Reservation Policy

While the LCRC batch queues are designed to handle the vast majority of work, we recognize that there are special circumstances that require exclusive use of a portion of our resources for a period of time, e.g., to meet an urgent deadline, to carry out certain kinds of benchmarks or conduct workshops. Often we can meet such needs by reserving a specific number of nodes for your project for a specific period of time.

To set up a reservation send an email to support@lcrc.anl.gov with the name of the partition/cluster, number of nodes, desired start time, and duration (hours). Based on the load on the partition/cluster at the time of the reservation request, an allocation decision will be made. In case a reservation for the total duration and/or nodes requested by the PI cannot be made, a partial reservation might be granted.

• Reservations must be requested at least 8 business days in advance and are subject to availability of resources.
• Reservations cannot be requested more than once per quarter per project.
• Typically, reservations can be for a maximum of 8,000 node hours (both on Bebop & Improv). Larger evaluation requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
• Reservations create substantial perturbations to the scheduling of other jobs long before the reservation starts. Once a reservation is scheduled it cannot be rescheduled, and if you end up not needing or using it, the project will still be charged for the reservation time. It is like a non-refundable movie ticket.
• If a reservation is required to host a workshop with hands-on user participation, please let us know well in advance. This will enable us to plan the reservation window(s) during the work-day(s) to ensure minimal disruption to the user community.