What is TORQUE and when was it introduced to the supercomputing world?
TORQUE is a distributed resource manager designed to orchestrate batch jobs and distributed compute nodes. It was introduced to the world of supercomputing in the summer of 2006.
Common questions about Torque
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Which organizations developed TORQUE and what was its original foundation?
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the Ohio Supercomputer Center, and the University of Southern California developed TORQUE. The software originated from the Portable Batch System and was expanded to improve scalability and fault tolerance.
When did TORQUE stop being open-source software and why did this change occur?
TORQUE ceased to be considered open-source software in June 2018 due to licensing issues. The software was categorized as non-free software according to the Debian Free Software Guidelines, which fundamentally changed its status within the community.
How did TORQUE support the development of Beowulf clusters and the TeraGrid?
TORQUE provided the necessary infrastructure for Beowulf clusters to operate as a single powerful system using commodity hardware. The TeraGrid relied heavily on TORQUE to manage its distributed resources and handle the massive computational needs of scientific research.
What schedulers does TORQUE integrate with to enhance cluster functionality?
TORQUE integrates with schedulers like the non-commercial Maui Cluster Scheduler and the commercial Moab Workload Manager. It also works with tools like HTCondor and Slurm Workload Manager to expand its capabilities in complex cluster environments.