Patent ID: 7890629

Claim:
A method of managing compute resources within a multi-node compute environment wherein each node in the multi-node compute environment is under common management, the method comprising: identifying a need type, the need type being associated with a need of at least one of a user and a job to be submitted, and a group of available compute resources within the multi-node compute environment; based on the need type and the group of available compute resources, creating a non-consumption reservation mask covering multiple nodes within the multi-node compute environment, the non-consumption reservation mask comprising a policy enforcing mechanism to manage and constrain consumption sub-reservations; and if a request from a consumer matches the need type, then constraining a creation of a consumption sub-reservation for the consumer to only use at least a portion of the multiple nodes covered by the non-consumption reservation mask, else, if the request does not match the need type, then not enforcing any constraints for creating the consumption sub-reservation.