Apps for testing Beowulf2

[Daniel Ridge]

Daniel,

Check out our online documentation.

The simple answer to your question is:
	'mpi_mandel -np 4'
or
	'mpirun -np 4 mpi_mandel'
or
	'NP=4 mpi_mandel'

Where 4 is the total number of jobs you wish to run. By default, np=2 for
jobs without another specification.

One of our magical MPI features is the library constructor that allows
us to bundle the 'mpirun' features inside programs that are linked against
our MPI library.

The constructor code runs just after the dynamic linker, and just before
your application starts. At this point, we use BProc and our version of
MPICH to bproc_rfork() copies of the job off to the nodes. That's part of
the magic that allows us to sidestep rsh entirely -- but keep our MPI
patch small. Our MPICH is actually more like a port of p4 to bproc --
and MPICH builds essentially unmodified on top of that.

'mpi_mandel' is a simple application we whipped up to show a pretty
picture. It is also linked against our performance counter libraries and
ought to tell you how many flops it's achieving. Keep in mind that it is
a gnome application and sacrifices a little raw performance for interface
interactivity.

'tachyon' should also be installed on your system if you're running our
distribution. This is John Stone's excellent MPI-aware ray tracing
package. Documentation is included.

Good luck and thanks for the feedback,
	
	Dan Ridge
	Scyld Computing Corporation

On Thu, 12 Oct 2000, Daniel Persson wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I very new to the conecpts of parallell computing and Bewoulf's.
> After looking around for a week on different rescourses on the net Scyld
> released their Beowulf2 wich i so far absolutely love.
> 
> However, i have build a simple B2 with one server and 3 nodes.
> 
> My problem is how can i test that all the nodes really are working
> togehter ?
> 
> The only little app that i have found is the MPI enabled mandel generator
> (mpi_mandel), however, while starting it it says "1 slave" and one of my
> nodes listed in "beostatus" seems to start working.(There are actvity on
> my hub when im doing this).
> 
> However, the other two nodes are doing absolutely nothing. 
> All of the nodes and the server are really old pentiums and this setup is
> purely for testing purposes.
> 
> So, of course there most be some better tools to test performance and
> functionality of my B2 ?
> 
> Also, when/if i build the real cluster later, we will be running a product
> called "Fluent", does anyone have any nice "think abouts" for that ?
> 
> Regards
> Daniel
> 
>