IBM Platform LSF V9.1 delivers significant performance and scalability advancesIBM United States Software Announcement 212-423November 13, 2012
Realize excellent performance, scalability, and utilization with the IBM® Platform LSF® V9.1 family of products. Features and benefits include the following:
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The IBM Platform LSF product family delivers powerful workload management for demanding, distributed, and mission-critical technical computing environments. It includes a complete set of resource-aware, monitoring, workflow, analysis, and license management capabilities, all designed to work together to address high performance computing (HPC) needs. This latest version, Platform LSF V9.1, is designed to deliver significantly enhanced performance, scalability, manageability, and usability, as well as new scheduling capabilities. A new addition, Platform LSF - Advanced Edition may provide greater than three times more scalability than prior versions of LSF , enabling you to consolidate your compute resources to achieve maximum flexibility and utilization. If you are looking to improve service levels and utilization with a dynamic, shared HPC cloud environment, IBM Platform Dynamic Cluster V9.1 is now available as an add-on to Platform LSF . Platform Dynamic Cluster turns static Platform LSF clusters into dynamic, shared cloud infrastructure. By automatically changing the composition of clusters to meet ever-changing workload demands, service levels are improved and organizations can do more work with less infrastructure. With smart policies and numerous features, such as live job migration, Platform Dynamic Cluster enables you to realize improved utilization, better reliability, and increased productivity, while reducing administrator workload. The new IBM Platform Session Scheduler V9.1 is designed to work with Platform LSF to enable high-throughput, low-latency scheduling for a wide range of workloads. It is particularly well suited to environments that run high volumes of short duration jobs, and where users require faster and more predictable job turnaround times. Unlike traditional batch schedulers that make resource allocation decisions for every job submission, Platform Session Scheduler enables you to specify resource allocation decisions only once for multiple jobs in a user session, providing you with your own virtual private cluster. With this more efficient scheduling model, you can benefit from higher job throughput and faster response times, while cluster administrators realize an overall improvement in cluster utilization.
Refer to the Hardware requirements and Software requirements sections.
The IBM Platform LSF product familyThe Platform LSF product family provides powerful workload management for demanding, distributed, and mission-critical technical and HPC environments. It includes a complete set of workload management capabilities, all designed to work together to address your HPC needs. New in V9.1: Improved performance, scalability, usability, manageability, and scheduling Response time for queries is improved, scheduling cycles for start/restart time is decreased, and memory is optimized. Reporting of resource usage is more clear for improved usability. For better manageability, Platform LSF is updated to provide fast detection of stalled jobs, and leverages the kernel cgroup function to improve process tracking, and topology cpu and memory enforcement. Scheduling resource requirements is extended to consider memory in addition to cores, as well as other multicluster enhancements. IBM Platform Session Scheduler: High-throughput batch scheduling Platform Session Scheduler is designed to work with Platform LSF to provide high-throughput, low-latency scheduling for a wide range of workloads. Platform Session Scheduler is particularly well suited to environments that run high volumes of short-duration jobs, and where users require faster and more predictable job turnaround times. Unlike traditional batch schedulers that make resource allocation decisions for every job submission, users specify resource allocation decisions only once for multiple jobs in a user session, giving them their own virtual private cluster. With this more efficient scheduling model, users benefit from higher job throughput and faster response times while cluster administrators realize an overall improvement in cluster utilization. IBM Platform Dynamic Cluster: Workload-aware cloud computing Platform Dynamic Cluster turns static Platform LSF clusters into dynamic, shared cloud infrastructure. By automatically changing the composition of clusters to meet ever-changing workload demands, service levels are improved and organizations can do more work with less infrastructure. Unlike other less capable solutions, Platform Dynamic Cluster offers the flexibility to automatically provision mixed physical and virtual environments and leverages your existing investments in hypervisors, management tools, and virtual machine templates to create a dynamic private cloud environment. With smart policies and features such as live job migration, sites running Platform Dynamic Cluster realize improved utilization, better reliability, and increased productivity, while reducing administrator workload. Additional Platform LSF capabilities include the following:
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IBM Platform LSF V9.1 is part of the IBM Platform Computing portfolio of products, which includes:
Platform Symphony typically runs different types of workloads than Platform LSF , and is therefore a complementary product. LSF is optimized for scheduling batch jobs where each job is discrete and the application is typically parallelized using MPI. However, workloads that require very fast scheduling, low latency, high throughput and scalability, and fast, agile resource sharing are likely to be best served by Platform Symphony . As a result, LSF is typically beneficial to HPC clients in manufacturing, oil and gas, life sciences, electronics, government, and media and entertainment, whereas Platform Symphony is more appropriate to clients in financial services. Platform MPI is often purchased in conjunction with LSF . Platform MPI is a high-performance, production-ready quality implementation of the Message Passing Interface (MPI). It is widely used in the high performance computing (HPC) industry and is considered one of the standards for developing scalable, parallel applications. Platform Cluster Manager Advanced Edition V4.1 complements the Platform LSF product family by providing the capability to assemble multiple high-performance technical computing environments on a shared compute infrastructure for use by multiple teams. In addition to support for Platform LSF , IBM Platform Cluster Manager Advanced Edition includes support for multitenant HPC cloud and multiple workload managers including Grid Engine and TIBCO DataSynapse GridServer (formerly DataSynapse GridServer). It creates an agile environment for running technical computing and analysis workloads to consolidate disparate cluster infrastructure, resulting in increased hardware utilization and the ability to meet or exceed service level agreements while lowering costs. For clients with a single HPC cluster and more static application requirements, Platform Cluster Manager Standard Edition V3.2 helps you quickly provision, run, manage, and monitor an HPC cluster with unprecedented ease. Platform LSF has the following additions to the product family:
Refer to Preview Announcement 212-392, dated October 3, 2012 .
Program Program number VRM name 5725-G82 9.1.0 IBM Platform LSF
Product information is available via the Offering Information website Also, visit the Passport Advantage® website
The following publications are shipped with the product and available on the web: IBM Platform LSF :
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Specified operating environmentHardware requirementsPlatform LSF V9.1, Platform Session Scheduler V9.1, and Dynamic Cluster V9.1 are supported on IBM System x® iDataPlex® and other non-IBM rack-based servers. Platform LSF V9.1 and Platform Session Scheduler V9.1 are also fully certified to run on clusters comprising Pure Systems or Power Systems servers running AIX® or Linux . The hardware requirements for Platform LSF , Platform Session Scheduler, and Platform Dynamic Cluster are as follows:
Platform Dynamic Cluster requires the following hardware:
Note: The hardware requirements for the product options vary based on the HPC environment. Refer to the product publications for additional details. Software requirementsPlatform LSF and Platform Session Scheduler are supported on any of the following operating environments:
Platform Dynamic Cluster supports the following software environments:
Note: For Linux installations, precompiled binaries facilitate easy installation on different Linux kernels. The distribution to install will depend more on the version of Linux (specifically the Linux kernel version) rather than the actual distribution (RHEL, CentOS, or SLES). The version to install will also depend on the version of glibc. The program's specifications and specified operating environment information may be found in documentation accompanying the program, if available, such as a README file, or other information published by IBM , such as an announcement letter. Documentation and other program content may be supplied only in the English language. Companion productsThe following IBM products may be purchased with the IBM Platform LSF product family:
These products complement the Platform LSF family as follows:
CompatibilityIBM Platform LSF V9.1 is fully compatible with Platform LSF 7 and 8. However, the Scheduler must be running V9.1, or later. LimitationsUsers deploying IBM Platform LSF - Advanced Edition should be aware of the following limitation: Platform LSF - Advanced Edition has been tested on configurations up to 18,000 nodes and 160,000 cores running high-throughput workloads of 160,000 concurrent short (below 5 minute) jobs with 2,000,000 pending jobs. These are not hard scalability or performance limits. Users deploying IBM Platform LSF - Standard Edition should be aware of the following limitations:
Users deploying IBM Platform LSF - Express® Edition should be aware of the following limitations:
Users deploying IBM Platform Session Scheduler should be aware that it is supported on Linux only. Users deploying IBM Platform Dynamic Cluster should be aware of the following limitations:
Performance considerationsThe performance of Platform LSF depends upon many factors, including the number of nodes in the cluster, the number of concurrently executing jobs, the number of pending jobs, the number of users querying the system, and the frequency of queries. As these increase, the scheduling cycle and user response time will increase. Dynamic Cluster performance and scalability mirror that of LSF , but they are also dependent upon the network speed between hypervisor hosts for operations such as live migration. They are also highly dependent upon the speed and caching ability of the NFS server to read and write quickly when instantiating new VMs. For a high-throughput workload, such as the workloads found in the semiconductor design market, clusters of 5,000 nodes with 40,000 cores or concurrently executing jobs are not uncommon. In traditional HPC environments, where the concurrent job volume is significantly lower, LSF has been used on substantially larger clusters (for example, 75,000 to 100,000 cores). IBM Electronic SupportThe IBM Support Portal is your gateway to technical support. This includes IBM Electronic Support tools and resources, for software and hardware, to help save time and simplify support. The Electronic Support tools can help you find answers to questions, download fixes, troubleshoot, automate data collection, submit and track problems through the Service Request online tool, and build skills. All these tools are made available through your IBM support agreement, at no additional charge.
Planning informationCustomer responsibilitiesYou must provide at least the minimum hardware and software environments in which the Platform LSF product family will operate. It is recommended to assign a systems administrator who has responsibility for planning, installing, maintaining, and administering the Platform LSF product family. While the installation and upgrade procedures for Platform LSF V9.1 have been tested carefully, as with any installation or upgrade, it is prudent to ensure that backups exist and you prepare for the installation or upgrade in advance. InstallabilityIBM Platform LSF V9.1 is functionally the same as prior versions. However, it will now be available in three product editions:
Clients using Platform LSF V8.1, and earlier, will map to the Standard Edition. However, IBM Platform LSF - Standard Edition is a new product; it is more than just LSF . It includes additional capabilities previously provided by Platform MultiCluster, Platform Make, and Platform LSF Client. The Platform LSF licensing model changed between Platform LSF V7 and V8. Therefore, clients who are currently using LSF V7 update 6, or earlier, will require new licenses. In addition, IBM Platform LSF V8.3 and V9.1 no longer use FLEXlm for licensing. For assistance on configurations or licensing, contact your local Platform Computing Seller. PackagingPlatform LSF V9.1, Platform Session Scheduler V9.1, and Platform Dynamic Cluster V9.1 are is distributed on optional DVD media or available for electronic download in multiple eAssemblies. Included are:
This program, when downloaded from a website, contains the applicable IBM license agreement and License Information, if appropriate, and will be presented for acceptance at the time of installation of the program. For future reference, the license and License Information will be stored in a directory such as LICENSE.TXT. Security, auditability, and controlPlatform LSF use the security and auditability features of the system in which they are installed. The customer is responsible for evaluation, selection, and implementation of security features, administrative procedures, and appropriate controls in application systems and communication facilities.
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This product is only available via Passport Advantage . It is not available as shrinkwrap. Product group: IBM Platform Computing Product Identifier Description (PID) IBM Platform LSF 5725G82 Product category: Other Software Charge metric
Part number or
Program name PID number Charge metric
IBM Platform LSF 5725-G82
Advanced Edition Managed core RVU(1)
Dynamic Cluster Managed core RVU
Session Scheduler Managed core RVU
(1) Resource Value Unit
Each license includes 12 months' subscription and support. Concurrent User Concurrent User is a unit of measure by which the program can be licensed. A Concurrent User is a person who is accessing the program at any particular point in time. Regardless of whether the person is simultaneously accessing the program multiple times, the person counts only as a single Concurrent User. The program may be installed on any number of computers or servers, but licensee must obtain entitlements for the maximum number of Concurrent Users simultaneously accessing the program. Licensee must obtain an entitlement for each simultaneous Concurrent User accessing the program in any manner directly or indirectly (for example, via a multiplexing program, device, or application server) through any means. Note: Some programs may be licensed where devices are considered users. In that case, the following applies. Any computing device that requests the execution of or receives for execution a set of commands, procedures, or applications from the program or that is otherwise managed by the program is considered a separate user of the program and requires an entitlement as if that device were a person. Install Install is a unit of measure by which the program can be licensed. An install is an installed copy of the program on a physical or virtual disk made available to be executed on a computer. Licensee must obtain an entitlement for each install of the program. Resource Value Unit (RVU) RVU is a unit of measure by which the program can be licensed. RVU Proofs of Entitlement are based on the number of units of a specific resource used or managed by the program. Licensee must obtain sufficient entitlements for the number of RVUs required for licensee's environment for the specific resources as specified in the program specific table. RVU entitlements are specific to the program and the type of resource and may not be exchanged, interchanged, or aggregated with RVU entitlements of another program or resource. Refer to the program-specific RVU table. Note:
Note: The following component of the Platform LSF program is licensed based on Value Unit-Based pricing:
Program Value Unit
number Program name exhibit
5725-G82 Platform LSF - VUE139
Advanced Edition
Dynamic Cluster
Session Scheduler
For this component, the resource for the purpose of the RVU calculation are Activated Processor Cores managed by the program. An Activated Processor Core is a processor core that is available for use in a physical or virtual server, regardless of whether the capacity of the processor core can be or is limited through virtualization technologies, operating system commands, BIOS settings, or similar restrictions. Licensee can deploy the Program using either Full Capacity licensing or Virtualization Capacity (Sub-Capacity) licensing according to the Passport Advantage Sub-Capacity Licensing Terms (refer to the following website). If using Full Capacity licensing, each Activated Processor Core in the physical hardware environment managed by the Program must be counted, except for those servers from which the Program permanently no longer manages. If using Virtualization Capacity licensing, the Virtualization Capacity License Counting Rules define how many Activated Processor Cores must be counted. The rules can be found at Resource Value Unit conversion table From 1 to 2,500 Resources, 1.0 (RVU/UVU) per Resource From 2,501 to 10,000 Resources, 2,500 RVUs plus 0.8 RVUs per Resource above 2,500 From 10,001 to 50,000 Resources, 8,500 RVUs plus 0.6 RVUs per Resource above 10,000 From 50,001 to 150,000 Resources, 32,500 RVUs plus 0.4 RVUs per Resource above 50,000 For more than 150,000 Resources, 72,500 RVUs plus 0.2 RVUs per Resource above 150,000 Passport Advantage Part number Program name/Description D0VC2LL IBM Platform LSF Session Scheduler RVU Lic + SW S&S 12 Mo E0F6TLL IBM Platform LSF Session Scheduler RVU Annual SW S&S Rnwl D0VC3LL IBM Platform LSF Session Scheduler RVU SW S&S Reinste 12 Mo D0VBTLL IBM Platform LSF Sessn Sched RVU FTL Initl FT Lic+S&S 12 Mo E0F6QLL IBM Platform LSF Sessn Sched RVU FTL SubSq FT Lic+S&S 12 Mo D0VBZLL IBM Platform LSF Dynamic Cluster RVU Lic + SW S&S 12 Mo E0F6SLL IBM Platform LSF Dynamic Cluster RVU Annual SW S&S Rnwl D0VC0LL IBM Platform LSF Dynamic Cluster RVU SW S&S Reinstate 12 Mo D0VBSLL IBM Platform LSF Dynam Clust RVU FTL Initl FT Lic+S&S 12 Mo E0F6PLL IBM Platform LSF Dynam Clust RVU FTL SubSq FT Lic+S&S 12 Mo D0VBULL IBM Platform LSF Advanced Edition RVU Lic + SW S&S 12 Mo E0F6RLL IBM Platform LSF Advanced Edition RVU Annual SW S&S Rnwl D0VBVLL IBM Platform LSF Advanced Edition RVU SW S&S Reinst 12 Mo D0VBRLL IBM Platform LSF Advanced Ed RVU FTL Initl FT Lic+S&S 12 Mo E0F6NLL IBM Platform LSF Advanced Ed RVU FTL SubSq FT Lic+S&S 12 Mo D0VBWLL Platform LSF Ad Ed RVU fr Platform LSF Std Ed RVU Trdup Lic D0VBXLL Platform LSF Ad Ed RVU fr Platform LSF Exp Ed RVU Trdup Lic Part Program name/Description number English Media Pack IBM Platform LSF Advanced Edition v9.1 Multiplatform AJ00WEN IBM Platform LSF Express Edition v9.1 Multiplatform AJ00UEN IBM Platform LSF Standard Edition v9.1 Multiplatform AJ00VEN IBM Platform LSF Session Scheduler v9.1 Multiplatform AJ00XEN IBM Platform LSF Dynamic Cluster v9.1 Multiplatform AJ00YEN Passport Advantage customer: Media pack entitlement details Customers with active maintenance or subscription for the products listed are entitled to receive the corresponding media pack. Entitled maintenance offerings Part description number IBM Platform LSF Express ED RVU INITL FT LIC+S&S 12 MO D0Q0GLL IBM Platform LSF Express ED RVU LIC + SW S&S 12 MO D0Q1DLL IBM Platform LSF Express ED RVU SUBSQ FT LIC+S&S 12 MO E0DX4LL IBM Platform LSF Standard ED RVU INITL FT LIC+S&S 12 MO D0Q0FLL IBM Platform LSF Standard ED RVU LIC + SW S&S 12 MO D0Q0KLL IBM Platform LSF Standard ED RVU SUBSQ FT LIC+S&S 12 MO E0DX3LL Plat LSF STD ED from Plat LSF EX ED TRDUP LIC+SW S&S 12MO D0Q1PLL Media packs Part description number IBM Platform LSF Express Edition V8.3 Multiplatform AJ000EN IBM Platform LSF Standard Edition V8.3 Multiplatform AJ001EN IBM Platform Process Manager V8.3 Multiplatform AJ002EN IBM Platform License Scheduler V8.3 Multiplatform AJ003EN IBM Platform RTM V8.3 Multiplatform AJ004EN IBM Platform RTM Data Collectors V8.3 Multiplatform AJ005EN
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Electronic Service Agent and the IBM Electronic Support web portal are dedicated to providing fast, exceptional support to IBM Systems customers. The IBM Electronic Service Agent tool is a no-additional-charge tool that proactively monitors and reports hardware events, such as system errors, performance issues, and inventory. The Electronic Service Agent tool can help you stay focused on your company's strategic business initiatives, save time, and spend less effort managing day-to-day IT maintenance issues. Servers enabled with this tool can be monitored remotely around the clock by IBM Support all at no additional cost to you. Now integrated into the base operating system of AIX 5.3, AIX 6.1, and AIX 7.1, Electronic Service Agent is designed to automatically and electronically report system failures and utilization issues to IBM , which can result in faster problem resolution and increased availability. System configuration and inventory information collected by the Electronic Service Agent tool also can be viewed on the secure Electronic Support web portal, and used to improve problem determination and resolution by you and the IBM support team. To access the tool main menu, simply type "smitty esa_main", and select "Configure Electronic Service Agent ." In addition, ESA now includes a powerful Web user interface, giving the administrator easy access to status, tool settings, problem information, and filters. For more information and documentation on how to configure and use Electronic Service Agent , refer to The IBM Electronic Support portal is a single Internet entry point that replaces the multiple entry points traditionally used to access IBM Internet services and support. This portal enables you to gain easier access to IBM resources for assistance in resolving technical problems. The My Systems and Premium Search functions make it even easier for Electronic Service Agent tool-enabled customers to track system inventory and find pertinent fixes. BenefitsIncreased uptime: The Electronic Service Agent tool is designed to enhance the Warranty or Maintenance Agreement by providing faster hardware error reporting and uploading system information to IBM Support. This can translate to less wasted time monitoring the "symptoms," diagnosing the error, and manually calling IBM Support to open a problem record. Its 24 x 7 monitoring and reporting mean no more dependence on human intervention or off-hours customer personnel when errors are encountered in the middle of the night. Security: The Electronic Service Agent tool is designed to be secure in monitoring, reporting, and storing the data at IBM . The Electronic Service Agent tool securely transmits either via the Internet (HTTPS or VPN) or modem, and can be configured to communicate securely through gateways to provide customers a single point of exit from their site. Communication is one way. Activating Electronic Service Agent does not enable IBM to call into a customer's system. System inventory information is stored in a secure database, which is protected behind IBM firewalls. It is viewable only by the customer and IBM . The customer's business applications or business data is never transmitted to IBM . More accurate reporting: Since system information and error logs are automatically uploaded to the IBM Support center in conjunction with the service request, customers are not required to find and send system information, decreasing the risk of misreported or misdiagnosed errors. Once inside IBM , problem error data is run through a data knowledge management system and knowledge articles are appended to the problem record. Customized support: Using the IBM ID entered during activation, customers can view system and support information in the "My Systems" and "Premium Search" sections of the Electronic Support Web site at My Systems provides valuable reports of installed hardware and software using information collected from the systems by Electronic Service Agent . Reports are available for any system associated with the customer's IBM ID. Premium Search combines the function of search and the value of Electronic Service Agent information, providing advanced search of the technical support knowledge base. Using Premium Search and the Electronic Service Agent information that has been collected from your system, customers are able to see search results that apply specifically to their systems. For more information on how to utilize the power of IBM Electronic Services, contact your IBM Systems Services Representative, or visit
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