RCS-INFO @(#) $Id: README,v 1.9 2000/11/15 15:45:12 ivm Exp $

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                                 R E A D M E

Product Name:           FBSNG - Farm Batch System (new generation)
Product Versions:       v1_2
Date (mm/dd/yyyy):      11/15/2000

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                        ORIGIN
                        ======
Authors
    Jim Fromm, Krzysztof Genser, Tanya Levshina, Igor Mandrichenko

    Farms & Clustered Systems Group
    Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory - Mail Station 369
    P.O Box 500
    Batavia, IL 60510
    Internet: fbs-support@fnal.gov

Fermilab Standard Government Sponsorship Notice

    This work was performed at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory,
    which is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under
    contract DE-AC02-76CHO3000 with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Acknowledgements

    Since FBSNG inherits major design ideas, overall structure and
    substantial portion of the source code from its predecessor FBS, authors 
    of FBSNG would like to acknowledge valuable contribution to the 
    project made by former members of FCS group Mark Breitung and 
    Marilyn Schweitzer, who participated in development of FBS.
	
    The authors wish to acknowledge the following people who
    have added much to this software through comments, suggestions, and
    testing:

        Antonio Wong Chan   (Academia Sinica (Taiwan), CDF collaboration)
        Yen-Chu Chen        (Academia Sinica (Taiwan), CDF collaboration)
        Thomas Las          (Minooka, IL Junior High School)
        Miroslav Siket      (Academia Sinica (Taiwan), CDF collaboration)
        Heidi Schellmann    (Northwestern University, D0 collaboration)
        Steve Wolbers       (Fermilab, CDF collaboration)
        Ping Yeh            (Academia Sinica (Taiwan), CDF collaboration)

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                        TERMS AND CONDITIONS
                        ====================

This software has been made freely available with a request for
collaborative input subject to standard Fermitools Terms and Conditions
given in full below.

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                        PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
                        ===================

FBSNG is a batch system designed for a farm architecture. Traditional batch
system features such as job submission, job queueing, and load balancing are
built into the system.

Major features of FBSNG are:
+  Parallel Batch Jobs:
   FBSNG job is a collection of sections. Each section is an array of
   identical, potentially co-operating, processes running on one or more 
   farm nodes (worker nodes). User may specify conditional dependencies 
   of sections of the same job on one another.

+  Flexible Farm Configuration:
   FBSNG Administrator defines the farm configuration in terms of computational
   resources such as CPU power, disk storage, magnetic tape drives available
   on each farm node (worker node). FBSNG allows unlimited number of
   resources of several types to be defined for the farm.

+  Dynamic Farm Configuration:
   FBSNG Administrator can modify farm configuration using interactive
   configuration utility or GUI without re-starting FBSNG.
   Dynamic farm configuration functionality is also provided through
   FBSNG API.

+  Load Balancing:
   FBSNG requires users to specify amount of resources required for each
   batch process and each section as a whole. Based on such resource
   requirements, current availability of the resources on the farm,
   and other farm configuration parameters, FBSNG Scheduler makes the 
   decision when and where to start the batch process.

+  FBSNG Scheduler:
   FBSNG has fully customizable Scheduler. It allows to be set up
   to achieve a variety of different configurations based on particular
   installation requirements.

+  FBSNG API:
   FBSNG provides Application Programming Interface (API). API allows
   users and administators to develop custom job monitoring, control 
   and farm configuration tools.
   Currently, only Python binding of API is available.

+ Kerberos authentication support:
  FBSNG has an option to use Kerberos for user authentication.
  Also, FBSNG can create Kerberos credentials for batch processes.

Documentation
-------------

The following documentation is packaged with each version:

     FILE                FORMAT       DESCRIPTION
     =================   ======       =========================
     README              ASCII        General, Very Basic Overview,
                                      License information
     doc/users_guide.ps  Postscript   Users Guide
     doc/admin.ps        Postscript   Installation and Administration Guide
     doc/API_Ref.ps      Postscript   API Reference Manual
     doc/Release_Notes_v1.2.txt   
                         ASCII        Release Notes
     doc/resources.ps    Postscript   Resources Concepts
     doc/scheduler.ps    Postscript   FBSNG Scheduler

In addition, please see the online information at: 
     http://www-hppc.fnal.gov/fbsng

Required Hardware and Software
------------------------------

FBSNG is written primarily in Python, but has some C-language and
C++ sources as well. FBSNG requires library named FCSLIB to be installed.
The library is freely available from Fermi Tools under the same license.
FBSNG requires Python 1.5 or later version. FBSNG GUI requires Python
to be built with Tcl/Tk support.

Although not required for FBSNG operation, node resource utilization
monitoring tool "xsysmon" included in FBSNG distribution requires
rstatd to run on nodes to be monitored. Rstatd is standard UNIX
program and is not included in FBSNG package.

FBSNG is currently supported under UNIX (IRIX and OSF1 platforms)
and Linux operating systems.

Product Installation and Maintenance
------------------------------------

FBSNG, excluding source code, is packaged as follows:

     README      - general, very basic overview
     doc         - directory containing documentation
     man         - directory containing manpages
     ups         - directory of scripts to setup the correct user 
                   environment at Fermilab
     lib         - directory containing FBSNG libraries
     bin         - directory containing FBSNG non-customizable executables
     templates   - directory containing templates of scripts and
                   configuration files that should be customized for each
                   FBSNG installation.

Installation, maintenance and support procedures are documented in 
FBSNG Installation/Administration Guide that is packaged with the FBSNG 
product.

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                        SUPPORT
                        =======

Help with the installation or use of FBSNG is available by sending 
mail to

                   fbs-support@fnal.gov

which is auto-forwarded to the group in charge of FBSNG support at 
Fermilab.

This software is furnished by Fermilab on an "as is" basis as a service 
to the wider community with the goal of stimulating collaborative use 
and further development.

Provision of the software implies no commitment of support by Fermilab.

The Fermilab Computing Division is open to discussing other levels of 
support for use of the software with responsible and committed users and 
collaborators.

Use of the software in experiments at Fermilab will be assured of a 
level of support as agreed to through the standard Memorandum Of 
Understanding process.

Users may send mail to the mail address given above, with the 
expectation that it will be read and noted.

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                        TERMS AND CONDITIONS IN FULL
                        ============================

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    Fermitools Software Legal Information - June 16, 1999
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Terms and Conditions
--------------------
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When a User obtains a software package included in the Fermilab Software
Tools Program, the user agrees to abide by the Terms and Conditions of the
Program below:

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        "This work was performed at Fermi National Accelerator
         Laboratory, operated by Universities Research Association,
         Inc., under contract DE-AC02-76CH03000 with the U.S. Department
         of Energy."

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Indemnification by User of Third Party Claims and
Disclaimer of Liability
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Disclaimer of Warranties
------------------------
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-------------------------
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Liabilities of the Government
-----------------------------
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