Re: [OMPI users] [slightly off topic] hardware solutions with monetary cost in mind

[Jeff Hammond]

Best performance per dollar for CPU systems is usually one generation past
mid core count single socket system, such as Intel Haswell or Broadwell
Core i7. Might get lucky and find eg 12-core Xeon processors cheap now.

If you want lots of MPI ranks per dollar, look at Intel Knights Corner Xeon
Phi cards in a cheap host.

You can also go small with an array of Raspberry PI, Arduino,
Adapteva Parallella, Intel NUC, etc.

However, if you are doing non-commercial research, you should just apply
for supercomputer time at a government-sponsored center like NERSC or
XSEDE.

Jeff
(Who works for Intel, and thus may be accused of excessive familiarity with
Intel products)

On Friday, May 20, 2016, MM  wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Say I don't have access to a actual cluster, yet I'm considering cloud
> compute solutions for my MPI program ultimately, but such a cost may be
> highly prohibitive at the moment.
> In terms of middle ground, if I am interesting in compute only, no
> storage, what are possible hardware solutions out there to deploy my MPI
> program?
> By no storage, I mean that my control linux box running the frontend of
> the program, but is also part of the mpi communicator always gathers all
> results and stores them locally.
> At the moment, I have a second box over ethernet.
>
> I am looking at something like Intel Compute Stick (is it possible at all
> to buy a few, is linux running on them, the arch seems to be the same
> x86-64, is there a possible setup with tcp for those and have openmpi over
> tcp)?
>
> Is it more cost-effective to look at extra regular linux commodity boxes?
> If a no hard drive box is possible, can the executables of my MPI program
> sendable over the wire before running them?
>
> If we exclude GPU or other nonMPI solutions, and cost being a primary
> factor, what is progression path from 2boxes to a cloud based solution
> (amazon and the like...)
>
> Regards,
> MM
>


-- 
Jeff Hammond
jeff.scie...@gmail.com
http://jeffhammond.github.io/

Re: [OMPI users] [slightly off topic] hardware solutions with monetary cost in mind

[Damien]

If you look around on Ebay, you can find old 16-core Opteron servers for 
a few hundred dollars.  It's not screaming performance, but 16 cores is 
enough to get you started on scaling and parallelism in MPI.  It's a 
cheap cluster in a box.


Damien

On 5/20/2016 12:40 PM, MM wrote:

Hello,

Say I don't have access to a actual cluster, yet I'm considering cloud 
compute solutions for my MPI program ultimately, but such a cost may 
be highly prohibitive at the moment.
In terms of middle ground, if I am interesting in compute only, no 
storage, what are possible hardware solutions out there to deploy my 
MPI program?
By no storage, I mean that my control linux box running the frontend 
of the program, but is also part of the mpi communicator always 
gathers all results and stores them locally.

At the moment, I have a second box over ethernet.

I am looking at something like Intel Compute Stick (is it possible at 
all to buy a few, is linux running on them, the arch seems to be the 
same x86-64, is there a possible setup with tcp for those and have 
openmpi over tcp)?


Is it more cost-effective to look at extra regular linux commodity boxes?
If a no hard drive box is possible, can the executables of my MPI 
program sendable over the wire before running them?


If we exclude GPU or other nonMPI solutions, and cost being a primary 
factor, what is progression path from 2boxes to a cloud based solution 
(amazon and the like...)


Regards,
MM


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Re: [OMPI users] [slightly off topic] hardware solutions with monetary cost in mind

[Gus Correa]

On 05/20/2016 02:40 PM, MM wrote:

Hello,

Say I don't have access to a actual cluster, yet I'm considering cloud
compute solutions for my MPI program ultimately, but such a cost may be
highly prohibitive at the moment.
In terms of middle ground, if I am interesting in compute only, no
storage, what are possible hardware solutions out there to deploy my MPI
program?
By no storage, I mean that my control linux box running the frontend of
the program, but is also part of the mpi communicator always gathers all
results and stores them locally.
At the moment, I have a second box over ethernet.

I am looking at something like Intel Compute Stick (is it possible at
all to buy a few, is linux running on them, the arch seems to be the
same x86-64, is there a possible setup with tcp for those and have
openmpi over tcp)?

Is it more cost-effective to look at extra regular linux commodity boxes?
If a no hard drive box is possible, can the executables of my MPI
program sendable over the wire before running them?

If we exclude GPU or other nonMPI solutions, and cost being a primary
factor, what is progression path from 2boxes to a cloud based solution
(amazon and the like...)

Regards,
MM


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users mailing list
us...@open-mpi.org
Subscription: https://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users
Link to this post: 
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1. You can run MPI programs in a single computer (multi-core 
multi-processor). So, in principle, you don't need a cluster, not even 
two machines.  If you want a proof of concept across Ethernet, two old 
desktops/laptops connected back to back (or through a cheap SOHO switch)

will do.

2. Not trying to dismiss your question, although its scope goes beyond 
MPI (and OpenMPI), and is more about HPC and clusters.

However, if you ask this question in the Beowulf mailing list,
you will get lots, tons, of advice, as the focus there is precisely
on HPC and clusters (of all sizes and for all budgets).

http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf

I hope this helps,
Gus Correa