[gmx-users] Question about starting Gromacs 4.5.4 parallel runs using mpirun

[Anirban Ghosh]

On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 10:22 PM, Andrew DeYoung <adeyoung at andrew.cmu.edu>wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Typically, I use Gromacs 4.5.5 compiled with automatic threading. As you
> know, automatic threading is awesome because it allows me to start parallel
> runs without calling mpirun. So on version 4.5.5, I can start a job on
> eight
> CPUs using simply the command:
>
> mdrun -s topol.tpr -nt 8
>
> However, now I am using a different node on my department's cluster, and
> this node instead has Gromacs 4.5.4 (compiled without automatic threading).
> So, I must use mpirun to start parallel runs. I have tried this command:
>
> mpirun -machinefile mymachines -np 8 mdrun -s topol.tpr
>
>
I suppose this mdrun executable is not mpi-enabled. Have you compiled mdrun
with "--enable-mpi" option?

-Anirban


> where mymachines is an (extensionless) file containing only the text "c60
> slots=8". (c60 is the name of the node that I am using.)
>
> I get this error message:
>
> "Missing: program name. Program mdrun either does not exist, is not
> executable, or is an erroneous argument to mpirun."
>
> This is strange, because mdrun is, I think, in my path. For example, if I
> type "mdrun -h", I get the manual page for mdrun (version 4.5.4).
>
> Then I tried the command "which mdrun", and it gave me this output:
>
> /usr/local/gromacs/bin/mdrun
>
> So, next I tried to call mdrun via mpirun using the specific path for
> mdrun:
>
> mpirun -machinefile mymachines -np 8 /usr/local/gromacs/bin/mdrun -s
> topol.tpr
>
> This starts running my simulation, but when I look in "top", the simulation
> is only running on a single CPU; there is only one entry for mdrun in
> "top",
> and it has only %CPU=100 (not eight different entries for mdrun, nor one
> entry with %CPU=800). Also, the simulation is going at the speed I would
> expect for running on a single CPU -- it is very slow, so I am convinced
> that, as "top" suggests, mdrun is running on only one CPU.
>
> Strangely, my colleagues are able to run jobs in parallel using the exact
> commands that I described above. So apparently something is wrong with my
> user ID, although there are no error messages (except the error message
> about "Missing: program name" that I described).
>
> If you have time, do you have any suggestions for other things that I can
> try? Do you think that something could be wrong with my bashrc file?
>
> Thanks for your time!
>
> Andrew DeYoung
> Carnegie Mellon University
>
> --
> gmx-users mailing list    gmx-users at gromacs.org
> http://lists.gromacs.org/mailman/listinfo/gmx-users
> Please search the archive at
> http://www.gromacs.org/Support/Mailing_Lists/Search before posting!
> Please don't post (un)subscribe requests to the list. Use the
> www interface or send it to gmx-users-request at gromacs.org.
> Can't post? Read http://www.gromacs.org/Support/Mailing_Lists
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://maillist.sys.kth.se/pipermail/gromacs.org_gmx-users/attachments/20120430/f94e6c21/attachment.html>