# Qmgr -c 'set server est\_start\_time\_freq ...' fails

**URL:** https://community.openpbs.org/t/qmgr-c-set-server-est-start-time-freq-fails/218
**Category:** Users/Site Administrators
**Created:** [August 15, 2016, 9:25am UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/qmgr-c-set-server-est-start-time-freq-fails/218 "2016-08-15T09:25:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 3

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### Author: ![buchmann](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.openpbs.org/buchmann/32/31_2.png) [@buchmann](https://community.openpbs.org/u/buchmann)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2016, 5:44am UTC](https://community.openpbs.org/t/qmgr-c-set-server-est-start-time-freq-fails/218/3 "2016-08-16T05:44:57Z")

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> [@billnitzberg](#):
>
> Alas, this is one of the very few capabilities that are not part of PBS Pro 14.1, and for which we have no plans to release as open source.

Can you elaborate if this is because the feature will be removed completely from PBSpro - or if it will be available in some “less free” version also in the future? Ie is it a restricted or simply discontinued feature?

With the present product, it seems that I have no way to determine if a job will run “in finite time”. Presently, I cannot (easily) differentiate between a job queued because other jobs presently utilize resources - or queued because the requested resources are not available on the cluster at all (say, a job has requested a node with more cores than available on any of the nodes). In both cases, the job comment is set to

```
comment = Not Running: Insufficient amount of resource: <RESOURCE>

```

and I have found no other reliable way to differentiate those jobs. See also thread [Scheduler and jobs that Can Never Run](http://community.openpbs.org/t/scheduler-and-jobs-that-can-never-run/213)

> [@billnitzberg](#):
>
> The 14.1 version will still calculate and report estimated start times (and locations) for top jobs

How can I actually get readings for these? I would have expected to find them eg in

```
qstat -f <JOBID>

```

or in the scheduler log.

Can I tweak how many “top jobs” estimated start times will be computed for? If yes - then how? The admin guide (AG-133) mention use of `backfill_depth`, but the ref guide (RG-336) denotes `backfill_depth` as **obsolete**.  
(I assume that the times and locations will update on every scheduler iteration).

An estimation of start time is not crucial for us at this time, but it is important for us to know that a job will _eventually_ run. Does PbsPro have another way to single out jobs, which cannot run given the presently configured resources? (Excluding nodes explicitly set OFFLINE - as that is necessary in order to let jobs default to a particular node group - see

> [@Node grouping - config problems](https://community.openpbs.org/t/node-grouping-config-problems/200/4):
>
> You create fake vnodes (with ncpus and memory) and then offline them. They won’t be used, but they will be considered in the calculation for the placement set sort.

If I cannot get a handle on the start time, I would like to get an answer to the following question (for each job in the queue): If there were _no other_ jobs in the queue, would the present job then be able to run?

Best,

/Bjarne

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