4.4. MPI tasks

So far we have run single-core tasks in a number of configurations. This example introduces two new concepts: running multi-core MPI tasks and specifying input data for the task, in this case a simple python MPI script.

4.4.1. Preparation

Download the file mpi_tasks.py with the following command:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/radical-cybertools/radical.pilot/master/examples/docs/mpi_tasks.py

If you have a local MPI installation, the example may work right out of the box on your local machine. However, if you want to try it out with different resources, like remote HPC clusters, open the file mpi_tasks.py with your favorite editor and look for the sections marked:

# ----- CHANGE THIS -- CHANGE THIS -- CHANGE THIS -- CHANGE THIS ------

Change the code below that line, according to the instructions in the comments.

This example makes use of an application that we first download to our own environment and then have staged as input to the MPI tasks.

Download the file helloworld_mpi.py with the following command:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/radical-cybertools/radical.pilot/master/examples/helloworld_mpi.py

4.4.2. Execution

** This assumes you have installed RADICAL-Pilot in a Python virtualenv. You also need access to a MongoDB server.**

Set the RADICAL_PILOT_DBURL environment variable in your shell to the MongoDB server you want to use, for example:

export RADICAL_PILOT_DBURL=mongodb://<user>:<pass>@<hostname>:<port>/

If RADICAL-Pilot is installed and the MongoDB URL is set, you should be good to run your program:

python mpi_tasks.py

The output should look something like this:

Initializing Pilot Manager ...
Submitting Pilot to Pilot Manager ...
Initializing Task Manager ...
Registering Pilot with Task Manager ...
Submit Tasks to Task Manager ...
Waiting for CUs to complete ...
...
Waiting for CUs to complete ...
All CUs completed successfully!
Closed session, exiting now ...

4.4.3. Logging and Debugging

Since working with distributed systems is inherently complex and much of the complexity is hidden within RADICAL-Pilot, it is necessary to do a lot of internal logging. By default, logging output is disabled, but if something goes wrong or if you’re just curious, you can enable the logging output by setting the environment variable RADICAL_PILOT_LOG_LVL to a value between CRITICAL (print only critical messages) and DEBUG (print all messages).

Give it a try with the above example:

RADICAL_PILOT_LOG_LVL=DEBUG python simple_bot.py