Provided by: openmpi-doc_1.6.5-8_all 
NAME
ORTE_HOSTS - OpenRTE Hostfile and HOST Behavior: Overview of OpenRTE's support for user-
supplied hostfiles and comma-delimited lists of hosts
DESCRIPTION
OpenRTE supports several levels of user-specified host lists based on an established
precedence order. Users can specify a default hostfile that contains a list of nodes
available to all app_contexts given on the command line. Only one default hostfile can be
provided for any job. In addition, users can specify a hostfile that contains a list of
nodes to be used for a specific app_context, or can provide a comma-delimited list of
nodes to be used for that app_context via the -host command line option.
The precedence order applied to these various options depends to some extent on the local
environment. The following table illustrates how host and hostfile directives work
together to define the set of hosts upon which a job will execute in the absence of a
resource manager (RM):
default
hostfile host hostfile Result
---------- ------ ---------- -----------------------------------------
unset unset unset Job is co-located with mpirun
unset set unset Host defines resource list for the job
unset unset set Hostfile defines resource list for the job
unset set set Hostfile defines resource list for the job,
then host filters the list to define the final
set of nodes available to each application
within the job
set unset unset Default hostfile defines resource list for the job
set set unset Default hostfile defines resource list for the job,
then host filters the list to define the final
set of nodes available to each application
within the job
set set set Default hostfile defines resource list for the job,
then hostfile filters the list, and then host filters
the list to define the final set of nodes available
to each application within the job
This changes somewhat in the presence of a RM as that entity specifies the initial
allocation of nodes. In this case, the default hostfile, hostfile and host directives are
all used to filter the RM's specification so that a user can utilize different portions of
the allocation for different jobs. This is done according to the same precedence order as
in the prior table, with the RM providing the initial pool of nodes.
RELATIVE INDEXING
Once an initial allocation has been specified (whether by an RM, default hostfile, or
hostfile), subsequent hostfile and -host specifications can be made using relative
indexing. This allows a user to stipulate which hosts are to be used for a given
app_context without specifying the particular host name, but rather its relative position
in the allocation.
This can probably best be understood through consideration of a few examples. Consider the
case where an RM has allocated a set of nodes to the user named "foo1, foo2, foo3, foo4".
The user wants the first app_context to have exclusive use of the first two nodes, and a
second app_context to use the last two nodes. Of course, the user could printout the
allocation to find the names of the nodes allocated to them and then use -host to specify
this layout, but this is cumbersome and would require hand-manipulation for every
invocation.
A simpler method is to utilize OpenRTE's relative indexing capability to specify the
desired layout. In this case, a command line of:
mpirun -pernode -host +n1,+n2 ./app1 : -host +n3,+n4 ./app2
would provide the desired pattern. The "+" syntax indicates that the information is being
provided as a relative index to the existing allocation. Two methods of relative indexing
are supported:
+n<#> A relative index into the allocation referencing the <#> node. OpenRTE will
substitute the <#> node in the allocation
+e[:<#>]
A request for <#> empty nodes - i.e., OpenRTE is to substitute this reference with
<#> nodes that have not yet been used by any other app_context. If the ":<#>" is
not provided, OpenRTE will substitute the reference with all empty nodes. Note that
OpenRTE does track the empty nodes that have been assigned in this manner, so
multiple uses of this option will result in assignment of unique nodes up to the
limit of the available empty nodes. Requests for more empty nodes than are
available will generate an error.
Relative indexing can be combined with absolute naming of hosts in any arbitrary manner,
and can be used in hostfiles as well as with the -host command line option. In addition,
any slot specification provided in hostfiles will be respected - thus, a user can specify
that only a certain number of slots from a relative indexed host are to be used for a
given app_context.
Another example may help illustrate this point. Consider the case where a user has a
default hostfile containing:
dummy1 slots=4
dummy2 slots=4
dummy3 slots=4
dummy4 slots=4
dummy5 slots=4
This may, for example, be a hostfile that describes a set of commonly-used resources that
the user wishes to execute applications against. For this particular application, the user
plans to map byslot, and wants the first two ranks to be on the second node of any
allocation, the next ranks to land on an empty node, have one rank specifically on dummy4,
the next rank to be on the second node of the allocation again, and finally any remaining
ranks to be on whatever empty nodes are left. To accomplish this, the user provides a
hostfile of:
+n2 slots=2
+e:1
dummy4 slots=1
+n2
+e
The user can now use this information in combination with OpenRTE's sequential mapper to
obtain their specific layout:
mpirun --default-hostfile dummyhosts -hostfile mylayout -mca rmaps seq ./my_app
which will result in:
rank0 being mapped to dummy3
rank1 to dummy1 as the first empty node
rank2 to dummy4
rank3 to dummy3
rank4 to dummy2 and rank5 to dummy5 as the last remaining unused nodes
Note that the sequential mapper ignores the number of slots arguments as it only maps one
rank at a time to each node in the list.
If the default round-robin mapper had been used, then the mapping would have resulted in:
ranks 0 and 1 being mapped to dummy3 since two slots were specified
ranks 2-5 on dummy1 as the first empty node, which has four slots
rank6 on dummy4 since the hostfile specifies only a single slot from that node is to be used
ranks 7 and 8 on dummy3 since only two slots remain available
ranks 9-12 on dummy2 since it is the next available empty node and has four slots
ranks 13-16 on dummy5 since it is the last remaining unused node and has four slots
Thus, the use of relative indexing can allow for complex mappings to be ported across
allocations, including those obtained from automated resource managers, without the need
for manual manipulation of scripts and/or command lines.
SEE ALSO
orterun(1)