Multicluster system requirements

The setup procedures will guide you through configuring your system to meet each requirement. However, you might find it helpful to understand the system requirements before you begin.

Requirements for participating in a multicluster environment
Each cluster that participates in an LSF multicluster environment must have a unique name.
Requirements to install a multicluster environment
You can use multicluster to link two or more LSF clusters. Then, the participating clusters can be configured to share resources.

Multicluster files are automatically installed by LSF's regular Setup program (lsfinstall). Install LSF and make sure each cluster works properly as a standalone cluster before you proceed to configure multicluster.

Requirements for multicluster communication between two clusters
  • The local management host must be configured to communicate with the remote cluster:
    • The local cluster can only communicate with other clusters if they are specified in the lsf.shared file.
    • If the RemoteClusters section in lsf.cluster.cluster_name is defined, the local cluster has a list of recognized clusters, and is only aware of those clusters.
  • The local management host must be able to contact the management host of the remote cluster:
    • The valid management host list for remote clusters is used to locate the current management host on that cluster and ensure that any remote host is a valid management host for its cluster. The valid management host list is defined in LSF_MASTER_LIST in the lsf.conf file.
    • Participating clusters must use the same port numbers for the LSF daemons LIM, RES, sbatchd and mbatchd.
Requirements for resource sharing between two clusters
  • The local cluster must use the same resource definitions as the remote cluster:
    • Clusters should have common definitions of host types, host models, and resources. Each cluster finds this information in the lsf.shared file.
  • A host cannot belong to more than one cluster.
  • The local cluster and the remote cluster must have compatible configurations, with the resource owner sharing the resource and the resource consumer seeking to use the resource.
Requirements for jobs to run across clusters
  • Users must have a valid user account in each cluster.
    • By default, LSF expects that the user accounts will have the same name in each cluster. If clusters do not share a file system and common user name space, you can configure account mapping.
  • LSF must be able to transfer job files and data files between clusters.
  • Dynamic IP addressing is not supported across clusters. LSF hosts require a fixed IP address to communicate with a host that belongs to another cluster.