Set pending time limits

LSF sends the pending time limit and eligible pending time limit configurations to IBM® Spectrum LSF RTM (LSF RTM), which handles the alarm and triggers actions such as user notification (for example, notifying the user that submitted the job and the LSF administrator) and job control actions (for example, killing the job). LSF RTM compares the job's pending time to the pending time limit, and the eligible pending time to the eligible pending time limit. If the job is in a pending state or an eligible pending state for longer than these specified time limits, LSF RTM triggers the alarm and actions. Without LSF RTM, LSF shows the pending time limit and takes no action on the pending time limit.

To specify the pending time limit or eligible pending time limit for your job, use the -ptl or -eptl options for bsub and bmod:

• -ptl [hour:]minute
• -eptl [hour:]minute

The pending or eligible pending time limits are in the form of [hour:]minute. The minutes can be specified as a number greater than 59. For example, three and a half hours can either be specified as 3:30, or 210.

LSF does not perform any alarm actions. However, you can keep track of the amount of time that jobs spent in pending or eligible pending states, and whether the jobs have reached the pending time limits:

The -l option for bjobs, bapp, and bqueues show the job-, application-, and queue-level pending time limits (and eligible pending time limits), respectively.

To keep track of the amount of time that current pending jobs have spent in the pending and eligible pending states, and to see how much time is remaining before LSF sends an alarm notification, run the bjobs -p -o to get customized output for pending jobs, as follows:

• Pending time limit:

  bjobs -p -o "id effective_plimit plimit_remain"
  JOBID EFFECTIVE_PLIMIT PLIMIT_REMAIN
  101   1800             -60
  102   3600              60

• Eligible pending time limit:

  bjobs -p -o "id effective_eplimit eplimit_remain"
  JOBID EFFECTIVE_EPLIMIT EPLIMIT_REMAIN
  101   600              -60
  102   900               60

The EFFECTIVE_PLIMIT and EFFECTIVE_EPLIMIT columns indicate the pending and eligible pending time limits for the job, while the PLIMIT_REMAIN and EPLIMIT_REMAIN columns display the amount of time remaining that the job has before LSF sends an alarm notification. A negative number indicates that the time limit was reached and shows the amount of time since the limit was reached.