NCSA currently runs LSF software on its Origin for batch job scheduling. He paid particular attention to how user requirements drove NCSA's LSF configuration. A product of MRJ Technology Solutions, PBS is particularly suited to a multi-Origin environment. A portable and customizable tool, PBS also offers a graphical interface for job submission, tracking, and administration. The software is free making it an attractive packages for a system administrator with a limited budget.
Users can elect to pay for support.
This immersive time made analyzing the pluses and minuses of PBS possible. Most of Shapiro's tools are tied to specific LSF features and information, and thus they cannot readily be decoupled from the software. However, Shapiro notes that Have went home to the Netherlands with ideas about what can be useful in managing a multiple Origin site and where to look in the PBS scheduler for data similar to that used by the NCSA tools. Another area of interest for Have was system monitoring tools that NCSA has been developing for more than six years. The center's interest is in discovering significant events such as a network outage and formulating automated actions based on event features.