Understanding How Job Templates Work

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Applies To: Windows HPC Server 2008

When an administrator defines a job template, the template applies the defined defaults and constraints to every job that is submitted to the system using that template. Because the job template provides default values, users can even submit jobs without specifying any job properties.

Each job template consists of:

  • An access control list (ACL) that defines the cluster users who have permission to submit jobs using the job template.

  • A list of job properties and associated value settings. For each property, the administrator can define:

    • A default value which will be used if no value is specified by the user

    • Constraints on what values are acceptable

Note

You do not need to specify default values and constraints for every job property when you create job templates for your cluster. Windows HPC Server 2008 includes a pre-defined default job template. The default template provides default values for any job property that is not set by either the user or by the selected job template.

When creating a job, a user selects a job template as part of the job description. The job description also contains information about the tasks in the job, and any job properties that the user chooses to specify.

After the user submits the job, the HPC Job Scheduler Service applies the job template by:

  • Confirming that the user has the Submit jobs permission for the specified job template. If not, the job is rejected and the submission fails. This enables an administrator to control the types of jobs that a select group of users can submit.

  • Applying default settings from the job template for any job properties that the user did not specify.

  • Validating each job property against the constraints that are defined in the job template. If any job property is not within the valid range that is specified in the template, the job is rejected and the submission fails.

If the job passes all checks, it is added to the job queue.

Important

When a user submits a job without specifying a job template, the HPC Job Scheduler Service automatically assigns the default job template. As a cluster administrator, you can edit the property settings and modify the user permissions for the default job template. Note that you cannot delete the default job template, and you cannot remove required job properties from the default template.

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