Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide forWindows* OS

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

Contents
Chapter 1: Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS
Introduction .............................................................................................3
Introducing Intel® MPI Library ............................................................. 3
Conventions and Symbols .................................................................. 4
Related Information...........................................................................4
Installation and Prerequisites ...................................................................... 4
Installation.......................................................................................4
Prerequisite Steps .............................................................................5
User Authorization.............................................................................5
Compiling and Linking ................................................................................7
Compiling an MPI Program ................................................................. 7
Configuring a Microsoft Visual Studio* Project ....................................... 8
Running Applications..................................................................................9
Running Intel® MPI Library in Containers .............................................. 9
Build a Singularity* Container for an MPI Application ..................... 9
Run the Application with a Container ......................................... 10
Selecting a Library Configuration ....................................................... 12
Running an MPI Program.................................................................. 12
Running an MPI/OpenMP* Program.................................................... 13
MPMD Launch Mode......................................................................... 14
Fabrics Control................................................................................ 14
Selecting Fabrics..................................................................... 14
Libfabric* Support................................................................... 15
OFI* Providers Support............................................................ 15
Job Schedulers Support.................................................................... 18
Controlling Process Placement........................................................... 19
Java* MPI Applications Support......................................................... 20
Debugging Applications ............................................................................ 21
Debugging ..................................................................................... 21
Using -gtool for Debugging ............................................................... 22
Analysis and Tuning ................................................................................. 22
Displaying MPI Debug Information..................................................... 22
Tracing Applications ......................................................................... 23
MPI Tuning ..................................................................................... 24
Troubleshooting....................................................................................... 24
Error Message: Bad Termination........................................................ 24
Error Message: No such file or Directory............................................. 26
Error Message: Permission Denied ..................................................... 26
Error Message: Fatal Error................................................................ 26
Error Message: Bad File Descriptor .................................................... 27
Error Message: Too Many Open Files .................................................. 28
Problem: MPI Application Hangs ....................................................... 28
Problem: Password Required............................................................. 29
Problem: Cannot Execute Binary File.................................................. 29
Problem: MPI limitation for Docker*................................................... 30
Notices and Disclaimers............................................................................ 30

2

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OSIntel® MPI Library Developer
Guide for Windows* OS

1

1

Find useful information about using the Intel® MPI Library in the following topics:
Introducing Intel MPI Library gives a general introduction for the Intel MPI Library and its components.

Compiling and Linking
Compiling and Linking provides instructions on compiling and linking MPI applications with the Intel MPI
Library in the command line and in Visual Studio*.
You can find information about compilers commands, environment variables, and more in the Intel® MPI
Library Developer Reference for Windows* OS.

Running Applications
Running Applications describes how to run MPI and hybrid OpenMP*/MPI programs in the command line andthrough job schedulers.

Analysis and Tuning
Analysis and Tuning discusses the methods for MPI analysis using the built-in Intel MPI Library features andother analyzing tools.

Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting provides the troubleshooting steps for some common issues with the Intel MPI Library.

Documentation for Older Versions
Documentation for some older versions of the Intel® MPI Library is available as downloads only.
To download specific versions of prior Intel MPI Library documentation, refer to one of the following locations:•••

Downloadable Documentation: Intel® oneAPI Toolkits and Components
Intel® MPI Library - Legacy Documentation
Download Documentation: Intel® Parallel Studio XE

Developer Guide Contents

Introduction
The Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide explains how to use the Intel MPI Library in some common usage
scenarios. It provides information regarding compiling, running, debugging, tuning, and analyzing MPI
applications, as well as troubleshooting information.
This Developer Guide helps a user familiar with the message passing interface to start using the Intel MPI
Library. For full information, see the Intel® MPI Library Developer Reference.

Introducing Intel® MPI Library
The Intel® MPI Library is a multi-fabric message-passing library that implements the Message Passing
Interface, version 3.1 (MPI-3.1) specification. It provides a standard library across Intel® platforms that:

3

1
•
•

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

Delivers best in class performance for enterprise, divisional, departmental and workgroup highperformance computing. The Intel® MPI Library focuses on improving application performance on Intel®
architecture based clusters.
Enables you to adopt MPI-3.1 functions as your needs dictate.

Conventions and Symbols
The following conventions are used in this document:This type style

Document names
Commands, arguments, options, file names

THIS_TYPE_STYLE<this type style>[ items ]{ item | item }Environment variables
Variables, or placeholders for actual values
Optional items
Selectable items separated by vertical bar(s)This type style

Related Information
To get more information about the Intel® MPI Library, explore the following resources:••

Intel® MPI Library Release Notes for updated information on requirements, technical support, and known
limitations.
Intel® MPI Library Developer Reference for in-depth knowledge of the product features, commands,
options, and environment variables.

For additional resources, see:•••Intel® MPI Library Product SiteIntel® Software Documentation LibraryIntel® Software Products Support

Installation and Prerequisites
This section describes the installation process and prerequisite steps.
•••

Installation
Prerequisite StepsUser Authorization

Installation
New Installations
The Intel® MPI Library is part of the Intel® HPC Toolkit (HPC Kit), which includes a variety of tools to help you
build, analyze, and deploy HPC applications. You can download the HPC Kit directly or visit the HPC Kit
product page for information on downloading a stand-alone or runtime version of the Intel MPI Library.

UpgradingIf you have a previous version of the Intel® MPI Library for Windows* OS installed, you do not need touninstall it before installing a newer version.
To install the Intel MPI Library, double-click on the distribution file w_mpi_oneapi_p_<version>.<package-num>.exe.

4Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

1

You will be asked to choose a directory in which the contents of the self-extracting installation file will beplaced before the actual installation begins. After installation, the files will still be located in this directory. Bydefault, C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Download is used on machines with Intel® 64 architecture.
Follow the prompts outlined by the installation wizard to complete the installation.
NOTE You need domain administrator rights when you install the Intel® MPI Library on the Microsoft
Windows* OS. Otherwise, you cannot proceed with the Active Directory* setup. See the Intel® MPI
Library Developer Reference for more Active Directory setup information.

Prerequisite Steps
Before you start using any of the Intel® MPI Library functionality, make sure to establish the proper
environment settings:
1.

Set up the Intel MPI Library environment by running the setvars.bat file, which is found in yourinstallation directory (by default, C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\oneAPI\mpi\<version> ).
NOTE You must run setvars at the start of each command-line session unless you are using
Microsoft Visual Studio for Windows* (Visual Studio runs setvars automatically). See the Intel HPC
Toolkit Get Started Guide for more details, including options for automatic setup of environment
settings.

NOTE If you are using Intel MPI in a Unified Directory Layout, set the environment variables using the

C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\oneAPI\<toolkit-version-number>\oneapi_setvars.bat

script instead. To understand more about the Unified Directory Layout, including how the environmentis initialized and the advantages of using the layout, see Use the setvars and oneapi-vars Scripts with
Windows*.

2.

To run an MPI application on a cluster, the Intel MPI Library needs to know names of all its nodes.
Create a text file listing the cluster node names. The format of the file is one name per line, and thelines starting with # are ignored. To get the name of a node, use the hostname utility.
A sample host file may look as follows:> type hosts# This line is ignored
clusternode1
clusternode2
clusternode3
clusternode4
Intel MPI uses PowerShell bootstrap by default. It is available by default and does not require any extra
steps. If you need more fine-grain setup information, refer to Microsoft PowerShell Setup Guide and read thefollowing topics: about_Remote_Requirements, Security Considerations for PowerShell Remoting using
WinRM, and about_Remote_Troubleshooting. You can also consider domain-based authorization as analternative to the default mechanism. However, this method requires additional configuration.
After completing these steps, you are ready to use the Intel MPI Library.

User Authorization
The Intel® MPI Library supports several authentication methods under the Microsoft Windows* OS:•PowerShell remoting (default)

5

1
•
•

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

Domain-based authorization with the delegation ability
Limited domain-based authorization

PowerShell remoting uses the system-preferred authentication method through domain-based authenticationor secure credentials passing; this is the recommended method for remote applications execution acrossnodes.
Additionally, Intel® MPI Library supports domain-based authorization with the delegation ability as well as
limited domain-based authorization. The domain-based authorization methods use the Security Service
Provider Interface (SSPI) provided by Microsoft* in the Windows* OS environment. The SSPI allows adomain to authenticate the user on the remote machine by the domain policies. You do not need to enter andstore your account name and password when using such methods.
NOTE Both domain-based authorization methods may increase MPI task launch time in comparison
with the password-based authorization. This depends on the domain configuration.

NOTE The limited domain-based authorization restricts your access to the network. You will not beable to open files on remote machines or access mapped network drives.
This feature is supported on clusters under Windows HPC Server 2012 R2. Microsoft's Kerberos Distribution
Center* must be enabled on your domain controller (this is the default behavior).
Using the domain-based authorization method with the delegation ability requires specific installation of thedomain. You can perform this installation by using the Intel® MPI Library installer if you have domain
administrator rights or by following the instructions below.

Active Directory* Setup
To enable the delegation in the Active Directory*, do the following:
1.
2.

Log in on the domain controller under the administrator account.
Enable the delegation for cluster nodes:
a.
b.
c.
d.

Go to Administrative Tools.
In the Active Directory Users and Computers administrative utility open the Computers list.
Right click on a desired computer object and select Properties.
Select the Delegation tab and check the Trust this computer for delegation to any service(Kerberos only) option.
Enable the delegation for users:

3.

a.
In the Active Directory Users and Computers administrative utility open the Users list.
b.
Right click on a desired user object and select Properties.
c.
Select the Account tab and disable the Account is sensitive and cannot be delegated option.
Make sure the Hydra service is installed and running on the cluster nodes. To check this, enter thecommand:4.

hydra_service -status
If the service is not running, use the following command to install and run it:

hydra_service -install
NOTE Run this command as an administrator.
5.

Register service principal name (SPN) for cluster nodes. Use one of the following methods forregistering SPN:

6

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OSa.

1

Use the setspn.exe utility from Microsoft*. For example, execute the following command on thedomain controller:> setspn.exe -A
impi_hydra/<host>:<port>/impi_hydra<host>
where:••b.

<host> is the cluster node name.
<port> is the Hydra port. The default value is 8679. Change this number only if your hydra

service uses the non-default port.
Log into each desired node under the administrator account and execute the command:> hydra_service -register_spn
NOTE In case of any issues with the MPI task start, reboot the machine from which the MPI task isstarted. Alternatively, execute this command: > klist purge

To select a user authorization method, use the I_MPI_AUTH_METHOD environment variable with thedelegate or impersonate argument, or set it to an empty value to use the default authentication method.
For more details, see the Developer Reference, section User Authorization.

Compiling and Linking
This section gives instructions on how to compile and link MPI applications using the command line andVisual Studio* :••Compiling an MPI program
Configuring a Visual Studio* Project

Compiling an MPI ProgramThis topic describes the basic steps required to compile and link an MPI program, using the Intel® MPI Library
SDK.
To simplify linking with MPI library files, Intel MPI Library provides a set of compiler wrapper scripts with the
mpi prefix for all supported compilers. To compile and link an MPI program, do the following:
1.

Make sure you have a compiler in your PATH environment variable. For example, to check if you havethe Intel® C/C++ Compiler, enter the command:> icl
If the command is not found, add the full path to your compiler into the PATH. For Intel® compilers, you
can run the script setvars.bat to set the required environment variables.
NOTE If you are using Intel MPI in a Unified Directory Layout, set the environment variables using the

C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\oneAPI\<toolkit-version-number>\oneapi_setvars.bat

script instead. To understand more about the Unified Directory Layout, including how the environmentis initialized and the advantages of using the layout, see Use the setvars and oneapi-vars Scripts with
Windows*.

2.

In the same command-line session, run the setvars.bat script in the installation directory to set theproper environment variables for the Intel MPI Library (the default installation directory location is
C:\Program Files(x86)\Intel\oneAPI\<version>

7

1
3.

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

Compile your MPI program using the appropriate compiler wrapper script. For example, to compile a C
program with the Intel® C Compiler, use the mpiicc script as follows:> mpiicc myprog.c -o myprog

You will get an executable file myprog.exe in the current directory, which you can start immediately. For
instructions of how to launch MPI applications, see Running an MPI Program.
NOTE By default, the resulting executable file is linked with the multi-threaded optimized library. If
you need to use another library configuration, see Selecting Library Configuration.
For details on the available compiler wrapper scripts, see the Developer Reference.

Compiling an MPI/OpenMP* Program
To compile a hybrid MPI/OpenMP* program using the Intel® compiler, use the /Qopenmp option. For example:> mpiicc /Qopenmp test.c
This enables the underlying compiler to generate multi-threaded code based on the OpenMP* pragmas in thesource. For details on running such programs, refer to Running an MPI/OpenMP* Program.

Test MPI Programs
The Intel® MPI Library comes with a set of source files for simple MPI programs that enable you to test yourinstallation. Test program sources are available for all supported programming languages and are located in
the test directory in your installation directory.

See Also
Compiler Commands

Configuring a Microsoft Visual Studio* Project
To configure a Microsoft Visual Studio* project with Intel® MPI Library, do the following:
1.
2.

In Microsoft Visual Studio*, create a console application project or open an existing one.
Open the project properties, go to Configuration Properties > Debugging and set the following
parameters:
Command: $(I_MPI_ONEAPI_ROOT)\bin\mpiexec.exe
Command arguments: -n <processes-number> "$(TargetPath)"
Environment: PATH=$(I_MPI_ONEAPI_ROOT)\bin\$(ConfigurationName);$(I_MPI_ONEAPI_ROOT)\libfabric\bin;$(PATH)
NOTE If you have installed the Microsoft Visual Studio* integration, go to Project > Properties >Intel Libraries for oneAPI > Use Intel MPI Library and set it to Yes. You can skip the steps
below.
3.

In Configuration Properties > C/C++ or Fortran, as appropriate, set the following parameter:

4.

Additional Include Directories: $(I_MPI_ONEAPI_ROOT)\include
In Configuration Properties > Linker, set the following parameter:
Additional Library Directories: $(I_MPI_ONEAPI_ROOT)\lib\$(ConfigurationName);$(I_MPI_ONEAPI_ROOT)\lib

5.

In Configuration Properties > Linker > Input, set the following parameters:•

8

For Fortran, set Additional Dependencies: impi.lib

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS•

1

For C++, set Additional Dependencies: impi.lib and impicxx.lib

After completing these steps, you can build the solution and run the application. To run the application from
Visual Studio, you can use the Ctrl + F5 key combination (Start Without Debugging). For other available
options, see Running Applications.

Running Applications
After you have compiled and linked your MPI application, you are ready to run it. This topic provides
instructions on how to run various MPI applications in various modes:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Running an MPI Program
Running an MPI/OpenMP* Program
MPMD Launch Mode
Selecting Fabrics
Selecting Library Configuration
libfabric* Support
Job Schedulers Support
Controlling Process Placement

Running Intel® MPI Library in Containers
A container is a self-contained execution environment platform that enable flexibility and portability of yourMPI appliction. It lets you package an application and its dependencies in a virtual container that can run on
an operating system, such as Linux*.
This guide describes the use of the Intel® MPI Library with the Singularity* container type.

Singularity Containers
Singularity* is a lightweight container model aligned with the needs of high performance computing (HPC).
Singularity has a built-in support of MPI and allows you to leverage the resources of the host you are on,
including HPC interconnects, resource managers, and accelerators.
This chapter provides information on running Intel® MPI Library in a Singularity container built from a recipe
file. To run Intel® MPI Library in a Singularity environment, do the following:
1.

Make sure you have the following components installed on each machine of a cluster:

2.
3.

a.
Singularity (version not lower than 3.0).
b.
A container including your application.
c.
Intel MPI Library.
Create a Singularity recipe file and use it to build a container.
Run your MPI application from the Singularity container.

Build a Singularity* Container for an MPI Application
There are several ways to build Singularity* containers described in the Singularity official documentation.
This section demonstrates how to build a container for an MPI application from scratch using recipes.
Singularity recipes are files that include software requirements, environment variables, metadata, and otheruseful details for designing a custom container.

Recipe File Structure
A recipe file consists of the header and sections. The header part defines the core operating system and corepackages to be installed. In particular:•

Bootstrap - specifies the bootstrap module.

9

1
•

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

OSVersion - specifies the OS version. Required if only you have specified the %{OSVERSION} variable in
MirrorURL.
MirrorURL - specifies the URL to use as a mirror to download the OS.
Include - specifies additional packages to be installed into the core OS (optional).

••

The content of a recipe file is divided into sections that execute commands at different times during the build
process. The build process stops if a command fails. The main sections of a recipe are:••••%help - provides help information.
%setup - executes commands on the host system outside of the container after the base OS is installed.
%post - executes commands within the container after the base OS has been installed at build time.
%environment - adds environment variables sourced at runtime. If you need environment variables
sourced during build time, define them in the %post section.

Build a Container
After the recipe file is created, use it to create a Singularity container. The example below shows how to build
a container with default parameters:$ singularity build mpi.img ./Singularity_recipe_mpi

Run the Application with a Container
You can choose from three usage models for running your application using a Singularity* container:
1.
2.
3.

Everything packed into a single container
The Intel MPI Library installed both inside and outside the container
The Intel MPI Library outside the container

Usage model 1: Everything packed into a single container
This approach presumes that the Intel® MPI library, target application, and all its dependencies are packed
into a container.
Recipe file

BootStrap: yum
OSVersion: 8
MirrorURL: http://linux-ftp.jf.intel.com/pub/mirrors/centos/8/BaseOS/$basearch/os/
Include: yum%environment
source /opt/intel/oneapi/mpi/latest/env/vars.sh%postexport http_proxy=http://***
yum repolist
yum install -y yum-utils
tee > /tmp/oneAPI.repo << EOF[oneAPI]
name=Intel(R) oneAPI repository
baseurl=https://yum.repos.intel.com/oneapi
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://yum.repos.intel.com/intel-gpg-keys/GPG-PUB-KEY-INTEL-SW-PRODUCTS.PUB
EOF
mv /tmp/oneAPI.repo /etc/yum.repos.dyum install -y intel-oneapi-mpi*
yum install -y sudo wget vi which numactl bzip2 tar gcc hostname util-linux redhat-lsb opensshserver openssh-clients
Launch10

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

1When recipe is created, execute the following command:> singularity exec <container-name> mpirun -n <number-of-processes> -ppn <processes-per-node> hostlist <hosts> <application>

Usage model 2: The Intel MPI Library installed both inside and outside the container
In this approach, additional dependency on hosts (for example, external mpirun) is required. Each rank is aseparate Singularity container instance execution.
Recipe file

BootStrap: yum
OSVersion: 8
MirrorURL: http://linux-ftp.jf.intel.com/pub/mirrors/centos/8/BaseOS/$basearch/os/
Include: yum%environment
source /opt/intel/oneapi/mpi/latest/env/vars.sh%postexport http_proxy=http://***
yum repolist
yum install -y yum-utils
tee > /tmp/oneAPI.repo << EOF[oneAPI]
name=Intel(R) oneAPI repository
baseurl=https://yum.repos.intel.com/oneapi
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://yum.repos.intel.com/intel-gpg-keys/GPG-PUB-KEY-INTEL-SW-PRODUCTS.PUB
EOF
mv /tmp/oneAPI.repo /etc/yum.repos.dyum install -y intel-oneapi-mpi*
yum install -y sudo wget vi which numactl bzip2 tar gcc hostname util-linux redhat-lsb
LaunchWhen recipe is created, execute the following command:> mpiexec -n <number-of-processes> -ppn <processes-per-node> -hostlist <hosts> singularity exec
<container-name> <application>

Usage model 3: The Intel MPI Library outside the container
In this approach, additional dependency on hosts (for example, external mpirun) is required. Each host has asingle Singularity container instance executed for all ranks.
Recipe file

BootStrap: yum
OSVersion: 8
MirrorURL: http://linux-ftp.jf.intel.com/pub/mirrors/centos/8/BaseOS/$basearch/os/
Include: yum%environment
source /opt/intel/oneapi/mpi/latest/env/vars.sh%postexport http_proxy=http://***
yum repolist
yum install -y yum-utils
tee > /tmp/oneAPI.repo << EOF[oneAPI]
name=Intel(R) oneAPI repository111Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

baseurl=https://yum.repos.intel.com/oneapi
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://yum.repos.intel.com/intel-gpg-keys/GPG-PUB-KEY-INTEL-SW-PRODUCTS.PUB
EOF
mv /tmp/oneAPI.repo /etc/yum.repos.dyum install -y intel-oneapi-mpi*
yum install -y sudo wget vi which numactl bzip2 tar gcc hostname util-linux redhat-lsb opensshserver openssh-clients
LaunchWhen recipe is created, execute the following command:> singularity shell --bind <path-to-mpi-installation-on-hosts:/mnt> mpiexec -n <number-ofprocesses> -ppn <processes-per-node> -hostlist <hosts> <application>

See Also
Singularity Official Documentation

Selecting a Library Configuration
You can specify a particular configuration of the Intel® MPI Library to be used, depending on your purposes.
This can be a library optimized for multi-threading debug or release version with the global lock.
To specify the configuration, run the vars.bat file with the -i_mpi_library_kind environment variable
and the release or debug. For example:> <install-dir>\env\vars.bat -i_mpi_library_kind=release-i_mpi_library_kind environment variable sets the library configuration. See the Intel® MPI Library
Developer Reference for details.

You can use the following arguments:
Argument

Definition

releaseSet this argument to use multi-threaded optimized library(with the global lock). This is the default value
Set this argument to use multi-threaded debug library(with the global lock)debug

NOTE You do not need to recompile the application to change the configuration. Run the vars.bat filewith appropriate arguments before an application launch.
If you want to enable or disable usage of libfabric* from the Intel MPI Library, set the i_mpi_ofi_internal environment variable. See the Intel® MPI Library Developer Reference for details.

Running an MPI Program
Before running an MPI program, place it to a shared location and make sure it is accessible from all cluster
nodes. Alternatively, you can have a local copy of your program on all the nodes. In this case, make sure thepaths to the program match.
Run the MPI program using the mpiexec command. The command line syntax is as follows:> mpiexec -n <number-of-processes> -ppn <processes-per-node> -f <hostfile> myprog.exe

12Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

1For example:> mpiexec -n 4 -ppn 2 -f hosts myprog.exe
The mpiexec command launches the Hydra process manager, which controls the execution of your MPI
program on the cluster.
In the command line above:•-n sets the number of MPI processes to launch; if the option is not specified, or uses the number of coreson the machine.
-ppn sets the number of processes to launch on each node; if the option is not specified, processes are
assigned to the physical cores on the first node; if the number of cores is exceeded, the next node isused.
-f specifies the path to the host file listing the cluster nodes; alternatively, you can use the -hosts
option to specify a comma-separated list of nodes; if hosts are not specified, the local node is used.
myprog.exe is the name of your MPI program.

•••

For the list of all available options, run mpiexec with the -help option, or see section mpiexec.hydra in theIntel® MPI Library Developer Reference.

See Also
Controlling Process Placement
Job Schedulers Support

Running an MPI/OpenMP* Program
To run a hybrid MPI/OpenMP* program, follow these steps:
1.

Make sure the thread-safe (debug or release, as desired) Intel® MPI Library configuration is enabled(release is the default version). To switch to such a configuration, run vars.bat with the appropriate
argument. See Selecting Library Configuration for details. For example:> vars.bat releaseSet the I_MPI_PIN_DOMAIN environment variable to specify the desired process pinning scheme. The
recommended value is omp:

2.

> set I_MPI_PIN_DOMAIN=omp
This sets the process pinning domain size to be equal to OMP_NUM_THREADS. Therefore, if for example
OMP_NUM_THREADS is equal to 4, each MPI process can create up to four threads within thecorresponding domain (set of logical processors). If OMP_NUM_THREADS is not set, each node is treatedas a separate domain, which allows as many threads per MPI process as there are cores.

NOTE For pinning OpenMP* threads within the domain, use the Intel® compiler KMP_AFFINITY
environment variable. See the Intel compiler documentation for more details.
3.

Run your hybrid program as a regular MPI program. You can set the OMP_NUM_THREADS and
I_MPI_PIN_DOMAIN variables directly in the launch command. For example:> mpiexec -n 4 -genv OMP_NUM_THREADS=4 -genv I_MPI_PIN_DOMAIN=omp myprog.exe

See Also
Intel® MPI Library Developer Reference, section Tuning Reference > Process Pinning > > Interoperability with
OpenMP*.

13

1Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

MPMD Launch ModeIntel® MPI Library supports the multiple programs, multiple data (MPMD) launch mode. There are two ways
to do this.
The easiest way is to create a configuration file and pass it to the -configfile option. A configuration fileshould contain a set of arguments for mpiexec, one group per line. For example:> type mpmd_config-n 1 -host node1 io.exe <io_args>-n 4 -host node2 compute.exe <compute_args_1>-n 4 -host node3 compute.exe <compute_args_2> mpiexec -configfile mpmd_config
Alternatively, you can pass a set of options to the command line by separating each group with a colon:> mpiexec -n 1 -host node1 io.exe <io_args> :^-n 4 -host node2 compute.exe <compute_args_1> :^-n 4 -host node3 compute.exe <compute_args_2>
The examples above are equivalent. The io program is launched as one process on node1, and the computeprogram is launched on node2 and node3 as four processes on each.
When an MPI job is launched, the working directory is set to the working directory of the machine where thejob is launched. To change this, use the -wdir <path>.
Use -env <var> <value> to set an environment variable for only one argument set. Using -genv instead
applies the environment variable to all argument sets. By default, all environment variables are propagatedfrom the environment during the launch.

Fabrics Control
The Intel® MPI Library switched from the Open Fabrics Alliance* (OFA) framework to the Open Fabrics
Interfaces* (OFI) framework and currently supports libfabric*.
NOTE The supported fabric environment has changed since Intel® MPI Library 2019. The dapl andtcp
fabrics are now deprecated.
OFI is a framework focused on exporting communication services to applications. OFI is specifically designed
to meet the performance and scalability requirements of high-performance computing (HPC) applications
running in a tightly coupled network environment. The key components of OFI are application interfaces,
provider libraries, kernel services, daemons, and test applications.
Libfabric is a library that defines and exports the user-space API of OFI, and is typically the only softwarethat applications deal with directly. The libfabric's API does not depend on the underlying networking
protocols, as well as on the implementation of the particular networking devices, over which it may be
implemented. OFI is based on the notion of application centric I/O, meaning that the libfabric library isdesigned to align fabric services with application needs, providing a tight semantic fit between applications
and the underlying fabric hardware. This reduces overall software overhead and improves application
efficiency when transmitting or receiving data over a fabric.
For more information, refer to the following topics:•••

Selecting Fabrics
Libfabric* Support
OFI* Providers Support

Selecting Fabrics
Intel® MPI Library enables you to select a communication fabric at runtime without having to recompile yourapplication. By default, it automatically selects the most appropriate fabric based on your software andhardware configuration. This means that in most cases you do not have to bother about manually selecting afabric.

14

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

1However, in certain situations specifying a particular communication fabric can boost performance of yourapplication. The following fabrics are available:
FabricNetwork hardware and software used

shm
ofi

Shared memory (for intra-node communication only).
OpenFabrics Interfaces* (OFI)-capable network fabrics,
such as Intel® Omni-Path Architecture, InfiniBand* andEthernet (through OFI API).

Use the I_MPI_FABRICS environment variable to specify a fabric. The description is available in the topic
Communication Fabrics Control in the Intel® MPI Library Developer Reference.

Libfabric* Support
The Intel® MPI Library switched from the Open Fabrics Alliance* (OFA) framework to the Open Fabrics
Interfaces* (OFI) framework and currently supports libfabric*.

Enabling Libfabric Support
By default, the script that sets the environmental variables (vars.bat) sets the environment to libfabricshipped with the Intel MPI Library. To disable this, use the I_MPI_OFI_LIBRARY_INTERNAL environment
variable or the -i_mpi_ofi_internal option passed to the script:# Do not set the environment to libfabric from the Intel MPI Library.
> call <install-dir>\env\vars.bat -i_mpi_ofi_internal=0# Set the environment to libfabric from the Intel MPI Library.
> call <install-dir>\env\vars.bat -i_mpi_ofi_internal=1
NOTE Set the I_MPI_DEBUG environment variable to 1 before running an MPI application to see thelibfabric version and provider.

Example> set I_MPI_DEBUG=1> mpiexec -n 2 IMB-MPI1 pingpong[0] MPI startup(): libfabric version: 1.5.3-impi[0] MPI startup(): libfabric provider: sockets...

Supported Providers••

tcp
netdirSee Also••

Intel® MPI LIbrary 2019 over libfabric"OFI-Capable Network Fabrics Control" in the Intel MPI Library Developer Reference

OFI* Providers Support
Intel® MPI Library supports tcp, netdir, psm2,, verbs, and RxM OFI* providers. Each OFI provider is built as aseparate dynamic library to ensure that a single libfabric* library can be run on top of different network
adapters.

151Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

NOTE Use the environment variable FI_PROVIDER to select a provider. Set the FI_PROVIDER_PATH
environment variable to specify the path to provider libraries.
To get a full list of environment variables available for configuring OFI, run the following command:> fi_info-etcp
The TCP provider is a general purpose provider for the Intel MPI Library that can be used on any system that
supports TCP sockets to implement the libfabric API. The provider lets you run the Intel MPI Library
application over regular Ethernet, in a cloud environment that has no specific fast interconnect (e.g., GCP,
Ethernet empowered Azure*, and AWS* instances) or using IPoIB.
The following runtime parameters can be used:
Name

Description

FI_TCP_IFACE
FI_TCP_PORT_LOW_RANGE

Specifies a particular network interface.

FI_TCP_PORT_HIGH_RANGE

Sets the range of ports to be used by the TCP provider for its passive endpoint
creation. This is useful when only a range of ports are allowed by the firewall
for TCP connections.

netdir
The NETDIR provider runs over NetworkDirect* interface for the compatible hardware. The following runtime
parameters can be used:
Name

Description

FI_NETDIR_MR_CACHE

Enables memory registration cache (default: 0)

FI_NETDIR_MR_CACHE_MAX_SIZ
E

Sets the maximum memory registration cache size (default: mem/
core_count/2)

psm2
The PSM2 provider runs over the PSM 2.x interface supported by the Intel® Omni-Path Fabric. PSM 2.x has all
the PSM 1.x features, plus a set of new functions with enhanced capabilities. Since PSM 1.x and PSM 2.x are
not application binary interface (ABI) compatible, the PSM2 provider works with PSM 2.x only and does notsupport Intel® True Scale Fabric.
The following runtime parameters can be used:
Name

Description

FI_PSM2_INJECT_SIZE

Define the maximum message size allowed for fi_inject and fi_tinject
calls. The default value is 64.

FI_PSM2_LAZY_CONN

Control the connection mode established between PSM2 endpoints
that OFI endpoints are built on top of. When set to 0 (eager
connection mode), connections are established when addresses areinserted into the address vector. When set to 1 (lazy connectionmode), connections are established when addresses are used the firsttime in communication.
NOTE Lazy connection mode may reduce the start-up time on large
systems at the expense of higher data path overhead.

16

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

1

verbs
The verbs provider enables applications using OFI to be run over any verbs hardware (InfiniBand*, iWarp*,
and so on). It uses the Linux Verbs API for network transport and provides a translation of OFI calls toappropriate verbs API calls. It uses librdmacm for communication management and libibverbs for othercontrol and data transfer operations.
The verbs provider uses RxM utility provider to emulate FI_EP_RDM endpoint over verbs FI_EP_MSG endpointby default. The verbs provider with FI_EP_RDM endpoint can be used instead of RxM by setting the
FI_PROVIDER=^ofi_rxm runtime parameter.
The following runtime parameters can be used:Name

FI_VERBS_INLINE_SIZE

Description
Define the maximum message size allowed for fi_inject and fi_tinject
calls. The default value is 64.

FI_VERBS_IFACE

Define the prefix or the full name of the network interface associated with theverbs device. The default value is ib.

FI_VERBS_MR_CACHE_ENABLE

Enable Memory Registration caching. The default value is 0. Set thisenvironment variable to enable the memory registration cache.
NOTE Cache usage substantially improves performance, but may lead tocorrectness issues.

Dependencies
The verbs provider requires libibverbs (v1.1.8 or newer) and librdmacm (v1.0.16 or newer). If you arecompiling libfabric from source and want to enable verbs support, it is essential to have the matching header
files for the above two libraries. If the libraries and header files are not in default paths, specify them in the
CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, and LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables.

RxM
The RxM (RDM over MSG) provider (ofi_rxm) is a utility provider that supports FI_EP_RDM endpointemulated over FI_EP_MSG endpoint of the core provider.
The RxM provider requires the core provider to support the following features:••••

MSG endpoints (FI_EP_MSG)
FI_MSG transport (to support data transfers)
FI_RMA transport (to support rendezvous protocol for large messages and RMA transfers)
FI_OPT_CM_DATA_SIZE of at least 24 bytes

The following runtime parameters can be used:
Name

Description

FI_OFI_RXM_BUFFER_SIZE

Define the transmit buffer size/inject size. Messages of smaller size aretransmitted via an eager protocol and those above would be transmitted via arendezvous protocol. Transmitted data is copied up to the specified size. Bydefault, the size is 16k.

FI_OFI_RXM_SAR_LIMIT

Сontrol the RxM SAR (Segmentation аnd Reassembly) protocol. Messages ofgreater size are transmitted via rendezvous protocol.

FI_OFI_RXM_USE_SRX

Control the RxM receive path. If the variable is set to 1, the RxM uses
Shared Receive Context of the core provider. The default value is 0.

17

1Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

Name

Description

NOTE Setting this variable to 1 improves memory consumption, but may
increase small message latency as a side-effect.

Job Schedulers Support
The Intel® MPI Library supports the majority of commonly used job schedulers in the HPC field.
The following job schedulers are supported on Windows* OS:••Microsoft HPC Pack*
Altair PBS Pro*

Microsoft HPC Pack*
The Intel MPI Library job startup command mpiexec can be called out of Microsoft HPC Job Scheduler to
execute an MPI application. In this case, the mpiexec command automatically inherits the host list, processcount, and the working directory allocated to the job.
Use the following command to submit an MPI job:

> job submit /numprocessors:4 /stdout:test.out mpiexec -delegate test.exe
Make sure the mpiexec and dynamic libraries are available in PATH.

Altair* PBS Pro*
The Intel MPI Library job startup command mpiexec can be called out of PBS Pro job scheduler to execute an
MPI application. In this case, the mpiexec command automatically inherits the host list, process countallocated to the job if they were not specified manually by the user. mpiexec reads %PBS_NODEFILE%
environment variable to count a number of processes and uses it as a machine file.
Example of a job script contents:

REM PBS -l nodes=4:ppn=2
REM PBS -l walltime=1:00:00
cd %PBS_O_WORKDIR%
mpiexec test.exe
Use the following command to submit the job:> qsub -C "REM PBS" jobmpiexec will run two processes on each of four nodes for this job.

Controlling Per-Host Process Placement
When using a job scheduler, by default the Intel MPI Library uses per-host process placement provided by
the scheduler. This means that the -ppn option has no effect. To change this behavior and control process
placement through -ppn (and related options and variables), use the
I_MPI_JOB_RESPECT_PROCESS_PLACEMENT environment variable:> set I_MPI_JOB_RESPECT_PROCESS_PLACEMENT=off

18

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

1

Controlling Process Placement
Placement of MPI processes over the cluster nodes plays a significant role in application performance. Intel®
MPI Library provides several options to control process placement.
By default, when you run an MPI program, the process manager launches all MPI processes specified with -non the current node. If you use a job scheduler, processes are assigned according to the information received
from the scheduler.

Specifying Hosts
You can explicitly specify the nodes on which you want to run the application using the -hosts option. This
option takes a comma-separated list of node names as an argument. Use the -ppn option to specify the
number of processes per node. For example:> mpiexec -n 4 -ppn 2 -hosts node1,node2 testc.exe
Hello world: rank 0 of 4 running on node1
Hello world: rank 1 of 4 running on node1
Hello world: rank 2 of 4 running on node2
Hello world: rank 3 of 4 running on node2
To get the name of a node, use the hostname utility.
An alternative to using the -hosts option is creation of a host file that lists the cluster nodes. The format of
the file is one name per line, and the lines starting with # are ignored. Use the -f option to pass the file to
mpi exec. For example:> type hosts#nodesnode1
node2> mpiexec -n 4 -ppn 2 -f hosts testc.exe
This program launch produces the same output as the previous example.
If the -ppn option is not specified, the process manager assigns as many processes to the first node as there
are physical cores on it. Then the next node is used. That is, assuming there are four cores on node1 andyou launch six processes overall, four processes are launched on node1, and the remaining two processes
are launched on node2. For example:> mpiexec -n 6 -hosts node1,node2 testc.exe
Hello world: rank 0 of 6 running on node1
Hello world: rank 1 of 6 running on node1
Hello world: rank 2 of 6 running on node1
Hello world: rank 3 of 6 running on node1
Hello world: rank 4 of 6 running on node2
Hello world: rank 5 of 6 running on node2
NOTE If you use a job scheduler, specifying hosts is unnecessary. The processes manager uses thehost list provided by the scheduler.

191Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

Using a Machine File
A machine file is similar to a host file with the only difference that you can assign a specific number ofprocesses to particular nodes directly in the file. Contents of a sample machine file may look as follows:> type machinesnode1:2
node2:2
Specify the file with the -machine option. Running a simple test program produces the following output:> mpiexec -machine machines testc.exe
Hello world: rank 0 of 4 running on node1
Hello world: rank 1 of 4 running on node1
Hello world: rank 2 of 4 running on node2
Hello world: rank 3 of 4 running on node2

Using Argument Sets
Argument sets are unique groups of arguments specific to a particular node. Combined together, theargument sets make up a single MPI job. You can provide argument sets on the command line, or in aconfiguration file. To specify a node, use the -host option.
On the command line, argument sets should be separated by a colon ':'. Global options (applied to allargument sets) should appear first, and local options (applied only to the current argument set) should bespecified within an argument set. For example:> mpiexec-genv I_MPI_DEBUG=2 -host node1 -n 2 testc.exe : -host node1 -n 2 testc.exe

In the configuration file, each argument set should appear on a new line. Global options should appear on thefirst line of the file. For example:> type config-genv I_MPI_DEBUG=2-host node1 -n 2 testc.exe-host node2 -n 2 testc.exe
Specify the configuration file with the -configfile option:> mpiexec -configfile config
Hello world: rank 0 of 4 running on node1
Hello world: rank 1 of 4 running on node1
Hello world: rank 2 of 4 running on node2
Hello world: rank 3 of 4 running on node2

See Also
Controlling Process Placement with the Intel® MPI Library (online article)
Job Schedulers Support

Java* MPI Applications Support
The Intel® MPI Library provides an experimental feature to enable support for Java MPI applications. Javabindings are available for a subset of MPI-2 routines. For a full list of supported routines, refer to theDeveloper Reference, section Miscellaneous > Java Bindings for MPI-2 Routines.

Running Java MPI applications
Follow these steps to set up the environment and run your Java MPI application:
1.

Source mpivars.sh from the Intel® MPI Library package to set up all required environment variables,
including LIBRARY_PATH and CLASSPATH.

20

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

2.
3.

1

Build your Java MPI application as usual.
Update CLASSPATH with the path to the jar application or pass it explicitly with the -cp option of thejava command.
Run your Java MPI application using the following command:4.

> mpirun <options> java <app>where:••<options> is a list of mpirun options<app> is the main class of your Java application

For example:> mpirun -n 8 -ppn 1 -f ./hostfile java mpi.samples.Allreduce

Development Recommendations
You can use the following tips when developing Java* MPI applications:•

To reduce memory footprint, you can use Java direct buffers as buffer parameters of collective operationsin addition to using Java arrays. This approach allows you to allocate the memory out of the JVM heap andavoid additional memory copying when passing the pointer to the buffer from JVM to the native layer.
When you create Java MPI entities such as Group, Comm, Datatype, and similar, memory is allocated on
the native layer and is not tracked by the garbage collector. Therefore, this memory must be released
explicitly. Pointers to the allocated memory are stored in a special pool and can be deallocated using oneof the following methods:••

entity.free(): frees the memory backing the entity Java object, which can be an instance ofComm, Group, etc.
• AllocablePool.remove(entity): frees the memory backing the entity Java object, which can be
an instance of Comm, Group, etc.
• AllocablePool.cleanUp(): explicitly deallocates the memory backing all Java MPI objects createdby that moment.
•

MPI.Finalize(): implicitly deallocates the memory backing all Java MPI objects and that has notbeen explicitly deallocated by that moment.

Debugging Applications
This section explains how to debug MPI applications using the debugger tools:••

Debugging
Using -gtool for Debugging

Debugging
The Intel® MPI Library supports the GDB* and Allinea* DDT debuggers for debugging MPI applications.
Before using a debugger, make sure you have the application debug symbols available. To generate debug
symbols, compile your application with the -g option.

GDB*: The GNU Project Debugger
Use the following command to launch the GDB debugger with Intel® MPI Library:>mpiexec -gdb -n 4 testc.exe

You can work with the GDB debugger as you usually do with a single-process application. For details on how
to work with parallel programs, see the GDB documentation at https://sourceware.org/gdb/onlinedocs/gdb/
Inferiors-Connections-and-Programs.html#Inferiors-Connections-and-Programs.

21

1Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

You can also attach to a running job with:>mpiexec -n 4 -gdba <pid>

Where <pid> is the process ID for the running MPI process.

DDT* Debugger
You can debug MPI applications using the Allinea DDT* debugger. Intel does not provide support for thisdebugger, you should obtain the support from Allinea. According to the DDT documentation, DDT supports
the Express Launch feature for the Intel MPI Library. You can debug your application as follows:> ddt mpiexec -n <number-of-processes> [<other-mpirun-arguments>] <executable>
If you have issues with the DDT debugger, refer to the DDT documentation for help.

See Also
Using -gtool for Debugging

Using -gtool for Debugging
The -gtool runtime option can help you with debugging, when attaching to several processes at once.
Instead of attaching to each process individually, you can specify all the processes in a single command line.
For example:> mpiexec -n 16 -gtool "gdb:3,5,7-9=attach" myprog.exe
The command line above attaches the GNU* Debugger (GDB*) to processes 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9.

See Also
Intel® MPI Library Developer Reference, topic gtool Options.

Analysis and Tuning
Intel® MPI Library provides a variety of options for analyzing MPI applications. Some of these options areavailable within the Intel MPI Library, while some require additional analysis tools. For such tools, Intel MPI
Library provides compilation and runtime options and environment variables for easier interoperability.

Displaying MPI Debug Information
The I_MPI_DEBUG environment variable provides a convenient way to get detailed information about an MPI
application at runtime. You can set the variable value from 0 (the default value) to 1000. The higher thevalue, the more debug information you get. For example:> mpiexec -genv I_MPI_DEBUG=2 -n 2 testc.exe-genv I_MPI_DEBUG=2 -n 2 testc[1] MPI startup(): Internal info: pinning initialization wasdone[0] MPI startup(): Internal info: pinning initialization was done...
NOTE High values of I_MPI_DEBUG can output a lot of information and significantly reduce
performance of your application. A value of I_MPI_DEBUG=5 is generally a good starting point, which
provides sufficient information to find common errors.
By default, each printed line contains the MPI rank number and the message. You can also print additional
information in front of each message, like process ID, time, host name and other information, or exclude
some information printed by default. You can do this in two ways:

22

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS•

1

Add the '+' sign in front of the debug level number. In this case, each line is prefixed by the string<rank>#<pid>@<hostname>. For example:> mpiexec -genv I_MPI_DEBUG=+2 -n 2 testc.exe[0#3520@clusternode1] MPI startup(): Multi-threaded optimized library...
To exclude any information printed in front of the message, add the '-' sign in a similar manner.
Add the appropriate flag after the debug level number to include or exclude some information. For
example, to include time but exclude the rank number:•> mpiexec -genv I_MPI_DEBUG=2,time,norank -n 2 testc.exe
11:59:59 MPI startup(): Multi-threaded optimized library...
For the list of all available flags, see the description of I_MPI_DEBUG in the Developer Reference.
To redirect the debug information output from stdout to stderr or a text file, use the

I_MPI_DEBUG_OUTPUT environment variable:> mpiexec -genv I_MPI_DEBUG=2 -genv I_MPI_DEBUG_OUTPUT=debug_output.txt -n 2 testc.exe
Note that the output file name should not be longer than 256 symbols.

See Also
Intel® MPI Library Developer Reference, topic Other Environment Variables.

Tracing Applications
The Intel® MPI Library provides a variety of options for analyzing MPI applications. Some of these options areavailable within the Intel MPI Library, while some require additional analysis tools. For these tools, the IntelMPI Library provides compilation and runtime options and environment variables for easier interoperability.
The Intel MPI Library is tightly integrated with the Intel® Trace Analyzer and Collector, which enables you toanalyze and debug MPI applications. The Intel MPI Library has several compile-time options to simplify theapplication analysis.
Intel Trace Analyzer and Collector is available as standalone software and as part of the Intel® HPC Toolkit.
Before proceeding to the next steps, make sure you have the product installed.

Trace an Application
To analyze an application, first you need generate a trace file of your application, and then open this file inIntel® Trace Analyzer to analyze communication patterns, time utilization, and other elements. Tracing is
performed by linking with the Intel Trace Collector profiling library, which intercepts all MPI calls andgenerates a trace file. Intel MPI Library provides the -trace (-t) compiler option to simplify this process.
Complete the following steps:
1.

Set up the environment for the compiler, Intel MPI Library, and Intel Trace Analyzer and Collector.

> run <compiler-install-dir>\env\vars.bat> run <itac-install-dir>\env\vars.bat
2.

Relink your application with the Intel Trace Collector profiling library and run the application:> mpiicc -trace myprog.c> mpiexec -n 4 myprog.exe
3.

As a result, a trace file .stf is generated. For the example above, it is myprog.stf.
Analyze the application with the Intel Trace Analyzer:> traceanalyzer myprog.stf

231Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

The workflow above is the most common scenario of tracing with the Intel Trace Collector. For other tracing
scenarios, see the Intel Trace Collector documentation.

See Also
Intel Trace Collector User and Reference Guide

MPI Tuning
Intel® MPI Library provides an Autotuner utility: Autotuner

Autotuner
If an application is spending significant time in MPI collective operations, autotuning might improve its
performance. Autotuner is easy-to-use, and its overhead is very low.
The autotuner utility tuning scope is the I_MPI_ADJUST_<opname> family of environment variables, which
are MPI collective operation algorithms. Autotuner limits tuning to the current cluster configuration (fabric,
number of ranks, number of ranks per node). It works while an application is running, so performance could
be potentially improved just by enabling the autotuner. It is also possible to generate new tuning file with
MPI collective operations adjusted to application needs, and this file can be further passed to the
I_MPI_TUNING_BIN variable.

TroubleshootingThis section provides the troubleshooting information on typical MPI failures with corresponding output
messages and behavior when a failure occurs.
If you encounter errors or failures when using the Intel® MPI Library, take the following generaltroubleshooting steps first:
1.
2.

Check the Intel® MPI Library System Requirements section and the Known Issues section in the Intel®
MPI Library Release Notes.
Check accessibility of the hosts. Run a simple non-MPI application (for example, the hostname utility)
on the problem hosts using mpiexec. For example:> mpiexec -ppn 1 -n 2 -hosts node01,node02 hostname
node01
node02
3.

4.
5.

This may help reveal an environmental problem, or a connectivity problem (such as unreachable hosts).
Run the MPI application with debug information enabled: set the environment variables
I_MPI_DEBUG=6 and/or I_MPI_HYDRA_DEBUG=on. Increase the integer value of debug level to get more
information. This action helps narrow down to the problematic component.
If you have the availability, download and install the latest version of Intel MPI Library from the official
product page and check if your problem persists.
If the problem still persists, you can submit a ticket via the Support page, or ask experts on thecommunity forum.

Error Message: Bad Termination
NOTE: The values in the tables below may not reflect the exact node or MPI process where a failure canoccur.

24

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

1

Case 1
Error Message====================================================================================BAD TERMINATION OF ONE OF YOUR APPLICATION PROCESSES=RANK 1 PID 27494 RUNNING AT node1=
KILLED BY SIGNAL: 11 (Segmentation fault)===================================================================================or:====================================================================================BAD TERMINATION OF ONE OF YOUR APPLICATION PROCESSES=RANK 1 PID 27494 RUNNING AT node1=
KILLED BY SIGNAL: 8 (Floating point exception)===================================================================================Cause
One of MPI processes is terminated by a signal (for example, Segmentation fault or Floating point

exception) on the node01.
Solution
Find the reason of the MPI process termination. It can be the out-of-memory issue in case of Segmentation

fault or division by zero in case of Floating point exception.

Case 2Error Message================================================================================= BAD TERMINATION OF ONE OF YOUR APPLICATION PROCESSES= RANK 1 PID 20066 RUNNING AT node01= KILLED BY SIGNAL: 9 (Killed)================================================================================Cause
One of MPI processes is terminated by a signal (for example, SIGTERM or SIGKILL) on the node01 due to:
•
•
•
•
•

the host reboot;an unexpected signal received;
out-of-memory manager (OOM) errors;
killing by the process manager (if another process was terminated before the current process);
job termination by the Job Scheduler (PBS Pro*, SLURM*) in case of resources limitation (for example,
walltime or cputime limitation).

Solution
1.
2.

Check the system log files.
Try to find the reason of the MPI process termination and fix the issue.

251Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

Error Message: No such file or Directory
Error Message[proxy:0:0@node1] HYD_spawn(../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/libhydra/spawn/hydra_spawn.c:113): execvp error on file {path tobinary file}/{binary file} (No such file or directory)
Cause
Wrong path to the binary file or the binary file does not exist on the node01. The name of the binary file ismisprinted or the shared space cannot be reached.
Solution
Check the name of the binary file and check if the shared path is available across all the nodes.

Error Message: Permission Denied
Case 1
Error Message[proxy:0:0@node1] HYD_spawn(../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/libhydra/spawn/hydra_spawn.c:113): execvp error on file {path tobinary file}/{binary file} (Permission denied)Cause
You do not have permissions to execute the binary file.
Solution
Check your execute permissions for {binary file} and for folders in {path to binary file}.

Case 2Error Message[proxy:0:0@node1] HYD_spawn(../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/libhydra/spawn/hydra_spawn.c:113): execvp error on file {path tobinary file}/{binary file} (Permission denied)Cause
You exceeded the limitation of 16 groups on Linux* OS.
Solution
Try reducing the number of groups.

Error Message: Fatal Error
Case 1
Error Message

Abort(1094543) on node 0 (rank 0 in comm 0): Fatal error in PMPI_Init: Other MPI error, error
stack:
MPIR_Init_thread(653)......:

26

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

1

MPID_Init(860).............:MPIDI_NM_mpi_init_hook(698): OFI addrinfo() failed(ofi_init.h:698:MPIDI_NM_mpi_init_hook:No data available)
Cause
The current provider cannot be run on these nodes. The MPI application is run over the psm2 provider on the
non-Intel® Omni-Path card or over the verbs provider on the non-InfiniBand*, non-iWARP, or non-RoCE card.
Solution
1.
2.

Change the provider or run MPI application on the right nodes. Use fi_info to get information about
the current provider.
Check if services are running on nodes (opafm for Intel® Omni-Path and opensmd for InfiniBand).

Case 2Error Message

Abort(6337423) on node 0 (rank 0 in comm 0): Fatal error in PMPI_Init_thread:
Other MPI error, error stack:…
MPIDI_OFI_send_handler(704)............: OFI tagged inject failed(ofi_impl.h:704:MPIDI_OFI_send_handler:Transport endpoint is not connected)
Cause
OFI transport uses IP interface without access to remote ranks.
Solution
Set FI_SOCKET_IFACE If the socket provider is used or FI_TCP_IFACE and FI_VERBS_IFACE in case of TCP
and verbs providers, respectively. To retrieve the list of configured and active IP interfaces, use theifconfig utility.

Case 3
Error Message

Abort(6337423) on node 0 (rank 0 in comm 0): Fatal error in PMPI_Init_thread:
Other MPI error, error stack:…
MPIDI_OFI_send_handler(704)............: OFI tagged inject failed(ofi_impl.h:704:MPIDI_OFI_send_handler:Transport endpoint is not connected)
Cause
Ethernet is used as an interconnection network.
Solution
Run FI_PROVIDER = sockets mpirun … to overcome this problem.

Error Message: Bad File Descriptor
Error Message[mpiexec@node00] HYD_sock_write (../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/libhydra/sock/hydra_sock_intel.c:353): write error (Bad file descriptor)[mpiexec@node00] cmd_bcast_root (../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/mpiexec/mpiexec.c:147): error
sending cwd cmd to proxy[mpiexec@node00] stdin_cb (../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/mpiexec/mpiexec.c:324): unable to send
response downstream271Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS[mpiexec@node00] HYDI_dmx_poll_wait_for_event (../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/libhydra/demux/
hydra_demux_poll.c:79): callback returned error status[mpiexec@node00] main (../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/mpiexec/mpiexec.c:2064): error waiting for
event
or:

[mpiexec@host1] wait_proxies_to_terminate (../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/mpiexec/intel/
i_mpiexec.c:389): downstream from host host2 exited with status 255
Cause
The remote hydra_pmi_proxy process is unavailable due to:••••the host reboot;an unexpected signal received;
out-of-memory manager (OOM) errors;
job termination by the Job Scheduler (PBS Pro*, SLURM*) in case of resources limitation (for example,
walltime or cputime limitation).

Solution
1.
2.

Check the system log files.
Try to find the reason of the hydra_pmi_proxy process termination and fix the issue.

Error Message: Too Many Open Files
Error Message[proxy:0:0@host1] HYD_spawn (../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/libhydra/spawn/intel/
hydra_spawn.c:57): pipe error (Too many open files)[proxy:0:0@host1] launch_processes (../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/proxy/proxy.c:509): error
creating process[proxy:0:0@host1] main (../../../../../src/pm/i_hydra/proxy/proxy.c:860): error
launching_processes
Cause
Too many processes per node are launched on Linux* OS.
Solution
Specify fewer processes per node by the -ppn option or the I_MPI_PERHOST environment variable.

Problem: MPI Application Hangs
Problem
MPI application hangs without any output.

Case 1
Cause
Application does not use MPI in a correct way.
Solution
Run your MPI application with the -check_mpi option to perform correctness checking. The correctness
checker is specifically designed to find MPI errors, and provides tight integration with the Intel® MPI Library.
In case of a deadlock, the checker will set up a one-minute timeout and show the state of each rank.
For more information, refer to this page.

28

Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

1

Case 2Cause
The remote service (for example, SSH) is not running on all nodes or it is not configured properly.
Solution
Check the state of the remote service on the nodes and connection to all nodes.

Case 3Cause
The Intel® MPI Library runtime scripts are not available, so the shared space cannot be reached.
Solution
Check if the shared path is available across all the nodes.

Case 4
Cause
Different CPU architectures are used in a single MPI run.
SolutionSet export I_MPI_PLATFORM=<arch> , where <arch> is the oldest platform you have, for example skx.
Note that usage of different CPU architectures in a single MPI job negatively affects application performance,
so it is recommended not to mix different CPU architecture in a single MPI job.

Problem: Password Required
ProblemPassword required.
Cause
The Intel® MPI Library uses SSH mechanism to access remote nodes. SSH requires password and this may
cause the MPI application hang.
Solution
1.
2.

Check the SSH settings.
Make sure that the passwordless authorization by public keys is enabled and configured.

Problem: Cannot Execute Binary File
ProblemCannot execute a binary file.
Cause
Wrong format or architecture of the binary executable file.
Solution
Check the accuracy of the binary file and command line options.

29

1Intel® MPI Library Developer Guide for Windows* OS

Problem: MPI limitation for Docker*
Problem
The command fails with the following message:[root@n1 /]# I_MPI_DEBUG=12 mpirun -n 2 -ppn 1 -env I_MPI_PIN_DOMAIN socket IMB-MPI1 bcast
impi_shm_heap_init(): mbind failed (p=0x7f3078b0e000, size=536870912)
impi_shm_heap_init(): mbind failed (p=0x7f9b808bc000, size=536870912)
Cause
MPI has a limitation on the dev/shm area. It should be not less than 4GB for a node with 2 sockets. By
default, the Docker* container set 64MB, which is not enough.
Solution
1.

Make sure the problem is the small size of shm area:$df -h /dev/shm
root@n1 /]# df -h /dev/shm
Filesystem
Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
shm
4.0G
0 4.0G
0% /dev/shm
2.

If it is true, restart Docker using the following command:

docker run --shm-size=4gb …

Notices and DisclaimersIntel technologies may require enabled hardware, software or service activation.
No product or component can be absolutely secure.
Your costs and results may vary.
© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its

subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are trademarks, or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporationin the United States and/or other countries.
Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at www.Intel.com/PerformanceIndex.
No license (express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise) to any intellectual property rights is granted by thisdocument.
The products described may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the productto deviate from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request.
Intel disclaims all express and implied warranties, including without limitation, the implied warranties ofmerchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, as well as any warranty arising fromcourse of performance, course of dealing, or usage in trade.

30