Attention

GPU users: GPU nodes run EL9, while this documentation still reflects the EL7 software stack.

Run module avail on an EL9 login node, or within an interactive session on the relevant GPU type, to see the software available.

The documentation will be updated once all nodes have migrated to EL9.

seff

The seff script can be used to display status information about a user’s historical or running jobs.

Documentation

Documentation on the usage of the command can be found by running:

$ seff -h
Usage: seff [Options] <Jobid>
   Options:
   -h    Help menu
   -v    Version
   -d    Debug mode: display raw Slurm data

Usage

The seff script can be used as follows with the job’s ID to give summary of important job info :

$ seff job-id

For example, on the Stanage cluster:

$ seff 64626
Job ID: 64626
Cluster: stanage.alces.network
User/Group: a_user/clusterusers
State: COMPLETED (exit code 0)
Nodes: 2
Cores per node: 1
CPU Utilized: 00:02:37
CPU Efficiency: 35.68% of 00:07:20 core-walltime
Job Wall-clock time: 00:03:40
Memory Utilized: 137.64 MB (estimated maximum)
Memory Efficiency: 1.71% of 7.84 GB (3.92 GB/core)

You can also monitor individual job steps by calling seff with the syntax seff job-id.job-step.

If your CPU usage is consistently low, your code may not be making effective use of the available resources — this could be due to inefficient code or a lack of parallelisation.

If memory usage is far below or above the requested amount, consider adjusting your allocation. It’s generally best to request slightly more RAM than your code typically uses, to avoid job failures while minimising waste.