Introducing JobVisor: a simplified user experience for HPC job submission

Advanced Clustering Technologies today announced the introduction of JobVisor, a new user-facing feature within its ClusterVisor high performance computing (HPC) cluster management system. JobVisor is designed to simplify how researchers, engineers, and scientists interact with HPC resources.

JobVisor provides an intuitive web-based interface that enables users to submit jobs, launch interactive applications, monitor workloads, and collaborate with colleagues without requiring extensive knowledge of Slurm or command-line tools.

“One of the most common requests we’ve received from customers is for a simpler way to access HPC resources,” said Kyle Sheumaker, President and Chief Technical Officer at Advanced Clustering Technologies. “JobVisor delivers a streamlined experience that makes clusters more accessible while still preserving the power, flexibility, and control that administrators expect.”

Simplifying HPC access

While solutions that make clusters more accessible have become widely adopted within the HPC community, they can be complex to deploy and configure. JobVisor offers an easier alternative that integrates directly with existing ClusterVisor-managed environments.

JobVisor allows users to:

• Submit batch jobs through simple web forms
• Launch interactive desktop sessions
• Run GUI-based HPC applications
• Monitor job progress and resource utilization
• View historical job performance and efficiency metrics
• Share running jobs with collaborators
• Estimate queue wait times before submitting jobs

All workloads continue to run through the cluster scheduler, ensuring administrators maintain full control over resource allocation and policy enforcement.

Administrator-controlled templates

At the core of JobVisor is a powerful template system that allows administrators to create standardized workflows for users. Using a visual template editor, administrators can:

• Define job templates with custom names, icons, and tags
• Restrict access based on user roles and permissions
• Control which job parameters users can modify
• Set minimum and maximum values for resources such as CPUs, memory, and runtime
• Automatically generate Slurm directives and submission scripts
• Create simple form-based interfaces tailored to specific applications

Templates leverage Jinja-based scripting and support point-and-click insertion of Slurm variables, making it easier than ever to create sophisticated workflows without extensive scripting knowledge.

“The administrator defines the experience,” Sheumaker said. “Users only see the options that are relevant to them, while ClusterVisor automatically generates the underlying scheduler instructions.”

Intelligent job insights

JobVisor includes several features designed to help users make better scheduling decisions and improve cluster utilization.

Before submitting a job, users can request an estimated queue start time and projected completion time based on current cluster conditions. This provides greater visibility into scheduling and helps users plan workloads more effectively.

Once jobs are complete, users can review historical performance information including:

• CPU efficiency
• Memory efficiency
• Time efficiency
• Resource requests versus actual utilization

These insights help users optimize future workloads and improve overall cluster efficiency.

Collaboration and interactive computing

For interactive workloads, users can launch desktop sessions and GUI-based applications directly from the interface. Multiple versions of an application can be made available, allowing users to select the environment that best fits their needs. These interactive jobs can be shared with colleagues, who can be given read-only access or the ability to interact with the running GUI environment.

Cluster visibility for everyone

In addition to job management capabilities, JobVisor provides users with visibility into overall cluster health and utilization. Users can view current allocations, available resources, and overall cluster status through an easy-to-understand dashboard.

The first user-facing ClusterVisor experience

JobVisor represents the first major user-facing feature added to ClusterVisor. While ClusterVisor has long focused on simplifying cluster administration, provisioning, monitoring, and management, JobVisor extends that philosophy directly to end users.

The result is an HPC experience that lowers barriers to adoption while maintaining the administrative controls required for shared computing environments.

JobVisor is available immediately as part of the latest ClusterVisor release. Learn more about JobVisor.