| Document Author: | Luke Domanski, CSIRO, IM&T, Scientific Computing |
|---|---|
| Document Format: | This document was written in reStructuredText. There a numerous converters and generators for exporting from reStructuredText to pretty document formats. |
A generic framework developed for generating job parallel jobs [1] for
parallel platforms based on a user defined (calling application) set of
preprocessing, work, and postprocessing IDL executables or routines, as well as
a list of application tasks to perform with parallel workers.
Different target parallel platforms are supported via job generator plugins.
The parallel job can be configured and generated on any machine running IDL or GDL, for execution on a remote parallel machine supported by the chosen plugin. The generated job directory can then be copied to the remote parallel machine, and the job executed in a standalone fashion.
Note
The machines used for generation and execution could potentially be the same machine.
| [1] | i.e. the method of parallism utilised in the generated job is "job level parallelism" as opposed to a finer grained parallelism |
- Compilation
- IDL + IDL Development Licence
- Job Generation (Client) and Execution (Remote)
- IDL + IDL Runtime Licence
- GDL (optional alternative, see below)
Some job generator plugins support launching of worker processes using the open source GDL implementation of the IDL language and environment. The REMOTE user application to be run on the parallel machine must support IDL versions <7.1 (at time of writing) to utilise GDL.
You will required the source packages to compile this software. Which can be downloaded from the GitHub source code repository via:
git clone https://github.com/csiro-scientific-computing/parallel_framework.git
The compilation is a two part process carried out on both the client and remote machines:
Compile The IDL Job Parallel Framework and Documentation
Add the IDL Job Parallel Framework installation directory to your
IDL_PATHandGDL_PATHSee Setting IDL_PATH and Setting GDL_PATH
The package can be installed as a source-binary combination, or as a binary only installation.
The compilation processes has been automated in the
build/build_parframewrk.pro and build/build_docs.pro scripts.
To compile:
Start an IDL Development Environment
Change to the Parallel_Framework base directory
Run the build scripts:
> @build/build_parframewrk > @build/build_docs
build_parframewrk creates two types of binaries in the Parallel_Framework's
bin directory:
- The IDL Job Parallel Framework Library & API(
bin/par_framework.sav) - whose functions/procedures you can call from other IDL programs to discover information about available job generators and generate parallel jobs
- Job generator plugins (
bin/plugins/*.sav) - which contain compiled versions of the job generator plugins present in
the Parallel_Framwork's
src/plugins/directory. The plugins are loaded on demanded bypar_framework.savto generate different type of job output. They should not be called directly by user applications.
build_docs generates IDL html help files from the header comment blocks
of functions and procedures in the IDL Job Parallel Framework source code, and
places them in the doc/reference directory.
You can then view the output html files individually in a web browser. See the Reference Manual section of this document for table of contents.
For other applications to use the framework, you must make the Parallel
Framework Library visible on the IDL !PATH.
To do this, append +<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/bin and
+<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/src to the IDL_PATH system or user
environment variable, where "<path_to_Parallel_Framework>" is a place holder
for the real directory path.
Important
The resulting IDL_PATH must contain the special token <IDL_DEFAULT>
for IDL internal use. It is recommend you include this token when appending
to IDL_PATH.
Use your shell's provided mechanism for setting environment variables.
e.g. For bash:
> export IDL_PATH=${IDL_PATH}:<IDL_DEFAULT>:+<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/bin:+<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/src
e.g. For tcsh:
> setenv IDL_PATH ${IDL_PATH}:<IDL_DEFAULT>:+<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/bin:+<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/src
Place this command in your user shell start-up script to ensure it is set on
every login. e.g. .bashrc (bash), .cshrc (tcsh), .profile, etc.
This file will be system and shell dependant, please check your system
administrator's policy/recommendation.
In the Systems Properties menu, accessible via
"Control Panel>System and Security>System>Change Settings" or similar:
- click "Advanced Tab>Environment Variables..."
- to append an existing
IDL_PATH- Select the
IDL_PATHvariable in either the "User variables" or "System variables" section - click "Edit.."
- enter
;+<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/bin:+<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/src;<IDL_DEFAULT>after the existing text in the "Variable value" text box (note the leading semi-colon!)
- Select the
- OR to specify a new
IDL_PATHvariable if necessary- click "New.." in either the "User variables" or "System variables" section
- enter
IDL_PATHinto the "Variable name" text box - enter
+<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/bin:+<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/src;<IDL_DEFAULT>in the "Variable value" text box (note absence of leading semi-colon!).
Warning
"System variables" will apply to all users of the system.
Note
Depending on your system privileges, you might only be able to add or edit the "User variables".
Append +<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/src to the GDL_PATH environment
variable following similar steps to those outlined in Setting IDL_PATH, e.g.
for Linux bash:
> export GDL_PATH=${GDL_PATH}:+<path_to_Parallel_Framework>/src
Note
For GDL you do not need to add the <IDL_DEAFAULT> token.
If you have not yet followed the instructions in the Compiling the code and documentation section, please do so.
The Job Parallel Framework can be used in two modes:
- By the generator application
- To generate parallel jobs using the
generate_parallel_jobprocedure - By the remote worker(s)
- To take advantage of Job Parallel Framework helper functions which simplify worker application development
For details on usage please see the User Guide and Tutorial.
The framework can be extended through user defined job generator plugins which allow for a broad range of target platforms and job management systems to be supported through a single library API.
The generator plugins MUST implement the plugins interface described in the developer guide and also the par_framework.pro documentation.