Important Update Regarding Resource Allocation

Date: 9 May 2024

Dear SuperPOD Users,

We appreciate your continued support and cooperation as we work to enhance the efficiency of our resource allocation system. Following the recent implementation of changes to resource allocation, we have observed better utilization of idle resources in the large-project partition. However, we recognize that there is still room for improvement.

To further optimize the allocation of scarce and expensive resources, we are introducing additional measure effective today at 6:00 PM. Please take note of the following guidelines:

  1. Maximum Wall Time of Interactive Jobs: All job allocations made using the srun and salloc SLURM commands within the project, large-project, and cpu partitions will be subject to a maximum wall time of 4 hours. This time limit ensures fair distribution and encourages efficient resource usage. The sbatch SLURM command shall be used for submitting jobs with longer execution time. This allows you to allocate resources according to the maximum wall time entitlement for your account.
     
  2. Best Practice of Interactive Jobs: For interactive tasks such as debugging and brief testing, we recommend using the debug partition. If you require multiple GPUs for the same purpose, you may use the project and large-project partitions but restrict to the 4-hour wall time limit.

We value your feedback and encourage you to reach out if you have any inquiries or need further assistance. Thank you for your cooperation as we strive to make SuperPOD even more efficient for all users.

Best regards,
Alan Wong

Head of Teaching Technologies
Information Technology Services Center
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Direct Line: (852) 2358-6246