C++_CONDOR
C++ Execution Under the CONDOR Batch Queueing System

C++_CONDOR is a directory of examples which demonstrate how a C++ program can be executed on a remote machine using the CONDOR batch queueing system.

CONDOR allows a user to submit jobs for batch execution on an informal cluster composed of various computers that often have idle time. Based on information from the user's submission file, CONDOR chooses one or more appropriate and available computers, transfers files to the target systems, executes the program, and returns data to the user.

CONDOR has many features, and its proper use varies from site to site. The information in this document was inspired by the CONDOR system supported by the FSU Research Computing Center (RCC). Some of the information therefore is peculiar to this local installation.

The first thing to note is that the FSU CONDOR cluster does not have a shared file system. Thus, you should probably imagine that you are trying to run your program on a remote machine that might be someone's iPhone. None of your files are there, and if you don't say so, you don't even know what kind of processor or operating system you are dealing with!

So you are responsible for explaining to CONDOR what files you want to transfer to this remote machine, and you must specify whether you have any requirements, such as a specific operating system or processor type. In particular, when working with a C++ program, you must precompile the program on the CONDOR login node, and one of your requirements will then be that the remote computer has the same processor and operating system as the login node.

The information about file transfer and system requirements is all part of what is called a CONDOR submission script. The script is a combination of comment lines, which begin with the "#" sign, commands of the form "A = B" which set certain options, and a few commands that make things happen. A typical script might be called "program.condor".

The user and CONDOR interact on a special computer called the CONDOR login node or submit node. The user's files must be transferred there, the user's CONDOR submission script must be submitted there, and the results from the remote machine will be copied back to this place.

The user logs into the CONDOR submit node interactively:

        ssh condor-login.rcc.fsu.edu
      

1. you must already have a valid RCC account;
2. you must be logged in locally; as far as I can tell, you can't log in from home, or another university, or a national lab, for instance;

File transfer is done with the SFTP command.

        sftp condor-login.rcc.fsu.edu
          put program.condor
          put mandelbrot.f90
          quit
      

When ready, the CONDOR submission script is sent by the command

        condor_submit program.condor
      

        condor_q
      

        condor_rm username
      

Using Files:

On the FSU RCC Condor cluster, you must first copy your files to the CONDOR login machine. When you submit your job to the CONDOR queue, however, the program execution will take place on some unknown machine, which initially does not have any of your files. Therefore, an important part of using CONDOR is making sure that you copy to the remote machine all the files needed for input, including a compiled copy of your C program. Luckily, CONDOR will automatically copy back to the login node every file that is created by the program execution.

Because the file system is not shared, the following commands should appear in your CONDOR script:

        should_transfer_files = yes
        when_to_transfer_output = on_exit
      

If your executable reads from "standard input", (such as the C++ statement

        cin >> i;
      

        input = filename
      

        cout << "The answer is " << 42 << "\n";
      

        output = filename
      

Your job may require other data files to run than simply the standard input file. If so, you need to tell CONDOR the names of these files, in a comma-separated list:

        transfer_input_files = file1, file2, ..., file99
      

Your job may create many files aside from simply standard output. Luckily, all files created by the run will be automatically copied back.

We are going to compile the C executable on the CONDOR login node, but run it on some other remote machine. Therefore, we need the following command to guarantee that the remote machine can understand the executable:

        requirements = ( OpSYS="LINUX" && Arch=="X86_64 )
      

Suppose that the C++ program we want to run is named "mandelbrot.cpp". We compile this program on the CONDOR login node with commands like

        g++ mandelbrot.cpp -lm
        mv a.out mandelbrot
      

        executable = mandelbrot
      

A Sample CONDOR Script

Here is a file called "mandelbrot.condor" which ought to be able to run our compiled program somewhere, and return the results to us:

        universe = vanilla
        executable = mandelbrot
        arguments =
        input =
        requirements = ( OpSYS="LINUX" && Arch=="X86_64 )
        should_transfer_files = yes
        when_to_transfer_files = on_exit
        notification = never
        output = mandelbrot_output.txt
        log = mandelbrot_log.txt
        queue
      

A few comments are in order.

• The "universe" command is required, and on the FSU CONDOR system, we only have the "vanilla" universe.
• The "arguments" command allows you to pass commandline arguments to the executable program.
• Setting "notification" to "yes" will cause CONDOR to send you email when the job completes, and perhaps at some other stages as well.
• The "log" command species a name to use for the file in which CONDOR records the progress of the job.
• The "error" command allows you to capture output to standard error.
• The "queue" command is necessary, and tells CONDOR to actually begin running your job.

Licensing:

The computer code and data files made available on this web page are distributed under the GNU LGPL license.

Languages:

C++_CONDOR is available in a C version and a C++ version and a FORTRAN77 version and a FORTRAN90 version and a MATLAB version

Related Data and Programs:

C_CONDOR, C programs which illustrate how a C program can be run in batch mode using the condor queueing system.

CONDOR, examples which demonstrates the use of the CONDOR queueing system to submit jobs that run on a one or more remote machines.

F77_CONDOR, FORTRAN77 programs which illustrate how a FORTRAN77 program can be run in batch mode using the condor queueing system.

F90_CONDOR, programs which illustrate how a FORTRAN90 program can be executed with the CONDOR batch queueing system.

MATLAB_CONDOR, programs which illustrate how a MATLAB program can be executed with the CONDOR batch queueing system.

Reference:

1. condor.pdf,
   Condor Team,
   University of Wisconsin, Madison,
   Condor Version 8.0.2 Manual;
2. http://www.cs.wisc.edu/htcondor/,
   The HTCondor home page;

Examples and Tests:

MANDELBROT is an example which creates a PPM image file of the Mandelbrot set.

• mandelbrot.cpp, the program. This must be compiled and named "mandelbrot".
• mandelbrot.condor, the CONDOR submission file. This is used by issuing the command "condor_submit simple.condor".
• mandelbrot.ppm, the PPM image file created on the remote machine.
• mandelbrot.png, a PNG version of the image file.
• mandelbrot_output.txt, the output file.
• mandelbrot_log.txt, CONDOR's log file (records the job submission, execution, and completion).

You can go up one level to the C++ source codes.