PPPL MPICH-2 User Guide

Currently, MPICH-2 has been installed for the following compilers:

Lahey Fujitsu (version 6.20c and 6.20d)

Please use module avail to check the availability.   If MPICH-2 is not yet installed for a compiler, please send emails to unixadmin@pppl.gov.

A user may run a mpich2 application within PBS framework for production runs or outside PBS, such as on portal systems, for testing/debugging.  Either way, there are a few scripts a user needs to know for setting up an execution environment.

Run MPICH-2 within PBS

To run mpich2, a user may use mpich2-start and mpich2-stop utility for easy execution environment setups. These scripts may be used in either PBS batch script or on an interactive session command line.  Following is a simple example:

module load lff95 mpich2

mpich2-start

mpiexec -n 4 myapp1

mpiexec -n 8 myapp2

mpich2-stop

mpich2-start is called at the beginning of a PBS job session after MPICH-2 environment is loaded with module. It prepares the mpd ring based on PBS job setups and proper MPICH-2 package that is loaded into the user execution environment. Then, it boots the virtual machine. At this point, a user may issue a sequence of mpiexec commands.

mpich2-stop is called right before exiting PBS script or at the end of an interactive session. It stops the mpd ring virtual machine.

Run MPICH-2 outside PBS

If your run mpich2-start outside PBS, the script will prompt you for a filename, which contains a list of nodes on which it shell start mpd ring. Then, it will boot the mpd ring accordingly.

$ cat hosts.portal64

sunfire09

sunfire10

$ mpich2-start

Running outside PBS

Please specify a hostfile: hosts.portal64

Starting...