10.11. Unusual jobs — Open MPI 5.0.2 documentation

# 10.11. Unusual jobs

Open MPI can run many types of applications, including non-MPI programs. This section describes some of the less common kinds of programs that can be executed.

## 10.11.1. Running non-MPI programs with mpirun(1)

Non-MPI programs can be launched with mpirun(1), for example:

    shell$ mpirun -n 2 --host a,b uptime

This will launch a copy of the Unix command `uptime` on the hosts `a` and `b`.

mpirun(1) works equally well for MPI and non-MPI applications.

## 10.11.2. Running GUI applications

Running GUI applications depends on your local setup and may require additional setup.

You will need to have graphics forwarding (e.g., X11 forwarding) enabled from the remote processes to the display where you want output to appear. In a secure environment, you can simply allow all X requests to be shown on the target display and set the `DISPLAY` environment variable in all MPI processes’ environments to the target display, perhaps something like this:

    shell$ hostname
    my_desktop.secure-cluster.example.com
    shell$ xhost +
    shell$ mpirun -n 4 -x DISPLAY=my_desktop.secure-cluster.example.com a.out

However, this technique is not generally suitable for unsecure environments (because it allows anyone to read and write to your display). A slightly more secure way is to only allow X connections from the nodes where your application will be running:

    shell$ hostname
    my_desktop.secure-cluster.example.com
    shell$ xhost +compute1 +compute2 +compute3 +compute4
    compute1 being added to access control list
    compute2 being added to access control list
    compute3 being added to access control list
    compute4 being added to access control list
    shell$ mpirun -n 4 -x DISPLAY=my_desktop.secure-cluster.example.com a.out

(assuming that the four nodes you are running on are `compute1` through `compute4`).

Other methods are available, but they involve sophisticated X forwarding through mpirun(1) and are generally more complicated than desirable.

## 10.11.3. Running curses-based applications

Open MPI provides fairly sophisticated stdin / stdout / stderr forwarding. However, it does not work well with curses, ncurses, readline, or other sophisticated I/O packages that generally require direct control of the terminal.

Every application and I/O library is different — you should try to see if yours is supported. But chances are that it won’t work.

## 10.11.4. Launching an MPMD MPI job

Open MPI supports multiple program, multiple data (MPMD) style launches, either from the command line or from a file. For example:

    shell$ mpirun -n 2 a.out : -n 2 b.out

This will launch a single parallel application, but the first two processes will be instances of the `a.out` executable, and the second two processes will be instances of the `b.out` executable. In MPI terms, this will be a single `MPI_COMM_WORLD`, but the `a.out` processes will be ranks 0 and 1 in `MPI_COMM_WORLD`, while the `b.out` processes will be ranks 2 and 3 in `MPI_COMM_WORLD`.

mpirun(1) can also accept a parallel application specified in a file instead of on the command line. For example:

    shell$ mpirun --app my_appfile

where the file `my_appfile` contains the following:

    # Comments are supported; comments begin with #
    # Application context files specify each sub-application in the
    # parallel job, one per line.  The first sub-application is the 2
    # a.out processes:
    -n 2 a.out
    # The second sub-application is the 2 b.out processes:
    -n 2 b.out

This will result in the same behavior as running `a.out` and `b.out` from the command line.

## 10.11.5. Connecting independent MPI applications

In certain environments, Open MPI supports connecting multiple, independent MPI applications using mechanism defined in the MPI specification such as `MPI_Comm_connect() / MPI_Comm_accept()` and publishing connection information using `MPI_Publish_name() / MPI_Lookup_name()`. These mechanisms require a centralized service to exchange contact information across multiple jobs.

Beginning with Open MPI v5.0.0 this can be achieved by starting an instance of the prte server with the `report-uri` option to display the contact information of the prte server. This information can then be used for launching subsequent MPI applications.

The following commands show an example for launching two MPI jobs that will connect to each other at runtime using the MPI-2 based functionality.

Step 1: start the standalone prte server

    user@myhost:~/ompi-install/bin$ ./prte --report-uri <filename>
    DVM ready

Step 2: Launch the first MPI application providing the uri of the prte server

    user@myhost:~/app1-dir$ mpiexec --dvm file:<filename> -np 4 ./mpi_app_1

Step 3: Launch the second MPI application providing the uri of the prte server again

    user@myhost:~/app2-dir$ mpiexec --dvm file:<filename> -np 4 ./mpi_app_2

In case the prte server has been started as a system server using the `--system-server` argument (e.g. the nodes used by the MPI applications are not shared by multiple jobs), the sequence can be simplified by using `mpiexec --dvm system` or `mpiexec --dvm system-first` instead of the uri of the prte server.