hpc_connect

hpc_connect is a Python package that provides abstract interfaces to High-Performance Computing (HPC) schedulers and launchers. A default shell scheduler and MPI launcher is provided. Users can extend the functionality by subclassing the provided interfaces.

Features

• Abstract Interfaces: Provides base classes for creating custom HPC schedulers and launchers.
• Default Implementations: Includes a default shell scheduler and an MPI launcher for immediate use.
• Extensibility: Easily create and register custom launchers and schedulers.

Installation

You can install hpc_connect using pip:

python3 -m pip install hpc-connect

Usage

Scheduler

import hpc_connect
submission_manager = hpc_connect.get_submission_manager("shell")
submission_manager.submit("hello-world", ["echo 'Hello, world!'"], cpus=1)

hpc-launch

A command-line interface for launching parallel applications using various HPC launchers.

SYNOPSIS

hpc-launch [mpi-options] <application> [application-options]

Description

hpc-launch is a command line tool that forwards arguments to configured backend launchers such as mpiexec, mpirun, and jsrun. hpc-launch works by translating the command given by

hpc-launch [mpi-options] <application> [application options]

to

<exec> <default-options> [mapped mpi-options] <application> [application-options]

where default-options and mapped mpi-options are replaced according to the mappings in the configuration.

hpc-launch provides a unified command structure for launching parallel applications, allowing users to execute their applications without needing to remember the specific syntax for each launcher.

Configuration

The behavior of hpc-launch is determined by a YAML configuration file. The default configuration is:

hpc_connect:
  launch:
    vendor: openmpi
    exec: mpiexec
    numproc_flag: -n
    default_flags: []
    local_flags: []
    post_flags: []
    mappings: {}

Configuration Parameters

• vendor: The MPI implementation vendor (e.g., openmpi, mpich).
• exec: The command to execute the launcher (e.g., mpiexec, mpirun).
• numproc_flag: The flag used to specify the number of processes (e.g., -n).
• default_flags: A list of default options passed to the launcher.
• local_flags: A list of options specific to local execution.
• post_flags: A list of options that are added to the command line after all other launcher args
• mappings: A dictionary for additional mappings or configurations, where command-line flags can be replaced with their corresponding values.

Configuration variables can also be specified through environment variables named HPCC_LAUNCH_NAME where NAME is any one of the configuration variables given above. Variables defined in the environment take precedent over variables defined in the configuration file.

Examples

Perhaps the base way to describe the behavior of hpc-connect is through example

Example 1

Given the configuration

hpc_connect:
  launch:
    vendor: mpich
    exec: mpiexec
    numproc_flag: -np

the command line

hpc-launch -n 4 my-app ...

becomes

mpiexec -np 4 my-app ...

NOTE: the flag -n was replaced by numproc_flag=-np

NOTE: the default flag mapping is {'-n': '-np'}

Example 2

Given the configuration

hpc_connect:
  launch:
    vendor: mpich
    exec: mpiexec
    numproc_flag: -np
    default_flags: --bind-to none

the command line

hpc-launch -n 4 my-app ...

becomes

mpiexec --bind-to none -np 4 my-app ...

Example 3

Given the configuration

hpc_connect:
  launch:
    vendor: mpich
    exec: mpiexec
    numproc_flag: -np
    mappings:
      '--foo': '--bar'
      '--spam': '--eggs'

the command line

hpc-launch -n 4 --foo=on --spam yummy my-app ...

becomes

mpiexec --bind-to none -np 4 --bar=on --eggs yummy my-app ...

Example 4

Given the configuration

hpc_connect:
  launch:
    vendor: mpich
    exec: mpiexec
    numproc_flag: -np
    default_flags: --bind-to core --map-by ppr:%(np)d:numa

the command line

hpc-launch -n 4 my-app ...

becomes

mpiexec --bind-to core --map-by ppr:4:numa -np 4 my-app ...

Example 5

Given the configuration

hpc_connect:
  launch:
    vendor: mpich
    exec: mpiexec
    numproc_flag: -np
    mappings:
      '--account': SUPPRESS
      '--clusters': SUPPRESS

the command line

hpc-launch -n 4 --account=[MASKED] --clusters=my-cluster my-app ...

becomes

mpiexec -np 4 my-app ...

Example 6

Given the configuration

hpc_connect:
  launch:
    vendor: mpich
    exec: mpiexec
    numproc_flag: -np
    default_flags: --bind-to core --map-by ppr:%(np)d:numa
    local_flags: -H localhost

the command line

hpc-launch -n 4 app-1 app-1-options. : -n 5 app-2 app-2-options

becomes

mpiexec --bind-to core --map-by ppr:9:numa -H localhost -np 4 my-app -1 app-1-options : -H localhost -np 5 app-2 app-2-options

Example 7

Given the configuration

hpc_connect:
  launch:
    vendor: schedmd
    exec: srun

the command line

hpc-launch -n 4 app-1 app-1-options : -n 5 app-2 app-2-options

becomes

srun -n9 --multi-prog launch-multi-prog.conf

where

$ cat launch-multi-prog.conf
0-3 app-1 app-1-options
4-8 app-2 app-2-options