[ASP-GAU-Users] Fwd: GAU allocation overshoot

[Clark Evans]

Hi all,

A lot of the blame for the recent GAU usage -- and the spike to 
129/142% in particular -- falls on me. In part, it highlights the 
issue of turnover and resource needs that Sebastien alluded to: while 
I had very minimal need for GAUs before last month, the end of last 
month and first half necessitated using quite a bit more than before. 
While resource usage was kept to a minimum (e.g., using the economy 
queue where possible) and other resources (my own university account, 
a colleague's GAU allocation), it still pushed us well above where we 
should have been and for that, I apologize.

A couple of points...

1) It is my understanding that with each day that the ASP GAU 
allocation is not used, we will gain back ~520 GAUs (monthly alloc 
divided by 30 days) plus the number of GAUs that were used on the day 
that occurred 30 days ago. Thus, we should see our 30-day usage drop 
by 500+ GAUs each day. For instance, 30 days ago today, I used just 
over 1000 GAUs. Thus, assuming no jobs are run today, we will gain 
~1500 GAU back tomorrow. I suspect that with a week to ten days' worth 
of minimal usage, we'll be back close(r) to normal.

2) Are those who have been using the ASP GAU account but that are 
*not* ASP post-docs -- whether they left the program or are/were 
visitors -- on this mailing list? If not, it would be helpful to try 
to get contact information for them so that they can be updated as to 
requesting GAUs, etc. so that we are all aware of what everyone is 
using or needing resource-wise.

Again, my apologies for helping to push us over so much, and it is my 
desire to make sure that it does not happen again on my end.

-Clark




On Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:53:23 -0700
  Sebastien Blaise <sblaise at ucar.edu> wrote:
> Just a precision: the graph I provided showed the accumulated GAUs 
>for the past year. Here is a more complete picture with the monthly 
>and 3-month evolutions, showing that the usage is strongly 
>increasing.
> 
> Best,
> Sébastien
> 
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	[ASP-GAU-Users] GAU allocation overshoot
> Date: 	Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:44:12 -0700
>From: 	Sebastien Blaise <sblaise at ucar.edu>
> Reply-To: 	sblaise at ucar.edu
> To: 	ASP GAU <asp-gau-users at asp.ucar.edu>
> 
> 
> 
> Dear ASP GAUs users,
> 
> We recently ran over our 30-day GAU allocation limit (129%), and we 
>are also close to the 90-day limit (101% while the hard limit is 
>105%).
> 
> As you can see on the following graph (available on 
>https://cislportal.ucar.edu), our GAU usage increased heavily during 
>the past months. It is a good illustration of what was said during 
>the Postdoc Retreat: the characteristic turnover of ASP postdocs 
>makes it difficult to spread the usage over the year.
> 
> 
> As the ASP GAUs cannot be used anymore, I encourage you to use your 
>division GAUs for the rest of the month. You just need to change the 
>account number from 86850055 to your division account in your 
>submission scripts.
> 
> To avoid blocking the ASP GAU account once again, we must use the 
>wiki (https://wiki.ucar.edu/display/ASPGAU/Home) to indicate our 
>needs for the upcoming month and be sure to not overshoot the limit:
> 
>   1. On the 1st of the month, an e-mail will be send reminding 
>people
>      to make their monthly request and indicating the GAU statistics
>      for the previous month.
>   2. By the 7th of the month, each user should indicate their 
>request
>      for the month. NOTE: If you will not use any GAUs, then put a 0 
>in
>      the table, so we know that you have made your request. You can 
>not
>      request more than your monthly allotment in the initial 
>request.
>   3. On the 8th of the month, an e-mail will be sent indicating the 
>GAU
>      requests for the month and the additional number of GAUs that 
>are
>      available. These can be claimed on the wiki in a first come 
>first
>      served basis by adding additional GAUs to your request for the
>      current month. Please update the monthly total, so everyone 
>knows
>      how many GAUs remain unallocated.
> 
> 
> As the limits are based on 30-day and 90-day running means, we may 
>still be limited in February, but I think that the situation will 
>become normal again in March if we follow the guidelines of the wiki.
> 
> Best,
> Sébastien
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Sébastien Blaise, PhD.
> National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
> Institute for Mathematics Applied to Geosciences (IMAGe)
> P.O. Box 3000
> Boulder, CO 80307 (USA)
> Phone : +1 303-497-2884   Fax : +1 303-497-2483
> E-mail :sblaise at ucar.edu
> http://www.image.ucar.edu/~sblaise
> 

---
Clark Evans
Postdoctoral Fellow, ASP/MMM
National Center for Atmospheric Research
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307
E-mail: evans at ucar.edu
Phone: 303.497.8927