Jeff, We have 3 Rocks Clusters, while there is a default MPI with each Rocks Release, it is often behind the latest production release as you note.
We typically install whatever OpenMPI version we want in a shared space and ignore the default installed with Rocks. Sometimes there standard Linux libraries that can be a bit out of date which may be registered as "can't finds" in the configuration and/or buiild of OpenMPI, but there usually an easy go around. As far as 'closely intertwined' goes, I would say that is an exaggeration. It does mean some extra work for someone ... around here is it me ... ;-) ... rbw Richard Walsh Parallel Applications and Systems Manager CUNY HPC Center, Staten Island, NY 718-982-3319 612-382-4620 Reason does give the heart pause; As the heart gives reason fits. Yet, to live where reason always rules; Is to kill one's heart with wits. ________________________________ From: users-boun...@open-mpi.org [users-boun...@open-mpi.org] on behalf of Jeffrey A Cummings [jeffrey.a.cummi...@aero.org] Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 5:02 PM To: us...@open-mpi.org Subject: [OMPI users] How closely tied is a specific release of OpenMPI to the host operating system and other system software? I use OpenMPI on a variety of platforms: stand-alone servers running Solaris on sparc boxes and Linux (mostly CentOS) on AMD/Intel boxes, also Linux (again CentOS) on large clusters of AMD/Intel boxes. These platforms all have some version of the 1.3 OpenMPI stream. I recently requested an upgrade on all systems to 1.4.3 (for production work) and 1.5.1 (for experimentation). I'm getting a lot of push back from the SysAdmin folks claiming that OpenMPI is closely intertwined with the specific version of the operating system and/or other system software (i.e., Rocks on the clusters). I need to know if they are telling me the truth or if they're just making excuses to avoid the work. To state my question another way: Apparently each release of Linux and/or Rocks comes with some version of OpenMPI bundled in. Is it dangerous in some way to upgrade to a newer version of OpenMPI? Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can provide. - Jeff ________________________________ Think green before you print this email.
