Select a Processor Architecture
Choosing nodes for a job based on the processor micro-architecture.
Chinook currently has three types of standard compute nodes with differing Intel micro-architectures. It is possible to limit a job to run on just one or two processor types. This allows a binary built with more advanced instruction sets to be executed only on processors that support the instruction set. If a binary is not built for a specific instruction set, it will run on any of the three types.
The three micro-architectures which translate to a node type are:
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
To select a specific node type, use the "--constraint" option of the
sbatch or srun commands. Multiple choices may be specified with the OR operator. Example 1, request a job run only on Skylake/Cascade Lake nodes:
sbatch --constraint="Skylake" jobScript.slurm
Example 2, request a job run only on Broadwell or Skylake nodes:
sbatch --constraint="Broadwell|Skylake" jobScript.slurm
Example 3, request a job run only on a single node type, but either Broadwell or Skylake nodes may be used (aka matching OR):
sbatch --constraint="[Broadwell|Skylake]" jobScript.slurm
By adding a constraint, the number of possible nodes a job can run on will be reduced. This means it may take more time for the scheduler to make those nodes available and launch the job.