Submitting LSF License Scheduler jobs

When you submit an LSF License Scheduler job, you must reserve the license with resource usage (rusage) when you run the bsub command to submit jobs; that is, run bsub -R "rusage...". You cannot successfully reserve a license by simply running bsub -R "select".

For example, this command submits a job named myjob to license project Lp1 and requests one AppB license:
bsub -R "rusage[AppB=1]" -Lp Lp1 myjob
This command submits a job named myjob and requests one AppC license:
bsub -R "rusage[AppC=1]" myjob
Additionally, normally, having a duration on a job's rusage tells LSF to reserve a resource for a period of time. Take the following example: 
bsub -R "rusage[lic=1:duration=1]" ./a.out
This syntax tells LSF to reserve one unit of the resource license for a period of one minute. This is a common usage pattern for when license represents the available number of licenses as reported by an elim. LSF will reserve the license for a minute or two in its own internal counters. During this time, it is expected that the job will check out a license from the license server. Then, LSF stops reserving the license, but the job is already held by another job (and the new availability reflected by elim).

LSF License Scheduler is not required to use duration on rusage at all, since license checkouts will be matched to the jobs. The amount reserved for a job will be decreased by the number of licenses checked out.

For both cluster mode and FAST_DISPATCH project modes, LSF will ignore the rusage duration altogether on these features.

Additionally, be aware of the following rules when submitting LSF License Scheduler jobs:
  • Specify the license token name (which is the same as specifying a shared resource).
  • If you use project mode, specify a license project name with the bsub -Lp option.

    Jobs will be rejected if you have LSF_LIC_SCHED_STRICT_PROJECT_NAME=y configured in the lsf.conffile, and do not configure a default project for the required feature.

    Tip: Use the blstat command to view information about the default license project.
  • If your queue or job starter scripts request a license that is managed by an LSF elim, you must update the job submission scripts to request that license that uses the license token name.