Configuring Service Classes for SLA Scheduling

Configure service classes in LSB_CONFDIR/cluster_name/configdir/lsb.serviceclasses. Each service class is defined in a ServiceClass section.

Each service class section begins with the line Begin ServiceClass and ends with the line End ServiceClass. You must specify:

A service class name
At least one goal (deadline, throughput, or velocity) and a time window when the goal is active
A service class priority

All other parameters are optional. You can configure as many service class sections as you need.

Note: The name you use for your service classes cannot be the same as an existing host partition or user group name.

User groups for service classes

You can control access to the SLA by configuring a user group for the service class. If LSF user groups are specified in lsb.users, each user in the group can submit jobs to this service class. If a group contains a subgroup, the service class policy applies to each member in the subgroup recursively. The group can define fairshare among its members, and the SLA defined by the service class enforces the fairshare policy among the users in the user group configured for the SLA.

Service class priority

A higher value indicates a higher priority, relative to other service classes. Similar to queue priority, service classes access the cluster resources in priority order. LSF schedules jobs from one service class at a time, starting with the highest-priority service class. If multiple service classes have the same priority, LSF runs all the jobs from these service classes in first-come, first-served order.

Service class priority in LSF is completely independent of the UNIX scheduler's priority system for time-sharing processes. In LSF, the NICE parameter is used to set the UNIX time-sharing priority for batch jobs.

Any guaranteed resources remaining idle at the end of a scheduling session may be loaned to jobs if loaning is enabled in the guaranteed resource pool (lsb.resources).

Service class configuration examples

The service class Uclulet defines one deadline goal that is active during working hours between 8:30 AM and 4:00 PM. All jobs in the service class should complete by the end of the specified time window. Outside of this time window, the SLA is inactive and jobs are scheduled without any goal being enforced:
```
Begin ServiceClass
NAME = Uclulet
PRIORITY = 20
GOALS = [DEADLINE timeWindow (8:30-16:00)]
DESCRIPTION = "working hours"
End ServiceClass
```

The service class Nanaimo defines a deadline goal that is active during the weekends and at nights:

Begin ServiceClass
NAME = Nanaimo
PRIORITY = 20
GOALS = [DEADLINE timeWindow (5:18:00-1:8:30 20:00-8:30)]
DESCRIPTION = "weekend nighttime regression tests"
End ServiceClass

The service class Inuvik defines a throughput goal of 6 jobs per hour that is always active:
```
Begin ServiceClass
NAME = Inuvik
PRIORITY = 20
GOALS = [THROUGHPUT 6 timeWindow ()]
DESCRIPTION = "constant throughput"
End ServiceClass
```
To configure a time window that is always open, use the timeWindow keyword with empty parentheses.
The service class Tofino defines two velocity goals in a 24 hour period. The first goal is to have a maximum of 10 concurrently running jobs during business hours (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m). The second goal is a maximum of 30 concurrently running jobs during off-hours (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m.):
```
Begin ServiceClass
NAME = Tofino
PRIORITY = 20
GOALS = [VELOCITY 10 timeWindow (9:00-17:00)] \
        [VELOCITY 30 timeWindow (17:30-8:30)]
DESCRIPTION = "day and night velocity"
End ServiceClass
```
The service class Kyuquot defines a velocity goal that is active during working hours (9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.) and a deadline goal that is active during off-hours (5:30 p.m. to 9:00 a.m.) Only users user1 and user2 can submit jobs to this service class:
```
Begin ServiceClass
NAME = Kyuquot
PRIORITY = 23
GOALS = [VELOCITY 8 timeWindow (9:00-17:30)] \
				[DEADLINE timeWindow (17:30-9:00)] 
DESCRIPTION = "Daytime/Nighttime SLA"
End ServiceClass
```
The service class Tevere defines a combination similar to Kyuquot, but with a deadline goal that takes effect overnight and on weekends. During the working hours in weekdays the velocity goal favors a mix of short and medium jobs:
```
Begin ServiceClass
NAME = Tevere
PRIORITY = 20
GOALS = [VELOCITY 100 timeWindow (9:00-17:00)] \
        [DEADLINE timeWindow (17:30-8:30 5:17:30-1:8:30)]
DESCRIPTION = "nine to five"
End ServiceClass
```

When an SLA is missing its goal

Use the CONTROL_ACTION parameter in your service class to configure an action to be run if the SLA goal is delayed for a specified number of minutes.

CONTROL_ACTION=VIOLATION_PERIOD[minutes] CMD [action]

If the SLA goal is delayed for longer than VIOLATION_PERIOD, the action specified by CMD is invoked. The violation period is reset and the action runs again if the SLA is still active when the violation period expires again. If the SLA has multiple active goals that are in violation, the action is run for each of them. For example:

CONTROL_ACTION=VIOLATION_PERIOD[10] CMD [echo `date`:
SLA is in violation >> ! /tmp/sla_violation.log]

SLA policies - preemption, chunk jobs and statistics files

SLA jobs cannot be preempted. You should avoid running jobs belonging to an SLA in low priority queues.
SLA jobs will not get chunked. You should avoid submitting SLA jobs to a chunk job queue.
Each active SLA goal generates a statistics file for monitoring and analyzing the system. When the goal becomes inactive the file is no longer updated. The files are created in the LSB_SHAREDIR/cluster_name/logdir/SLA directory. Each file name consists of the name of the service class and the goal type.

For example the file named Quadra.deadline is created for the deadline goal of the service class name Quadra. The following file named Tofino.velocity refers to a velocity goal of the service class named Tofino:

% cat Tofino.velocity
# service class Tofino velocity, NJOBS, NPEND (NRUN + NSSUSP + NUSUSP), (NDONE + NEXIT)
  17/9      15:7:34   1063782454 2 0 0 0 0 
  17/9      15:8:34   1063782514 2 0 0 0 0 
  17/9      15:9:34   1063782574 2 0 0 0 0 
# service class Tofino velocity, NJOBS, NPEND (NRUN + NSSUSP + NUSUSP), (NDONE + NEXIT)
  17/9      15:10:10   1063782610 2 0 0 0 0