MATLAB Central Newsreader - MATLAB Distributed Computing Server

MATLAB Distributed Computing Server

Geethmala — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:31:03 -0500

Hi,
I have a couple of queries about Distributed Computing Server (DCS). Let's say I have a cluster with 2 nodes. Each node has 8 cores and is running the Parallel Toolbox of MATLAB. If I need these 2 nodes to compute together, I understand that I need DCS. My question is do I need a DCS worker per core or per node? Can my client nodes running Parallel toolbox also act as a server or do I need a completely separate cluster for running DCS?

Thanks.

Re: MATLAB Distributed Computing Server

Edric M Ellis — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:54:14 -0500

"Geethmala " <geethmala@cs.dartmouth.edu> writes:

> I have a couple of queries about Distributed Computing Server (DCS). Let's say
> I have a cluster with 2 nodes. Each node has 8 cores and is running the
> Parallel Toolbox of MATLAB. If I need these 2 nodes to compute together, I
> understand that I need DCS. My question is do I need a DCS worker per core or
> per node?

The way the MDCS licencing works is per worker process. So, if you wish to run
16 workers, you'll need 16 licences.

> Can my client nodes running Parallel toolbox also act as a server or
> do I need a completely separate cluster for running DCS?

You can mix these things (I'm not 100% sure, but I think you'd be best off
installing MDCS separately on the machines as the licencing is different) -
i.e. it's fine to run a MATLAB+PCT as well as the MDCS workers on a single
machine (internally, that's how we do a fair bit of our testing).

Cheers,

Edric.

Re: MATLAB Distributed Computing Server

Geethmala — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:26:19 -0500

Thanks for the response Edric. Can you please clarify the following statement?

"The way the MDCS licencing works is per worker process. So, if you wish to run
16 workers, you'll need 16 licences."

Does each worker process run per core in a machine or per node in a cluster i.e. will I need 2 licenses for 2 nodes or 16 licenses (8 cores/node) for 2 nodes?

Thanks,
Geethmala

Edric M Ellis <eellis@mathworks.com> wrote in message <ytw1vk8f58p.fsf@uk-eellis-deb5-64.mathworks.co.uk>...
> "Geethmala " <geethmala@cs.dartmouth.edu> writes:
>
> > I have a couple of queries about Distributed Computing Server (DCS). Let's say
> > I have a cluster with 2 nodes. Each node has 8 cores and is running the
> > Parallel Toolbox of MATLAB. If I need these 2 nodes to compute together, I
> > understand that I need DCS. My question is do I need a DCS worker per core or
> > per node?
>
> The way the MDCS licencing works is per worker process. So, if you wish to run
> 16 workers, you'll need 16 licences.
>
> > Can my client nodes running Parallel toolbox also act as a server or
> > do I need a completely separate cluster for running DCS?
>
> You can mix these things (I'm not 100% sure, but I think you'd be best off
> installing MDCS separately on the machines as the licencing is different) -
> i.e. it's fine to run a MATLAB+PCT as well as the MDCS workers on a single
> machine (internally, that's how we do a fair bit of our testing).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Edric.

Re: MATLAB Distributed Computing Server

Edric M Ellis — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:16:58 -0500

"Geethmala " <geethmala@cs.dartmouth.edu> writes:

> Thanks for the response Edric. Can you please clarify the following statement?
>
> "The way the MDCS licencing works is per worker process. So, if you wish to run
> 16 workers, you'll need 16 licences."
>
> Does each worker process run per core in a machine or per node in a cluster
> i.e. will I need 2 licenses for 2 nodes or 16 licenses (8 cores/node) for 2
> nodes?

Generally, it's best to run 1 worker process per core, as the default is for
MDCS workers to run single-threaded (more precisely: with only a single
*computational* thread, there are plenty of other supporting threads). So, if
you have 2 8-core nodes, you could use up to 16 worker licences.

Cheers,

Edric.