PBS Cluster in Ubuntu Docker Images Using Docker Compose

This is an installation of an OpenPBS cluster inside Docker. This is useful for testing of software that requires a working batch system in environments (like CI or your laptop) that do not have one.

Architecture

Container	Role	PBS Daemons
pbsserver	Head node (server + scheduler)	pbs_server, pbs_sched, pbs_comm, PostgreSQL
pbsfrontend	Login/submission node	Client tools only (qsub, qstat, qdel, pbsnodes)
pbsnode1-3	Compute/execution hosts	pbs_mom

Quick Start

docker compose up --build -d

Verify the Cluster

# Check node status
docker exec pbs-frontend pbsnodes -a

# Submit a test job
docker exec pbs-frontend qsub -- /bin/hostname

# Check job status
docker exec pbs-frontend qstat

# SSH to compute nodes
docker exec pbs-frontend ssh pbsnode1 hostname

Shut Down

docker compose down

Configuration

• OpenPBS Version: Set via OPENPBS_VERSION build arg in Dockerfiles (default: 23.06.06)
• Ubuntu base image: Pinned by digest for reproducibility; updated weekly by the Refresh Ubuntu Base Digest workflow
• Queue: A default execution queue workq is created automatically
• Nodes: 3 compute nodes are registered with the server at startup
• Authentication: PBS built-in auth (no external auth daemon like munge needed)
• Shared Storage: /home/admin is shared across all containers via a Docker volume

PBS Commands (vs. Slurm equivalents)

PBS Command	Slurm Equivalent	Purpose
qsub	sbatch	Submit a batch job
qstat	squeue	Show job status
qdel	scancel	Cancel a job
pbsnodes	sinfo	Show node status
qmgr	scontrol	Cluster management
qsub -- cmd	srun cmd	Run interactive/immediate command

Notes

Pinned Ubuntu base image: ubuntu:26.04@sha256:f3d28607ddd78734bb7f71f117f3c6706c666b8b76cbff7c9ff6e5718d46ff64

• OpenPBS is the open-source community edition of PBS Professional
• The server container requires PostgreSQL for its datastore
• Compute nodes (pbs_mom) register with the server automatically
• All containers share the same admin user