[Beowulf] MPI synchronization problem

[Geoff Jacobs]

Michel Dierks wrote:
> Geoff Jacobs wrote:
>> Michel Dierks wrote:
>>  
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I'm developing an application to calculate the Mandelbrot fractal.
>>>     
>> Hmm... I never did this when I was learning the ropes. There is a pretty
>> example included with the mpich source code to do Mandelbrot fractals if
>> you need something to crib from.
>>
>>  
>>> My problem is:
>>>
>>> from the master I will send to each free node for computation a message
>>> containing the values of one screen line.
>>>     
>> I would think you can get away with transmitting just the boundaries of
>> the section of complex plane which you will be plotting, as well as the
>> iterative limit, color interpretation, etc. Slaves can determine what
>> portion they must calculate from their ranks.
>>
>>  
>>> After a time the nodes will send back the results.
>>>
>>> I have see that I can use MPI_Isend and MPI_Irecv for non-blocking
>>> communication. This give me no problem if we are talking about of one
>>> send and one receive. But how can I handle the sending from each node to
>>> the master without  data corruption.
>>> Must I implement a send and a receive buffer for each node (16 nodes
>>> means 16 buffer in and 16 out) ?
>>>     
>> The software I've implemented has tended to be rather dynamic, so it
>> seemed easier to use discrete sends and receives. In your case, you will
>> be calculating a vector of fixed size on each slave (one row for your
>> resultant image per). It would be logical to use a collective
>> communicator like MPI_Gather to automatically populate the array
>> representing your raster image.
>> http://csit1cwe.fsu.edu/extra_link/pe/d3a64mst07.html#HDRIGATH
>>
>>  
>>> Can someone help me? Please
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>>>     
>>
>>   Hello,
>>   it is now 2 days that I'm facing with the following problem.
>>   The master send messages to nodes (about 200 separate messages for
>> each node).
>>   I cannot group them, I must send messages after messages to each
>> nodes and to response to Geoff Jacobs I cannot use MPI_Gather because
>> I must determined on which node I will send the next message ( based
>> on list of free nodes).
>>   My send is running correctly and my receive too for the first message
>> but not for the second. I can see that the master send the second
>> message and that MPI_Iprobe  on the node see that a message is arrived.
>> But after this MPI_Iprobe , MPI_IRecv doesn't work this time. Why ?? I
>> have made some research on the mpi forum and on some other places but I
>> cannot found a correct explanation. All example given are more talking
>> about one send and one receive but not on multiple send and receive on
>> more than one node. I have found the routine MPI_Request_free and test
>> it but this one give error telling me that I have an invalid handler. 
>> After some research again, I have found this at
>> http://www.pdc.kth.se/training/Talks/MPI/Persistent/more.html Point 2
>> on the page:
>>
>> "When a program calls a non-blocking message-passing routine such as
>> |MPI_Isend|, a request object is created, and then the
>> communication is started.  These steps are equivalent to two other MPI
>> calls, |MPI_Send_init| and |MPI_Start|.  When
>> the program calls |MPI_Wait|, it waits until all necessary
>> local operations have completed, and then frees the memory used to
>> store the request object.  This second step equals a call to
>> |MPI_Request_free|."
>>  
>>>  So I don't understand anymore what to do.
>>> Can someone of you tell me clearly what I'm doing wrong? Here below
>>> the part of my code who run on the nodes:
>>>      /*****************************
>>>      *  Parts running on node     *
>>>      *****************************/                /* Memory
>>> Allocation to buffer_sendi and buffer_recvd */               if
>>> ((buffer_sendi=(int *)malloc(MAX_INT * sizeof(int)))==NULL)
>>>         {
>>>             exit(1);
>>>         }
>>>         if ((buffer_recvd=(double *)malloc(MAX_DOUBLE *
>>> sizeof(double)))==NULL)
>>>         {
>>>             exit(1);
>>>         }
>>>         /* Until receive tag with value -99 loop */
>>>                    do         {               
>>> MPI_Iprobe(0,MPI_ANY_TAG,MPI_COMM_WORLD,&flag,&status_recvd);
>>>                       if (flag==1)
>>>             {
>>>             /* Reception from master */
>>>                    
>>> MPI_IRecv(buffer_recvd,MAX_DOUBLE,MPI_DOUBLE,0,tag,MPI_COMM_WORLD,&status_recvd);
MPI_IRecv(buffer_recvd,MAX_DOUBLE,MPI_DOUBLE,0,status_recvd.MPI_TAG,MPI_COMM_WORLD,&request);

>>> MPI_Wait(&request_recvd,&status);
MPI_ISend and MPI_IRecv both take a request argument, and both do not
take a status argument. The arguments for async comms are different than
for sync.
http://www.mpi-forum.org/docs/mpi-11-html/node46.html

Tag, in the case of the MPI_IRecv should be status_recvd.MPI_TAG, not tag.

>>         /*
>>                 some calculation
>>                */
>>                         /* send  buffer_sendi  to master */
>>                    
>> MPI_ISend(buffer_sendi,MAX_INT,MPI_INT,0,tag,MPI_COMM_WORLD);
Here, tag can be anything. You do need a request variable, as noted above.

>>         MPI_Wait(&request_recvd,&status);
>>             }
>>                    }while(buffer_recvd[0]!=-99.00);
>> Thanks for your help.
>>

-- 
Geoffrey D. Jacobs

Go to the Chinese Restaurant,
Order the Special