MATLAB_CONDOR
Running MATLAB Under the CONDOR Batch Queueing System

MATLAB_CONDOR is a directory of examples which demonstrate how a MATLAB program can be submitted to 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 focuses on the task of getting a MATLAB job to run under the CONDOR system installed on a collection of computers under the management of the FSU Department of Scientific Computing.

MATLAB users who invoke CONDOR must note a particular restriction. CONDOR will only run MATLAB on one of the machines in the departmental classroom. The department has just 15 MATLAB licenses available for classroom use. That means that, during typical class times, you should be aware that each MATLAB job you run subtracts from this fixed limit. That means CONDOR jobs requiring many copies of MATLAB should be run at night, on the weekends, or holidays!

MATLAB is typically used interactively, but it is possible for it to do everything in a batch mode. For this purpose, the user must prepare a script containing the commands that might ordinarily be given interactively. For more information on this requirement, see the information on MATLAB_COMMANDLINE listed below.

Note that, in a typical use of CONDOR, a user would have files on the pamd system, then log into the submission system with the command

ssh submit.sc.fsu.edu

condor_submit simple.condor

Licensing:

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

Related Data and Programs:

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

MATLAB_COMMANDLINE, programs which illustrate how MATLAB can be run from the UNIX command line, that is, not with the usual MATLAB command window.

Reference:

1. condor.pdf,
   Condor Team,
   University of Wisconsin, Madison,
   Condor Version 7.4.4 Manual;
2. http://www.cs.wisc.edu/condor/,
   The Condor home page;
3. http://www.sc.fsu.edu/computing/general-access/batch,
   The FSU Department of Scientific Computing's Condor page;

Examples and Tests:

SIMPLE is a simple example, in which a MATLAB function is to be called with certain output.

• simple.condor, the CONDOR submission file. This is used by issuing the command "condor_submit simple.condor".
• simple_script.m, the MATLAB script which sets up some data and calls a function.
• simple_function.m, the MATLAB function, which simply adds the two input arguments.
• simple.mat, the MATLAB MAT file which contains the workspace at the end of the computation.
• simple_output.txt, the output printed by MATLAB.
• simple.error, CONDOR's error file (empty, because for once we didn't make a mistake).
• simple.log, CONDOR's log file (records the job submission, execution, and completion).
• simple.out, CONDOR's output file (empty, because we grabbed the output into simple_output.txt).

You can go up one level to the MATLAB source codes.