Improvements to existing functionality
--------------------------------------
- MPI is initialised without thread support if it is not needed e.g. uncollated
- Use native c++11 threading; avoids problem with static destruction order.
- etc/cellModels now only read if needed.
- etc/controlDict can now be read from the environment variable FOAM_CONTROLDICT
- Uniform files (e.g. '0/uniform/time') are now read only once on the master only
(with the masterUncollated or collated file handlers)
- collated format writes to 'processorsNNN' instead of 'processors'. The file
format is unchanged.
- Thread buffer and file buffer size are no longer limited to 2Gb.
The global controlDict file contains parameters for file handling. Under some
circumstances, e.g. running in parallel on a system without NFS, the user may
need to set some parameters, e.g. fileHandler, before the global controlDict
file is read from file. To support this, OpenFOAM now allows the global
controlDict to be read as a string set to the FOAM_CONTROLDICT environment
variable.
The FOAM_CONTROLDICT environment variable can be set to the content the global
controlDict file, e.g. from a sh/bash shell:
export FOAM_CONTROLDICT=$(foamDictionary $FOAM_ETC/controlDict)
FOAM_CONTROLDICT can then be passed to mpirun using the -x option, e.g.:
mpirun -np 2 -x FOAM_CONTROLDICT simpleFoam -parallel
Note that while this avoids the need for NFS to read the OpenFOAM configuration
the executable still needs to load shared libraries which must either be copied
locally or available via NFS or equivalent.
New: Multiple IO ranks
----------------------
The masterUncollated and collated fileHandlers can now use multiple ranks for
writing e.g.:
mpirun -np 6 simpleFoam -parallel -ioRanks '(0 3)'
In this example ranks 0 ('processor0') and 3 ('processor3') now handle all the
I/O. Rank 0 handles 0,1,2 and rank 3 handles 3,4,5. The set of IO ranks should always
include 0 as first element and be sorted in increasing order.
The collated fileHandler uses the directory naming processorsNNN_XXX-YYY where
NNN is the total number of processors and XXX and YYY are first and last
processor in the rank, e.g. in above example the directories would be
processors6_0-2
processors6_3-5
and each of the collated files in these contains data of the local ranks
only. The same naming also applies when e.g. running decomposePar:
decomposePar -fileHandler collated -ioRanks '(0 3)'
New: Distributed data
---------------------
The individual root directories can be placed on different hosts with different
paths if necessary. In the current framework it is necessary to specify the
root per slave process but this has been simplified with the option of specifying
the root per host with the -hostRoots command line option:
mpirun -np 6 simpleFoam -parallel -ioRanks '(0 3)' \
-hostRoots '("machineA" "/tmp/" "machineB" "/tmp")'
The hostRoots option is followed by a list of machine name + root directory, the
machine name can contain regular expressions.
New: hostCollated
-----------------
The new hostCollated fileHandler automatically sets the 'ioRanks' according to
the host name with the lowest rank e.g. to run simpleFoam on 6 processors with
ranks 0-2 on machineA and ranks 3-5 on machineB with the machines specified in
the hostfile:
mpirun -np 6 --hostfile hostfile simpleFoam -parallel -fileHandler hostCollated
This is equivalent to
mpirun -np 6 --hostfile hostfile simpleFoam -parallel -fileHandler collated -ioRanks '(0 3)'
This example will write directories:
processors6_0-2/
processors6_3-5/
A typical example would use distributed data e.g. no two nodes, machineA and
machineB, each with three processes:
decomposePar -fileHandler collated -case cavity
# Copy case (constant/*, system/*, processors6/) to master:
rsync -a cavity machineA:/tmp/
# Create root on slave:
ssh machineB mkdir -p /tmp/cavity
# Run
mpirun --hostfile hostfile icoFoam \
-case /tmp/cavity -parallel -fileHandler hostCollated \
-hostRoots '("machineA" "/tmp" "machineB" "/tmp")'
Contributed by Mattijs Janssens
- generalize some of the library extensions (.so vs .dylib).
Provide as wmake 'sysFunctions'
- added note about unsupported/incomplete system support
- centralize detection of ThirdParty packages into wmake/ subdirectory
by providing a series of scripts in the spirit of GNU autoconfig.
For example,
have_boost, have_readline, have_scotch, ...
Each of the `have_<package>` scripts will generally provide the
following type of functions:
have_<package> # detection
no_<package> # reset
echo_<package> # echoing
and the following type of variables:
HAVE_<package> # unset or 'true'
<package>_ARCH_PATH # root for <package>
<package>_INC_DIR # include directory for <package>
<package>_LIB_DIR # library directory for <package>
This simplifies the calling scripts:
if have_metis
then
wmake metisDecomp
fi
As well as reducing clutter in the corresponding Make/options:
EXE_INC = \
-I$(METIS_INC_DIR) \
-I../decompositionMethods/lnInclude
LIB_LIBS = \
-L$(METIS_LIB_DIR) -lmetis
Any additional modifications (platform-specific or for an external build
system) can now be made centrally.
so the write thread does not have to do any parallel communication. This avoids
the bugs in the threading support in OpenMPI.
Patch contributed by Mattijs Janssens
Resolves bug-report https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=2669
- warn or fatal if Pstream::init or Pstream::exit are called multiple
times.
- additional Pstream::initNull method as failsafe to initialize MPI
when the underlying OpenFOAM process is not running in parallel but
the application still needs MPI.
- Pstream::exit() can now also be called without having used MPI::init(),
which means it can be used to cleanup serial process or for
applications that used the special purpose Pstream::initNull()
mechanism.
Original commit message:
------------------------
Parallel IO: New collated file format
When an OpenFOAM simulation runs in parallel, the data for decomposed fields and
mesh(es) has historically been stored in multiple files within separate
directories for each processor. Processor directories are named 'processorN',
where N is the processor number.
This commit introduces an alternative "collated" file format where the data for
each decomposed field (and mesh) is collated into a single file, which is
written and read on the master processor. The files are stored in a single
directory named 'processors'.
The new format produces significantly fewer files - one per field, instead of N
per field. For large parallel cases, this avoids the restriction on the number
of open files imposed by the operating system limits.
The file writing can be threaded allowing the simulation to continue running
while the data is being written to file. NFS (Network File System) is not
needed when using the the collated format and additionally, there is an option
to run without NFS with the original uncollated approach, known as
"masterUncollated".
The controls for the file handling are in the OptimisationSwitches of
etc/controlDict:
OptimisationSwitches
{
...
//- Parallel IO file handler
// uncollated (default), collated or masterUncollated
fileHandler uncollated;
//- collated: thread buffer size for queued file writes.
// If set to 0 or not sufficient for the file size threading is not used.
// Default: 2e9
maxThreadFileBufferSize 2e9;
//- masterUncollated: non-blocking buffer size.
// If the file exceeds this buffer size scheduled transfer is used.
// Default: 2e9
maxMasterFileBufferSize 2e9;
}
When using the collated file handling, memory is allocated for the data in the
thread. maxThreadFileBufferSize sets the maximum size of memory in bytes that
is allocated. If the data exceeds this size, the write does not use threading.
When using the masterUncollated file handling, non-blocking MPI communication
requires a sufficiently large memory buffer on the master node.
maxMasterFileBufferSize sets the maximum size in bytes of the buffer. If the
data exceeds this size, the system uses scheduled communication.
The installation defaults for the fileHandler choice, maxThreadFileBufferSize
and maxMasterFileBufferSize (set in etc/controlDict) can be over-ridden within
the case controlDict file, like other parameters. Additionally the fileHandler
can be set by:
- the "-fileHandler" command line argument;
- a FOAM_FILEHANDLER environment variable.
A foamFormatConvert utility allows users to convert files between the collated
and uncollated formats, e.g.
mpirun -np 2 foamFormatConvert -parallel -fileHandler uncollated
An example case demonstrating the file handling methods is provided in:
$FOAM_TUTORIALS/IO/fileHandling
The work was undertaken by Mattijs Janssens, in collaboration with Henry Weller.
- Could be related to interrupted builds.
So if there are any parts of the build that rely on an explicit
'wmakeLnInclude', make sure that the contents are properly updated.
--
ENH: improved feedback from top-level Allwmake
- Report which section (libraries, applications) is being built.
- Provide final summary of date, version, etc, which can be helpful
for later diagnosis or record keeping.
- The -log=XXX option for Allwmake now accepts a directory name
and automatically appends an appropriate log name.
Eg,
./Allwmake -log=logs/ ->> logs/log.linux64GccDPInt32Opt
The default name is built from the value of WM_OPTIONS.
--
BUG: shell not exiting properly in combination with -log option
- the use of 'tee' causes the shell to hang around.
Added an explicit exit to catch this.
--
- Detecting the '-k' (-non-stop) option at the top-level Allwmake, which
may improve robustness.
- Explicit continue-on-error for foamyMesh (as optional component)
- unify format of script messages for better readability
COMP: reduce warnings when building Pstream (old-style casts in openmpi)
Pstream: added maxCommsSize setting to do (unstructured) parallel transfers in blocks.
Tested:
- with maxCommsSize 0 produces exactly same result as plus.develop
- compiles with label64
- with maxCommsSize e.g. 3 produces exactly same result as plus.develop
- with maxCommsSize=0 exactly the same messages (with Pstream::debug = 1) as plus.develop
See merge request !85
This is controlled by the setting maxCommsSize in etc/controlDict which
specifies the max number of bytes per exchange. If set to <= 0 it
is ignored. This max size of messages is important when doing e.g.
load balancing which can send over whole meshes.
- Follow similar pattern as per boost/CGAL with the '*-none' to disable,
and '*-system' for system installations.
Also support central non-ThirdParty installations by specifying the
version as "*-system", but also providing the fully qualified
*_ARCH_PATH too.
--
ENH: Verify label and scalar sizes used in the metis header.
- ensure they match with expected values, which can be obtained via
the OpenFOAM definitions for WM_LABEL_SIZE and WM_PRECISION_OPTION
//- Disallow default shallow-copy assignment
//
// Assignment of UList<T> may need to be either shallow (copy pointer)
// or deep (copy elements) depending on context or the particular type
// of list derived from UList and it is confusing and prone to error
// for the default assignment to be either. The solution is to
// disallow default assignment and provide separate 'shallowCopy' and
// 'deepCopy' member functions.
void operator=(const UList<T>&) = delete;
//- Copy the pointer held by the given UList.
inline void shallowCopy(const UList<T>&);
//- Copy elements of the given UList.
void deepCopy(const UList<T>&);
Contributed by Mattijs Janssens.
1. Any non-blocking data exchange needs to know in advance the sizes to
receive so it can size the buffer. For "halo" exchanges this is not
a problem since the sizes are known in advance but or all other data
exchanges these sizes need to be exchanged in advance.
This was previously done by having all processors send the sizes of data to
send to the master and send it back such that all processors
- had the same information
- all could work out who was sending what to where and hence what needed to
be received.
This is now changed such that we only send the size to the
destination processor (instead of to all as previously). This means
that
- the list of sizes to send is now of size nProcs v.s. nProcs*nProcs before
- we cut out the route to the master and back by using a native MPI
call
It causes a small change to the API of exchange and PstreamBuffers -
they now return the sizes of the local buffers only (a labelList) and
not the sizes of the buffers on all processors (labelListList)
2. Reversing the order of the way in which the sending is done when
scattering information from the master processor to the other
processors. This is done in a tree like fashion. Each processor has a
set of processors to receive from/ send to. When receiving it will
first receive from the processors with the least amount of
sub-processors (i.e. the ones which return first). When sending it
needs to do the opposite: start sending to the processor with the
most amount of sub-tree since this is the critical path.
To compile with 64bit labels set
WM_LABEL_SIZE=64
in ~/OpenFOAM/dev/prefs.sh
source ~/.bashrc
then Allwmake in OpenFOAM-dev.
This will build into for example OpenFOAM-dev/platforms/linux64ClangDPInt64Opt
If WM_LABEL_SIZE is unset or set to 32:
WM_LABEL_SIZE=32
the build would be placed into OpenFOAM-dev/platforms/linux64ClangDPInt32Opt
Thus both 32bit and 64bit label builds can coexist without problem.
