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Monitoring CPU time usage with the saldo command

The CSC environment offers the saldo command for monitoring your project's usage of CSC's computing resources. Computing resources are shared by the project, i.e. members of the project use resources in common.

Using the saldo command

To run saldo in the CSC computing environment, give the unix command saldo. The saldo utility prints user's projects' total usage of CSC resources, and project members' monthly usage on each different servers in both billing units (bu) and CPU seconds.

Below is shown the output of saldo, which shows the usage of a sample project on 5.2.2010 at 16:15. The project's code is csc1000, and name Uudet mallit rautalangasta. The project manager is Veikko Vetäjä, and the users are vvetaja, ppostdoc and atutkija (if the user has not used any resources, his/her usage is not printed). The project has started on 6.4.2005, and will end on 2.9.2011. The last grant of computing resources was made on 4.1.2010.

vvetaja@hippu1 ~> saldo (or alternatively saldo –p csc1000 –m 2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Saldo for year 2010 month 2
Report updated 5.2.2010 16:15
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Project csc1000  Uudet mallit rautalangasta   Veikko Vetäjä 
start 06.04.2005    end: 02.09.2011     budget: 4.1.2010
CSC budget: 46291     used: 42155.78        remain: 4135.22      
-----------------------------------------------------------------
         Cpu usage        Cpu secs      Bu         
                         ------------------
csc1000  atutkija                0    0.00 hippu   
         atutkija                7    0.00 hotpage 
         atutkija                1    0.00 louhi   
         atutkija          1408843  391.35 murska  
         atutkija   Tot    1408851  391.35         

csc1000  ppostdoc                0    0.00 murska  
         ppostdoc   Tot          0    0.00         

csc1000  vvetaja           4252676 1181.30 murska  
         vvetaja    Tot    4252676 1181.30         

         Cpu        total  5661527 1572.64

Figure: Saldo print for the project csc1000 (on 5.2.2010). It is advisable that Veikko Vetäjä applies for more CPU time for his project, because the current compute resources will be used up soon.


Contents of the saldo print:
  • CSC budget: Cumulative project quota from the beginning of the year (46291 billing units, bu)
  • used: Cumulative project usage from the beginning of the year  (42155,78 bu)
  • remain: Remaining computing resources of the project at the time saldo was printed (4135,22 bu) 
  • Cpu usage (monthly listing per user and per server):
    • The monthly usage of all active members of the project: project, userid, his/her usage in CPU seconds (CPU secs) and  billing units (Bu), and the used server
    • At the bottom is shown the project's monthly total usage in CPU seconds and billing units.

Options

Saldo has the following options available:

  • -p projid prints a saldo report for the selected project. You need this option if you belong to several projects.
  • -m month can have values between 1–12.  You can print the usage of the selected month up to one year backwards. E.g. saldo -p csc1000 -m 1 prints the project usage from January.
  • -h filename generates an HTML file of the report.
Synopsis:
  • saldo [ -m month ] [ -p projid ] [ -h filename ]


Monitoring the CPU time usage

Billing unit (bu) is the reference point of the CSC computing environment for academic use, and is based on one CPU hour of the Cray XT4 supercomputer (louhi.csc.fi). Billing units in the CSC environment are derived from benchmark testing of servers.

  • A one-hour job using a single processor core consumes one billing unit (bu) on CSC's all computing servers, i.e., 1 CPUh = 1 bu.

Example: A batch job on the louhi.csc.fi supercomputer with 50 processor cores, lasting for two hours, consumes 100 bu.

Saldo updates

In the CSC environment, the saldos of customer projects are updated four times a day: at 8:15, 12:15, 16:15 and 00:15. This means that the saldo utility is not working on-line, but periodically.

Saldo report only contains data from completed batch jobs. The jobs in queue or running are not yet included in the report.

Using up computing resources

When the project's compute resources drop below 20%, you receive an automatic warning of the format:

ATTENTION: You have less than 20% CPU time quota left on your default
account. Please apply for more CPU time quota.

It is advisable to apply for more CPU time for your project well before the current compute resources are used up. However, those jobs that are already running are completed, even though the project quota becomes negative during the run.

See also