license projects are not the same as LSF projects, you can map your license project names to LSF project names for easier monitoring.

license server

Serves licenses to jobs requiring license features.

License Scheduler works with the FLEXnet license server. FLEXnet serves licenses—it does not schedule licenses. License Scheduler reserves licenses for you by distributing license tokens that you can use to check out your licenses from FLEXnet.

lmgrd

The main FLEXnet licensing daemon. Usually denoted by port@host_name and grouped into service domains inside License Scheduler.

non-shared license

A license that cannot be shared with other projects.

ownership

The right of a license project to use its licenses on demand, while still allowing License Scheduler to distribute the licenses to other license projects when the project is not using them.

preemption

Occurs when a project has to release a license it is using to a project that demands that license because it owns it.

Preemption only occurs when there are no free licenses.

Jobs using licenses that support job suspension release their tokens and automatically resume from where they were suspended. Jobs using licenses that do not support suspension are killed and restarted from the beginning.

service domain

A group of one or more FLEXnet license server hosts that serve licenses to LSF jobs.

You configure the service domain with the names and port numbers of the license server hosts that serve licenses to a network. For example, you can configure one service domain for Design Center A, and another service Domain for Design Center B. Both service domains can contain multiple license servers.

shared license

A license that, when free, can be distributed fairly among license projects.

You create distribution policies to share licenses among projects. Each license project is entitled to a minimum portion of the available licenses.

token

A license reservation that determines which job is dispatched next.

License Scheduler manages license tokens instead of controlling the licenses directly. After reserving licenses, jobs are dispatched, then the application that needs the license is started. The number of tokens available from LSF corresponds to the number of licenses available from FLEXnet, so if a token is not available, the job is not dispatched.