BOOTSTRAP(5)

✨ NAME ✨

bootstrap — Grid Engine bootstrap file 💅

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Okay so bestie, bootstrap is this file that holds all the parameters Grid Engine components need to, like, actually start up. It gets created when you install sge_qmaster. And real talk: editing bootstrap while your system is running? Not supported, periodt. Don't do it. 🚫

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🌸 FORMAT 🌸

Below are the deets on every single parameter that makes up the bootstrap config for a Grid Engine cluster. No skipping, we're going through all of them 💖

admin_user

This is the admin user account that Grid Engine uses for all its internal file stuff — status spooling, message logging, all that. It's your go-to when the root account doesn't have the right file access permissions (like on a shared file system where global root read/write access isn't a thing).

As a parameter set at installation time, changing admin_user in a running system? Not supported. You can change it manually on a shut-down cluster, but if access to the Grid Engine spooling area gets interrupted, you'll get unpredictable behavior. So like, proceed with caution, bestie. 😬

admin_user has no default value. It's defined during the master installation procedure. So you don't get to skip that step.

default_domain

Only needed if your Grid Engine cluster spans more than one DNS domain. In that case, you can use it if your hostname resolving gives you both qualified and unqualified hostnames for hosts in one of those DNS domains. The value of default_domain gets appended to the unqualified hostname to make a fully qualified hostname. But heads up: default_domain does absolutely nothing if ignore_fqdn is set to "true". ✨

As a parameter set at installation time, changing default_domain in a running system is not supported. The default for default_domain is "none", and in that case it just won't be used. So it's a no-op.

ignore_fqdn

This one tells Grid Engine to ignore the fully qualified domain name component of hostnames. You should set it if all the hosts in your Grid Engine cluster are part of a single DNS domain. It's switched on if you set it to either "true" or "1". Turning it on may solve problems with load reports due to different hostname resolutions across the cluster. So it's a vibe saver. 🦋

As a parameter set at installation time, changing ignore_fqdn in a running system is not supported. The default for ignore_fqdn is "true".

spooling_method

This defines how sge_qmaster(8) writes its configuration and the status information of a running cluster.

The available spooling methods are berkeleydb and classic. That's it. 👑

spooling_lib

This is the name of a shared library containing the spooling_method to be loaded at sge_qmaster(8) initialization time. The extension characterizing a shared library (.so, .sl, .dylib etc.) is not contained in spooling_lib. So just the base name, okay?

If spooling_method was set to berkeleydb during installation, spooling_lib is set to libspoolb. If classic was chosen as the spooling_method, then spooling_lib is set to libspoolc. Cute, right? 🎀

Not all operating systems allow the dynamic loading of libraries. On these platforms, a certain spooling method (default: berkeleydb) is compiled into the binaries and the parameter spooling_lib will be ignored. So don't stress if it's not used.

spooling_params

This defines parameters of the chosen spooling method that are needed to initialize the spooling framework, e.g. to open database files.

The spooling parameters value for spooling method berkeleydb is

[rpc_server:]database directory[;<options>]

e.g. "/opt/sge/default/spool/qmaster/spooldb" for spooling to a local filesystem, or "myhost:sge" for spooling over a Berkeley DB RPC server.

rpc_server is obsolete since recent BDB versions don't support RPC and support has been removed from Grid Engine; it must be replaced if it occurs in an old configuration before an upgrade. database directory is the directory containing the spool files, and options is a list of options for the database. Currently the only valid value for options is private, which means to open the database with the DB_PRIVATE flag to specify that it is only accessed by a single process. This allows the database directory to be on an NFSv3 filesystem (as opposed to an NFSv4 one, which is otherwise necessary), but it is unsafe to access it with any other program. In particular, this means that the backup script (inst_sge -bup), similar scripts using the DB utilities, spooledit etc., must not be used while qmaster is running with berkeleydb spooling. So like, don't even think about it. 💀

For spooling method classic the spooling parameters take the form

<common_dir>;<qmaster spool dir>

e.g.

/sge/default/common;/sge/default/spool/qmaster

binary_path

The directory path where the Grid Engine binaries reside. It is used within Grid Engine components to locate and startup other Grid Engine programs.

The path name given here is searched for binaries as well as any directory below with a directory name equal to the current operating system architecture. Therefore, /usr/SGE/bin will work for all architectures, if the corresponding binaries are located in subdirectories named aix51, lx-amd64, lx-x86, hp11, hp11-64, sol-amd64, sol-sparc etc. It's like a little architecture-based treasure hunt. 🗺️

The default location for the binary path is <sge_root>/bin.

qmaster_spool_dir

The location where the master spool directory resides. Only the sge_qmaster(8) and sge_shadowd(8) need to have access to this directory. The master spool directory — in particular the job_scripts directory and the messages log file — may become quite large, depending on the size of the cluster and the number of jobs. Be sure to allocate enough disk space and regularly clean off the log files, e.g. via a cron(8) job. Don't let it eat your disk, bestie. 🍓

As a parameter set at installation time, changing qmaster_spool_dir in a running system is not supported.

The default location for the master spool directory is <sge_root>/<cell>/spool/qmaster.

security_mode

The security mode defines the set of security features the installed cluster is using, as a comma-separated list.

Possible security mode settings are "none", "afs", "dce", "kerberos", "csp", "munge" (no additional security, AFS, DCE/GSSAPI, Kerberos/GSSAPI, X.509 certificate-based security, and MUNGE authentication ⟨http://munge.googlecode.com/⟩). Their availability depends on how Grid Engine was built/installed.

The "dce" and "kerberos" methods are nearly equivalent, calling the GSSAPI security modules in the same way, whether they were built for Kerberos/GSSAPI or DCE/GSSAPI, except that "dce" runs the program $SGE_ROOT/utilbin/$ARCH/starter_cred as a wrapper for the shepherd unless NO_SECURITY is specified in execd_params in sge_conf(5).

Only the CSP and MUNGE methods are currently properly functional and safe (from the point of view of not exposing credentials generally). Both provide user authentication, preventing impersonation of other users. CSP requires certificates to be generated for each user and available on each host which the user can access; it is appropriate for a loosely coupled system, e.g. including desktop systems, particularly as it protects the communication stream as well as providing authentication. MUNGE is appropriate in the security domain of a tightly coupled system, such as a normal cluster, and allows operation with enforce_user=auto (see sge_conf(5);) it requires the munged daemon to be running on each host, with a shared secret and doesn't encrypt the communication.

NB. Do not use AFS security without some means of user authentication, otherwise it is possible to submit jobs as another user and steal their credential from a job running on the same node. Major yikes. 🙈

listener_threads

The number of listener threads (defaults set by installation). Increasing this and/or worker_threads (below) to use additional cores/hardware threads on the master host may improve performance in demanding cases. So if your cluster is struggling, this could be a glow-up. ✨

worker_threads

The number of qmaster worker threads (defaults set by installation).

scheduler_threads

The number of qmaster scheduler threads (allowed: 0-1, default set by installation: 1, off: 0; see qconf(1) -kt/-at option).

jvm_threads

The number of JVM threads (allowed: 0-1, default set by installation, off: 0).

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

See sge_intro(1) for a full statement of rights and permissions. Legal stuff, you know? 💜

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This has been your girl, signing off. SGE version 8.1.3pre, dated 2012-04-26, for BOOTSTRAP(5). Stay slay, bestie! 💅✨