WHAT: Merge the PMIx branch into the devel repo, creating a new
OPAL “lmix” framework to abstract PMI support for all RTEs.
Replace the ORTE daemon-level collectives with a new PMIx
server and update the ORTE grpcomm framework to support
server-to-server collectives
WHY: We’ve had problems dealing with variations in PMI implementations,
and need to extend the existing PMI definitions to meet exascale
requirements.
WHEN: Mon, Aug 25
WHERE: https://github.com/rhc54/ompi-svn-mirror.git
Several community members have been working on a refactoring of the current PMI support within OMPI. Although the APIs are common, Slurm and Cray implement a different range of capabilities, and package them differently. For example, Cray provides an integrated PMI-1/2 library, while Slurm separates the two and requires the user to specify the one to be used at runtime. In addition, several bugs in the Slurm implementations have caused problems requiring extra coding.
All this has led to a slew of #if’s in the PMI code and bugs when the corner-case logic for one implementation accidentally traps the other. Extending this support to other implementations would have increased this complexity to an unacceptable level.
Accordingly, we have:
* created a new OPAL “pmix” framework to abstract the PMI support, with separate components for Cray, Slurm PMI-1, and Slurm PMI-2 implementations.
* Replaced the current ORTE grpcomm daemon-based collective operation with an integrated PMIx server, and updated the grpcomm APIs to provide more flexible, multi-algorithm support for collective operations. At this time, only the xcast and allgather operations are supported.
* Replaced the current global collective id with a signature based on the names of the participating procs. The allows an unlimited number of collectives to be executed by any group of processes, subject to the requirement that only one collective can be active at a time for a unique combination of procs. Note that a proc can be involved in any number of simultaneous collectives - it is the specific combination of procs that is subject to the constraint
* removed the prior OMPI/OPAL modex code
* added new macros for executing modex send/recv to simplify use of the new APIs. The send macros allow the caller to specify whether or not the BTL supports async modex operations - if so, then the non-blocking “fence” operation is used, if the active PMIx component supports it. Otherwise, the default is a full blocking modex exchange as we currently perform.
* retained the current flag that directs us to use a blocking fence operation, but only to retrieve data upon demand
This commit was SVN r32570.
A few changes were required to support this move:
1. the PMI component used to identify rte-related data (e.g., host name, bind level) and package them as a unit to reduce the number of PMI keys. This code was moved up to the ORTE layer as the OPAL layer has no understanding of these concepts. In addition, the component locally stored data based on process jobid/vpid - this could no longer be supported (see below for the solution).
2. the hash component was updated to use the new opal_identifier_t instead of orte_process_name_t as its index for storing data in the hash tables. Previously, we did a hash on the vpid and stored the data in a 32-bit hash table. In the revised system, we don't see a separate "vpid" field - we only have a 64-bit opaque value. The orte_process_name_t hash turned out to do nothing useful, so we now store the data in a 64-bit hash table. Preliminary tests didn't show any identifiable change in behavior or performance, but we'll have to see if a move back to the 32-bit table is required at some later time.
3. the db framework was a "select one" system. However, since the PMI component could no longer use its internal storage system, the framework has now been changed to a "select many" mode of operation. This allows the hash component to handle all internal storage, while the PMI component only handles pushing/pulling things from the PMI system. This was something we had planned for some time - when fetching data, we first check internal storage to see if we already have it, and then automatically go to the global system to look for it if we don't. Accordingly, the framework was provided with a custom query function used during "select" that lets you seperately specify the "store" and "fetch" ordering.
4. the ORTE grpcomm and ess/pmi components, and the nidmap code, were updated to work with the new db framework and to specify internal/global storage options.
No changes were made to the MPI layer, except for modifying the ORTE component of the OMPI/rte framework to support the new db framework.
This commit was SVN r28112.
