[slurm-users] Does Slurm store "time in current state" values anywhere ?

[Kevin Buckley]

Hi there,

we're hoping to overcome an issue where some of our users are keen
on writing their own meta-schedulers, so as to try and beat the
actual scheduler, but can't seemingly do as good a job as a scheduler
that's been developed by people who understand scheduling (no real
surprises there!), and so occasionally generate false perceptions of
our systems.

One of the things our meta-scheduler writers seem unable to allow for,
is jobs that remain in a "completing" state, for whatever reason.

Whilst we're not looking to provide succour to meta-scheduler writers,
we can see a need for some way to present and/or make use of, a

   "job has been in state S for time T"

or

   "job entered current state at time T"

info.


Can we access such a value from Slurm: rather, does Slurm keep track
of such a value, whether or not it can currently be accessed on the
"user-side" ?


What we're trying to avoid is the need to write a not-quite-Slurm
database that stores such info by continually polling our actual
Slurm database, because we don't think of ourselves as meta-scheduler
writers.

Here's hoping,
Kevin

-- 
Supercomputing Systems Administrator
Pawsey Supercomputing Centre