Move a job to the top of a queue (btop)

Use btop to move jobs relative to your first job in the queue.

About this task

By default, LSF dispatches jobs in a queue in the order of arrival (that is, first-come-first-served), subject to availability of suitable server hosts.

Use the btop command to change the position of pending jobs, or of pending job array elements, to affect the order in which jobs are considered for dispatch. Users can only change the relative position of their own jobs, and LSF administrators can change the position of any users’ jobs.

Procedure

To move a job to the top of the queue, run btop.

In the following example, job 5311 is moved to the top of the queue. Since job 5308 is already running, job 5311 is placed in the queue after job 5308.

Tip: Note that user1’s job is still in the same position on the queue. user2 cannot use btop to get extra jobs at the top of the queue; when one of his jobs moves up the queue, the rest of his jobs move down.

bjobs -u all 
JOBID USER  STAT  QUEUE    FROM_HOST  EXEC_HOST  JOB_NAME   SUBMIT_TIME 
5308  user2 RUN   normal   hostA      hostD      /s500     Oct 23 10:16 
5309  user2 PEND  night    hostA                 /s200     Oct 23 11:04 
5310  user1 PEND  night    hostB                 /myjob    Oct 23 13:45 
5311  user2 PEND  night    hostA                 /s700     Oct 23 18:17
btop 5311 
Job <5311> has been moved to position 1 from top.
bjobs -u all 
JOBID USER  STAT  QUEUE    FROM_HOST  EXEC_HOST  JOB_NAME   SUBMIT_TIME 
5308  user2 RUN   normal   hostA      hostD      /s500     Oct 23 10:16 
5311  user2 PEND  night    hostA                 /s200     Oct 23 18:17 
5310  user1 PEND  night    hostB                 /myjob    Oct 23 13:45 
5309  user2 PEND  night    hostA                 /s700     Oct 23 11:04

Results

If invoked by a regular user, btop moves the selected job before the first job with the same priority that is submitted by the user to the queue.

If invoked by the LSF administrator, btop moves the selected job before the first job with the same priority that is submitted to the queue.