NAS Parallel Workload Profiles

The following profiles run customer-representative or benchmarking scenarios using the NAS Parallel toolset.

Client/Server Topology Support

NAS Parallel workload profiles support running the workload on both a single system as well as in an multi-system, client/server topology. This means that the workload supports operation on a single system or on N number of distinct systems. The client/server topology is typically used when it is desirable to include a network component in the overall performance evaluation. In a client/server topology, one system operates in the 'Client' role making calls to the system operating in the 'Server' role. The Virtual Client instances running on the client and server systems will synchronize with each other before running the workload. In order to support a client/server topology, an environment layout file MUST be supplied to each instance of the Virtual Client on the command line to describe the IP address/location of other Virtual Client instances. An environment layout file is not required for the single system topology.

The Virtual Client running on the client and server systems will synchronize with each other before running each individual workload. An environment layout file MUST be supplied to each instance of the Virtual Client on the command line to describe the IP address/location of other Virtual Client instances.

Environment Layouts

In the environment layout file provided to the Virtual Client, define the role of the client system/VM as "Client" and the role of the server system(s)/VM(s) as "Server". The spelling of the roles must be exact. The IP addresses of the systems/VMs must be correct as well. The following example illustrates the idea. The name of the client must match the name of the system or the value of the agent ID passed in on the command line.

For different benchmarks with NAS Parallel we have various recommendation on number of nodes as mentioned below.

BT, SP benchmarks
A square number of processes (1, 4, 9, ...).
LU benchmark
2D (n1 * n2) process grid where n1/2 <= n2 <= n1 .
CG, FT, IS, MG benchmarks
a power-of-two number of processes (1, 2, 4, ...).
EP benchmark
No special requirements.
DC,UA benchmarks
Run only on single machine.
DT benchmark
Minimum of 5 machines required.

# Single System (environment layout not required)
./VirtualClient --profile=PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json --system=Demo --timeout=1440

# Multi-System
# On the Client role system (the controller)
./VirtualClient --profile=PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json --system=Demo --timeout=1440 --clientId=Client01 --layoutPath=/any/path/to/layout.json

# On Server role system #1
./VirtualClient --profile=PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json --system=Demo --timeout=1440 --clientId=Server01 --layoutPath=/any/path/to/layout.json

# On Server role system #2
./VirtualClient --profile=PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json --system=Demo --timeout=1440 --clientId=Server02 --layoutPath=/any/path/to/layout.json

# Example contents of the 'layout.json' file:
{
    "clients": [
        {
            "name": "Client01",
            "role": "Client",
            "privateIPAddress": "10.1.0.1"
        },
        {
            "name": "Server01",
            "role": "Server",
            "privateIPAddress": "10.1.0.2"
        },
        {
            "name": "Server02",
            "role": "Server",
            "privateIPAddress": "10.1.0.3"
        }
    ]
}

SSH Requirements

OpenMPI sends messages over port 22 - as well as expects to send messages without having to supply a key or passsword. A secure and safe way is to register an SSH identity with the client machine. Here is an example blog post on how to do this. Although the basic steps are:

On client, store a private-public key pair under ~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
On server, append the id_rsa.pub generated under ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
On client, store server fingprints in ~/.ssh/known_hosts
Last when running the profile, supply the username whos .ssh directory contains all of the files just created/edited.

PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json

Runs a set of HPC workloads using NAS Parallel Benchmarks to the parallel computing performance. This profile is designed to test both single and multiple nodes performance.

Workload Profile
Supported Platform/Architectures
- linux-x64
- linux-arm64
Supports Disconnected Scenarios
- No. Internet connection required.
Dependencies
The dependencies defined in the 'Dependencies' section of the profile itself are required in order to run the workload operations effectively.
- Internet connection.
- For multi-system scenarios, communications over SSH port 22 must be allowed.
- The IP addresses defined in the environment layout (see above) for the Client and Server systems must be correct.
- The name of the Client and Server instances defined in the environment layout must match the agent/client IDs supplied on the command line (e.g. --agentId) or must match the name of the system as defined by the operating system itself.
Additional information on individual components that exist within the 'Dependencies' section of the profile can be found in the following locations:
- Installing Dependencies.
Profile Parameters
The following parameters can be optionally supplied on the command line to modify the behaviors of the workload.

Parameter Purpose Default Value
Username Required. See 'SSH Requirements' above No default, must be supplied
Profile Runtimes
See the 'Metadata' section of the profile for estimated runtimes. These timings represent the length of time required to run a single round of profile actions. These timings can be used to determine minimum required runtimes for the Virtual Client in order to get results. These are often estimates based on the number of system cores.

Parameter	Purpose	Default Value
Username	Required. See 'SSH Requirements' above	No default, must be supplied

Usage Examples
The following section provides a few basic examples of how to use the workload profile.

# When running on a single system (environment layout not required)
./VirtualClient --profile=PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json --system=Demo --timeout=1440 --parameters="Username=testuser" --packageStore="{BlobConnectionString|SAS Uri}"

 # When running in a client/server environment
./VirtualClient --profile=PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json --system=Demo --timeout=1440 --clientId=Client01 --parameters="Username=testuser" --layoutPath="/any/path/to/layout.json" --packageStore="{BlobConnectionString|SAS Uri}"
./VirtualClient --profile=PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json --system=Demo --timeout=1440 --clientId=Server01 --parameters="Username=testuser" --layoutPath="/any/path/to/layout.json" --packageStore="{BlobConnectionString|SAS Uri}"

# When running in a client/server environment with additional systems
./VirtualClient --profile=PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json --system=Demo --timeout=1440 --clientId=Client01 --parameters="Username=testuser" --layoutPath="/any/path/to/layout.json" --packageStore="{BlobConnectionString|SAS Uri}"
./VirtualClient --profile=PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json --system=Demo --timeout=1440 --clientId=Server01 --parameters="Username=testuser" --layoutPath="/any/path/to/layout.json" --packageStore="{BlobConnectionString|SAS Uri}"
./VirtualClient --profile=PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json --system=Demo --timeout=1440 --clientId=Server02 --parameters="Username=testuser" --layoutPath="/any/path/to/layout.json" --packageStore="{BlobConnectionString|SAS Uri}"

NAS Parallel Workload Profiles

Client/Server Topology Support​

SSH Requirements​

PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json​

Client/Server Topology Support

SSH Requirements

PERF-HPC-NASPARALLELBENCH.json