# Time limit error occurring

**URL:** <https://cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/t/time-limit-error-occurring/1604>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Tags:** ARCHER2\
**Created:** [7 January 2025 10:58 UTC](https://cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/t/time-limit-error-occurring/1604 "2025-01-07T10:58:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jgrist02](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jgrist02](https://cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/u/jgrist02)\
**Post date:** [7 January 2025 10:58 UTC](https://cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/t/time-limit-error-occurring/1604/1 "2025-01-07T10:58:39Z")

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hello,

I have a job /u-dk172/  
job.err reads  
slurmstepd: error: \*\*\* STEP 8432916.0+0 ON nid001263 CANCELLED AT 2025-01-02T21:40:58 DUE TO TIME LIMIT \*\*\*

I had tried changing  
execution time limit = PT59M

# originally PT30M in

/home/n02/n02/jgrist02/roses/u-dk172/site/archer2.rc

and reducing the run length to 3 month, but am still getting this error..

(I got a similar error with an attempt at a longer run in  
/work/n02/n02/jgrist02/cylc-run/u-da510/log/job/19500701T0000Z/coupled/01/job.err)

with many thanks

Jeremy

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**Author:** ![grenville](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/grenville/32/29_2.png) [@grenville](https://cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/u/grenville)\
**Post date:** [7 January 2025 15:11 UTC](https://cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/t/time-limit-error-occurring/1604/2 "2025-01-07T15:11:48Z")

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Jeremy

execution time limit = PT59M is associated with HPC\_SERIAL - the coupled task does not use that family. The coupled job is configured to run for 10 hrs (see `/home/n02/n02/jgrist02/cylc-run/u-dk172/log/job/19500101T0000Z/coupled/01/job` for example),where it says:

`#SBATCH --time=600:00`

The machine appears to be running slowly (builds are slow.)

I note that your suite still writes XIOS log files – doing so has a large impact on performance.

We have found that coupled tasks display much reduced performance jitter and run consistently faster if XIOS log files are suppressed. The change required to do this for a currently running suite needs to be done to a file on ARCHER2. Wait until there is no running coupled task, then in ~/cylc-run//share/data/xml/iodef.xml, modify the two lines as below change

`<variable id="info_level" type="int">100</variable>`  
to  
`<variable id="info_level" type="int">0</variable>`  
change  
`<variable id="print_file" type="bool">true</variable>`  
to  
`<variable id="print_file" type="bool">false</variable>`

like shown here:

```auto
'<context id="xios"> 
 <variable_definition> 
  <variable id="using_server" type="bool">true</variable>
  <variable id="using_oasis" type="bool">true</variable>
  <variable id="oasis_codes_id" type="string">toyatm,toyoce
  </variable> <variable id="using_server2" type="bool">true</variable> 
  <variable id="ratio_server2" type="int">25</variable>
  <variable id="server2_dist_file_memory" type="bool">true</variable>
  <variable id="server2_dist_file_memory_ratio" type="double">0.5</variable> 
  <variable id="info_level" type="int">0</variable> 
  <variable id="print_file" type="bool">false</variable> 
 </variable_definition> 
</context>'

```

Grenville

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jgrist02](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jgrist02](https://cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/u/jgrist02)\
**Post date:** [13 January 2025 10:31 UTC](https://cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/t/time-limit-error-occurring/1604/3 "2025-01-13T10:31:49Z")

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Hi,  
Thanks for the instruction. I’m finding the job terminates before it gets to the point where there is no running couple task , or a least during the period I am able to monitor - the job terminates - so I can’t implement the instruction.

Is there a way of doing it (suppressing XIOS files) before starting the job?

many thanks,  
Jeremy

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/cms_support/original/1X/1fd2411499ffcbc299fe756cd5cdf26e44956558.png) [@system](https://cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/u/system)\
**Post date:** [12 February 2025 10:32 UTC](https://cms-helpdesk.ncas.ac.uk/t/time-limit-error-occurring/1604/4 "2025-02-12T10:32:25Z")

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