5.4. MPI tasks

So far we have run a sequential 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.

5.4.1. 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

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

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

and change the code below 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

5.4.2. Execution

** This assumes you have installed RADICAL-Pilot either globally or 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>@<mongodb_server>:27017/

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 Compute Pilot to Pilot Manager ...
Initializing Unit Manager ...
Registering Compute Pilot with Unit Manager ...
Submit Compute Units to Unit Manager ...
Waiting for CUs to complete ...
...
Waiting for CUs to complete ...
All CUs completed successfully!
Closed session, exiting now ...

5.4.3. 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_VERBOSE to a value between CRITICAL (print only critical messages) and DEBUG (print all messages).

Give it a try with the above example:

RADICAL_PILOT_VERBOSE=DEBUG python simple_bot.py