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NAME
OpenRTE Hostfile and HOST Behavior - Overview of OpenRTE's support for
user-supplied hostfiles and comma-delimited lists of hosts
DESCRIPTION
OpenRTE supports several levels of user-specified host lists based on
an established precedence order. Users can specify a default hostfile
that contains a list of nodes available to all app_contexts given on
the command line. Only one default hostfile can be provided for any
job. In addition, users can specify a hostfile that contains a list of
nodes to be used for a specific app_context, or can provide a comma-
delimited list of nodes to be used for that app_context via the -host
command line option.
The precedence order applied to these various options depends to some
extent on the local environment. The following table illustrates how
host and hostfile directives work together to define the set of hosts
upon which a job will execute in the absence of a resource manager
(RM):
default
hostfile host hostfile Result
---------- ------ ---------- -----------------------------------------
unset unset unset Job is co-located with mpirun
unset set unset Host defines resource list for the job
unset unset set Hostfile defines resource list for the job
unset set set Hostfile defines resource list for the job,
then host filters the list to define the final
set of nodes available to each application
within the job
set unset unset Default hostfile defines resource list for the job
set set unset Default hostfile defines resource list for the job,
then host filters the list to define the final
set of nodes available to each application
within the job
set set set Default hostfile defines resource list for the job,
then hostfile filters the list, and then host filters
the list to define the final set of nodes available
to each application within the job
This changes somewhat in the presence of a RM as that entity specifies
the initial allocation of nodes. In this case, the default hostfile,
hostfile and host directives are all used to filter the RM's specifica-
tion so that a user can utilize different portions of the allocation
for different jobs. This is done according to the same precedence order
as in the prior table, with the RM providing the initial pool of nodes.
RELATIVE INDEXING
Once an initial allocation has been specified (whether by an RM,
default hostfile, or hostfile), subsequent hostfile and -host specifi-
cations can be made using relative indexing. This allows a user to
stipulate which hosts are to be used for a given app_context without
specifying the particular host name, but rather its relative position
in the allocation.
This can probably best be understood through consideration of a few
examples. Consider the case where an RM has allocated a set of nodes to
to specify the desired layout. In this case, a command line of:
mpirun -pernode -host +n1,+n2 ./app1 : -host +n3,+n4 ./app2
would provide the desired pattern. The "+" syntax indicates that the
information is being provided as a relative index to the existing allo-
cation. Two methods of relative indexing are supported:
+n<#> A relative index into the allocation referencing the <#> node.
OpenRTE will substitute the <#> node in the allocation
+e[:<#>]
A request for <#> empty nodes - i.e., OpenRTE is to substitute
this reference with <#> nodes that have not yet been used by any
other app_context. If the ":<#>" is not provided, OpenRTE will
substitute the reference with all empty nodes. Note that OpenRTE
does track the empty nodes that have been assigned in this man-
ner, so multiple uses of this option will result in assignment
of unique nodes up to the limit of the available empty nodes.
Requests for more empty nodes than are available will generate
an error.
Relative indexing can be combined with absolute naming of hosts in any
arbitrary manner, and can be used in hostfiles as well as with the
-host command line option. In addition, any slot specification provided
in hostfiles will be respected - thus, a user can specify that only a
certain number of slots from a relative indexed host are to be used for
a given app_context.
Another example may help illustrate this point. Consider the case where
a user has a default hostfile containing:
dummy1 slots=4
dummy2 slots=4
dummy3 slots=4
dummy4 slots=4
dummy5 slots=4
This may, for example, be a hostfile that describes a set of commonly-
used resources that the user wishes to execute applications against.
For this particular application, the user plans to map byslot, and
wants the first two ranks to be on the second node of any allocation,
the next ranks to land on an empty node, have one rank specifically on
dummy4, the next rank to be on the second node of the allocation again,
and finally any remaining ranks to be on whatever empty nodes are left.
To accomplish this, the user provides a hostfile of:
+n2 slots=2
+e:1
dummy4 slots=1
+n2
+e
rank0 being mapped to dummy3
rank1 to dummy1 as the first empty node
rank2 to dummy4
rank3 to dummy3
rank4 to dummy2 and rank5 to dummy5 as the last remaining unused nodes
Note that the sequential mapper ignores the number of slots arguments
as it only maps one rank at a time to each node in the list.
If the default round-robin mapper had been used, then the mapping would
have resulted in:
ranks 0 and 1 being mapped to dummy3 since two slots were specified
ranks 2-5 on dummy1 as the first empty node, which has four slots
rank6 on dummy4 since the hostfile specifies only a single slot from that node is to be used
ranks 7 and 8 on dummy3 since only two slots remain available
ranks 9-12 on dummy2 since it is the next available empty node and has four slots
ranks 13-16 on dummy5 since it is the last remaining unused node and has four slots
Thus, the use of relative indexing can allow for complex mappings to be
ported across allocations, including those obtained from automated
resource managers, without the need for manual manipulation of scripts
and/or command lines.
SEE ALSO
orterun(1)
1.3.4 Nov 11, 2009 ORTE_HOSTS(7)
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