Mac OS X Server v10.5 or later: How to limit the amount of tasks an Xgrid Agent takes

Summary

By default, if an Xgrid Agent is configured to accept tasks, it will accept one task per core.  If the computer is used for other purposes, it may be desirable to reduce the number of tasks the Agent will take.

Products Affected

Mac OS X Server 10.5, Mac OS X Server 10.6, Mac OS X v10.5, Mac OS X v10.6

On each computer acting as an Xgrid Agent that you would like to control the number of tasks, edit /Library/Preferences/com.apple.xgrid.agent.plist with a text editor.

Insert the following key somewhere between the <dict> and </dict> tags:

<key>MaximumTaskCount</key>
<integer>X</integer>

...where X is the number of tasks you want the agent to accept. X should be less than the number of cores available on the system.

Additional Information

Note: There is a default sample version of this file (with the referenced key) located at:

/etc/xgrid/agent/com.apple.xgrid.agent.plist.default

Not helpful Somewhat helpful Helpful Very helpful Solved my problem