Remote login to and background use of Unix workstations is not allowed.
The Computing Service has two general purpose Timesharing Services available for authorised use. It must be emphasised that the main function of a timesharing service is to provide a fast response for interactive work. Since this does not normally take all the power of the machine, non-interactive use is allowed provided that it does not interfere with interactive users. We have found that the performance of these services has been considerably affected by some users running large and/or large numbers of background jobs.
It is very important to note that work not requiring interaction should be submitted to the "batch" queues by using dnqs; the batch subsystem will then run the work in a way that distributes the resources more fairly. You should note that dnqs jobs run at a higher priority than background jobs.
Jobs are submitted to a queue or class of queues; they are then taken from each queue and executed in the order of receipt. There are queues for small, medium, large, and extra large jobs that can be run on aidan, finan or a batch-only Sun Ultra-5.
Much of the work currently done using background jobs, could be done equally well using dnqs, and you are asked to use dnqs wherever practicable. As it is important that computing resources are shared out fairly, and that a good interactive response is provided, especially during prime shift, background jobs which draw attention to themselves by excessive use of system resources, such as processor time or memory, may be cancelled by operations staff without warning.