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Cluster Quota Wildcard User Feature

The cluster quota feature is the management UI in the fsched platform for configuring various user quotas for a cluster. Slurm management is user-centric, and fsched introduces the concept of a wildcard user on top of this. A wildcard user is a special user in Slurm that matches all users, making it easy to manage quotas for multiple users.

Automatic Rules and Manual Rules​

There are two categories of rules in cluster quotas: automatic rules and manual rules.

  • Automatic rules: rules generated automatically by the system based on user quota information. By default, the system adds one automatic rule for each partition without a manual rule, allowing all users to submit jobs in that partition.
  • Manual rules: rules configured manually by users, which can manage quotas for one or more users.
tip
  • Automatic rules are added only when no manual rules exist.
  • Once a user adds a manual rule to a partition, the automatic rule is removed.
  • When the manual rule is deleted, the automatic rule is re-added.

Quota Priority​

Rules are divided into wildcard rules and non-wildcard rules:

  • Wildcard rules: represented by all users, matching all users. Automatic rules only add wildcard rules.
  • Non-wildcard rules: represented by specific usernames, matching specific users.

When a user submits a job, the system matches in the following priority order:

  1. Non-wildcard rules
  2. Wildcard rules
tip
  • Users can configure both wildcard and non-wildcard rules in cluster quotas.
  • When users submit jobs, the system matches according to the priority above.
warning
  • If a job submitted by a user already matches a non-wildcard rule, the system will not check wildcard rules.

Example​

Assume there are the following users and partitions:

  • Users: User A, User B
  • Partitions: Partition 1, Partition 2, Partition 3

Assume the rules are:

  • User A has a manual rule (non-wildcard) in Partition 1.
  • User B has a manual rule (non-wildcard) in Partition 2.
  • Partition 2 has a manual wildcard rule.
  • Partition 3 has an automatic wildcard rule.

In this case:

  • User A
    • When submitting jobs in Partition 1, the system matches User A's manual non-wildcard rule first.
    • When submitting jobs in other partitions, the system uses wildcard rules.
  • User B
    • Cannot submit jobs in Partition 1 because there is no matching rule.
    • When submitting jobs in Partition 2, the system matches User B's manual non-wildcard rule first.
    • When submitting jobs in Partition 3, the system matches wildcard rules.