OpenMPI

The OpenMPI library is an open source implementation for the MPI protocol. Different versions compiled with different compilers are available. A list is given by typing

module avail openmpi

For performance reasons the latest release of OpenMPI should be used.

Compiling with OpenMPI

Before compiling load the actual module of OpenMPI, e.g.

module load openmpi/1.8.2/gcc

for using the GNU compiler.

The compilation can be done by following wrappers of OpenMPI:

Name	Description
mpicc	C compiler
mpic++, mpiCC or mpicxx	C++ compiler
mpif77	Fortran 77 compiler
mpif90	Fortran 90 compiler

These programs are only wrappers which means that the scripts sets additional flags for OpenMPI (e.g. include path, flags for linking OpenMPI libraries, ...). For using the Intel Compiler please use the module

module load openmpi/1.8.2/intel

Below there is a list of all environment variables for setting other compiler.

Environment variable	Description
OMPI_CC	Set the C compiler
OMPI_CXX	Sets the C++ compiler
OMPI_F77	Sets the Fortran 77 compiler
OMPI_FC	Sets the Fortran 90 compiler

Run parallel programs

The typical call to launch a MPI program within an SGE script is

 mpirun -machinefile $TMPDIR/machines -np $NSLOTS <MPI_program> <MPI_program_options>

Please don't forget to load the correct OpenMPI module before (the same OpenMPI module which was used for compilation)!

On FLOW the communication will be done over InfiniBand (automatically). Due to new virtual nodes without InfiniBand the explicit setting of InfiniBand usage by setting the environment variable OMPI_MCA_btl by

 export OMPI_MCA_btl="openib,sm,self"

or by using the mpirun or mpiexec command line option

mpirun -mca btl "openib,sm,self" ...

is depricated and can causes problems on the vx* nodes!

Run parallel JAVA programs

For using the JAVA bindings please load the OpenMPI module with the suffix java, e.g.

 module load openmpi/1.8.2/java

To compile a java program with MPI bindings please use mpijavac instead of javac. For launching parallel JAVA programs please use

 mpirun -machinefile $TMPDIR/machines -np $NSLOTS -x MALLOC_ARENA_MAX java <options> <java_class>

SGE script options

To submit MPI programs by SGE you have to set a parallel environment. The the parallel environment must be specified by

 #$ -pe openmpi NUM_OF_CORES
 #$ -R y

Useful environment variables

During the execution of a program called by mpirun following useful environment variables are set

Environment variable	Description
OMPI_COMM_WORLD_SIZE	Total number of parallel processes.
OMPI_COMM_WORLD_RANK	MPI rank of the current process.

External links

• OpenMPI homepage
• Documentation