Proposed Features

The following is the list of features proposed so far for future FBS development. FCS Group will consider them for addition into one of future releases of FBSNG.

Scalability beyond 1000 nodes
The problem of scalability in farm size to ~10K has to be researched.
Account/Project (requested by CAF, CD)
Concept of Account (or Project) should be introduced in order to:
  • give the administrator the ability to keep track of resource consumtion on per-project basis
  • to assign resource utilization quota and other scheduling/policy parameters on per-project basis
API for history DB access (requested by CMS, CAF, CD)
Needed for accounting purposes, requested by many groups. API access to the information stored in FBSNG history database is desired.
Auto-hold of excessively failing nodes (requested by CAF)
Nodes where batch processes are failing at relatively high rate should be placed on hold automatically. There should be a configurable threshold for acceptable failure frequency.
Single Scheduler run should be limited in duration (requested by CAF)
There should be configurable limit on how much time Batch Manager spends in single uninterrupted Scheduler run. This is necessary to limit API response time.
CPU power attribute (requested by many users)
CPU power should be introduced as a new node class attribute. CPU power should be taken into account by Scheduler and in job time limits calculations.
Configurable "zero" queue priority decrement
Currently, every section is "charged" 1 in queue priority decrement even if its run time is zero. This parameter should be configurable so that "zero" decrement can be defined at higher level.
Configurable fair share integration time (requested by CAF)
In current Scheduler algorithm, fair share integration time interval (typical time of reaching new share equilibrium) "naturally" follows typical job run time on the farm. There is a desire to allow the administrator to define this interval based of their "external" requirements.
Nice level as process type attribute
There should be a way to assign UNIX scheduling "nice" level to all processes of the process type
GSI authentication
API/BMGR protocol should allow GSI authentication as an alternatiove to currently available Kerberos V5
FBSWWW improvements and bug fixes (requested by CAF)
The following items are proposed/requested:
  • Add detailed Process Type parameters display
  • Display limited number of "sister" sections in the section status window
  • Show number of pending/running processes along with same numbers for sections in queue list window
  • Add a row for total numbers to the queue list window
  • Add an option to display summary line for only one queue
  • Include graph producing package into FBSNG/FBSWWW distribution
XML configuration snapshot (requested by CMS)
It is desireable to be able to make snapshots of farm configuration with an ability to restore the configuration from such snapshot at later time. Natural candidate for snapshot representation is XML.
Web interface for adminstrators (requested by CMS)
(Secure) web-based interface should be provided to farm administrator to be able to monitor and modify farm configuration remotely
Management of multiple farms (requested by CMS)
Research the area of management of multi-farm collection. Also, it is necessary to discuss integration with other farm/OS management tools.
Alternative packaging (requested by CMS)
Currently, FBSNG is shipped primarily as UPS tarball with instructions for non-UPS installation as an option. Altrenative software packaging methods such as RPM, PACMAN, ROCKS should be provided
Requirements for interactive/batch farm (requested by CMS)
Define requirements for interactive/batch farm. Existing CMS interactive farm should be used as prototype
Other minor improvements/bug fixes
  • Segmentation violations by Launcher
  • Multiple SIGINTs sent to a process during shutdown procedure
  • "Local details" about batch process are not always available to API client
Please send comments about FBSNG project or this page contents to fcs-group@fnal.gov

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