Experiences in Porting ASC Batch Engine to ARL

Due to a High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) requirement, all high performance computing (HPC) acquisitions at US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) beginning in fiscal year 2004 are configured with the LSF batch system software. Since Grid Engine has been the batch system software used on ARL Major Shared Resource Center (MSRC) systems since its inception, this is a major adjustment for a large part of our user base. In order to mitigate the difficulty to our users in migrating to this new environment, research was conducted to find and determine the level of effort in modifying existing GUI-based batch script generator tools for use as an LSF script generator at ARL. Two packages were found that could be modified for this purpose; the existing ARL Grid Engine Script Tool (GEST) and ASC Batch Engine. An analysis of the two packages led to a determination that Batch Engine was a better overall choice for use as the ARL LSF Script Generator tool. This paper will present the basis of the analysis that led to this decision and the modifications to the existing Batch Engine software that were required to port Batch Engine to the ARL environment. The availability of this tool is seen as an important enabler of HPC access for the Department of Defense (DoD) Scientific and Engineering community and we hope to foster its use at the ARL MSRC and at other sites that can benefit from it’s availability.