Boolean resources (for example, server to denote LSF server hosts) have a value of one (1) if they are defined for a host, and zero (0) if they are not defined for the host. Use Boolean resources to configure host attributes to be used in selecting hosts to run jobs. For example:
Machines may have different types and versions of operating systems.
Machines may play different roles in the system, such as file server or compute server.
Some machines may have special-purpose devices needed by some applications.
Certain software packages or licenses may be available only on some of the machines.
Specify a Boolean resource in a resource requirement selection string of a job to select only hosts that can run the job.
Shared resources are configured resources that are not tied to a specific host, but are associated with the entire cluster, or a specific subset of hosts within the cluster. For example:
LSF does not contain any built-in shared resources. All shared resources must be configured by the LSF administrator. A shared resource may be configured to be dynamic or static. In the above example, the total space on the shared disk may be static while the amount of space currently free is dynamic. A site may also configure the shared resource to report numeric, string or Boolean values.
An application may use a shared resource by running on any host from which that resource is accessible. For example, in a cluster in which each host has a local disk but can also access a disk on a file server, the disk on the file server is a shared resource, and the local disk is a host-based resource. In contrast to host-based resources such as memory or swap space, using a shared resource from one machine affects the availability of that resource as seen by other machines. There is one value for the entire cluster which measures the utilization of the shared resource, but each host-based resource is measured separately.
The following restrictions apply to the use of shared resources in LSF products.