Data Type

Integer

Default Value

3

Description

This parameter specifies which hardware nodes are to be used. When multiple FMS jobs are being run, you want the nodes clustered close together. Currently this parameter only applies to the SGI Origin series, which has multiple levels of remote nodes. On the Compaq GS series, there is only level, a node is local or not.

All possible options are listed below. However, for this FMS implementation, option 3 provides the most control and is recommended.

The following options are available:

  • 0, TOPOLOGY_FREE:
  • 1, TOPOLOGY_CUBE:
  • 2, TOPOLOGY_CUBE_FIXED:
  • 3, TOPOLOGY_PHYSNODES:
    The nodes are explicitly placed by name.
  • 4, TOPOLOGY_CPUCLUSTER:
  • 5, TOPOLOGY_LAST:

The default option 3 will explicitly place the memory and threads on specific hardware nodes This is implemented by creating a list of hardware node names in file FMSNOD. The order of these names is the order in which the nodes will be placed.

You may use standard UNIX tools to create file FMSNOD. First, create a list of hardware node names as follows: 

find /hw -name node -print > FMSNOD1
On an 8-processor Origin 3000 system, this file would typically contain the following: 
/hw/module/001c07/node
/hw/module/001c07/Ibrick/xtalk/15/pci/6/ohci/0/scsi_ctlr/0/node
/hw/module/001c07/Ibrick/xtalk/15/pci/6/ohci/0/node
/hw/module/001c10/node
The first and last lines are compute nodes, the second and third lines are not compute nodes. The next step is to use an editor on file FMSNOD1 and delete those lines that are not compute nodes. In this example, that would leave 
/hw/module/001c07/node
/hw/module/001c10/node
The final step is to number the nodes in a format expected by FMS. You may use the UNIX tool awk as follows: 
awk '{printf("%3d %s\n",NR,$1)}' FMSNOD1 > FMSNOD
The resulting file FMSNOD will contain 
  1 /hw/module/001c07/node
  2 /hw/module/001c10/node
The FMS hardware node number is in columns 1-3 right-justified, and the hardware node name starts in column 5, left-justified.

You may change the topology used by changing the order of hardware node names in this file.

Only one FMSNOD file is required for each system. If you change the system configuration by adding or removing nodes, you will need to make a new FMSNOD file.