For what it's worth, I use `mpi-selector` to set a system-wide MPI implementation and then switch between them. This keeps MPI libraries from clashing when I build software from source. I'm not sure if the openSUSE packages use this method, but it works for packages I build myself really well. Are you building hdf5 and/or netcdf yourself? Cheers, Chris On Dec-08-18, Stefan Brüns wrote:

Hi,

I went through a few packages which have an openMPI dependency or support, and found it quite mixed up:

Currently, we have openmpi(1), openmpi2 and openmpi3 in Leap and TW. While openmpi3 is currently unused, openmpi1 and openmpi2 are both used, with similar frequency:

https://build.opensuse.org/package/binary/openSUSE:Factory/openmpi2:standard... standard/x86_64/openmpi2-libs-2.1.5-2.1.x86_64.rpm https://build.opensuse.org/package/binary/openSUSE:Factory/openmpi:standard/ standard/x86_64/openmpi-libs-1.10.7-21.1.x86_64.rpm

Several programs will end up with implicitly linking to both versions, as libnetcdf and hdf5 use openmpi1 and boost_mpi uses openmpi2. One example is vtk.

As both libraries (libmpi.so.12 and libmpi.so.20) export the same symbols for large parts, this is mayhem waiting to happen.

For SLE, different MPI versions/implementations are supported using the HPC modules, but for Leap/TW, we should obviously stick with *one* single canonical version.

Question now, which version to choose?

Apparently, openmpi2 does not work on all architectures (PPC, PPC64BE) [1], and is not supported by some software packages [2].

Are there any drawbacks for using openmpi1 everywhere in TW/Leap 15.x?

I have opened a bug report: https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi? id=1118861

Kind regards,

Stefan

[1] "Stay with openmpi(1) also on PPC", boost, 2018-10-01, https:// build.opensuse.org/request/show/639401 [2] "Cntk packages do not support OpenMPI 2+", https://github.com/Microsoft/ CNTK/issues/3197

-- Stefan Brüns / Bergstraße 21 / 52062 Aachen home: +49 241 53809034 mobile: +49 151 50412019

On Sat, Dec 8, 2018 at 2:53 PM Stefan Brüns wrote:

Hi,

I went through a few packages which have an openMPI dependency or support, and found it quite mixed up:

Currently, we have openmpi(1), openmpi2 and openmpi3 in Leap and TW. While openmpi3 is currently unused, openmpi1 and openmpi2 are both used, with similar frequency:

https://build.opensuse.org/package/binary/openSUSE:Factory/openmpi2:standard... standard/x86_64/openmpi2-libs-2.1.5-2.1.x86_64.rpm https://build.opensuse.org/package/binary/openSUSE:Factory/openmpi:standard/ standard/x86_64/openmpi-libs-1.10.7-21.1.x86_64.rpm

Several programs will end up with implicitly linking to both versions, as libnetcdf and hdf5 use openmpi1 and boost_mpi uses openmpi2. One example is vtk.

As both libraries (libmpi.so.12 and libmpi.so.20) export the same symbols for large parts, this is mayhem waiting to happen.

For SLE, different MPI versions/implementations are supported using the HPC modules, but for Leap/TW, we should obviously stick with *one* single canonical version.

Question now, which version to choose?

Apparently, openmpi2 does not work on all architectures (PPC, PPC64BE) [1], and is not supported by some software packages [2].

Are there any drawbacks for using openmpi1 everywhere in TW/Leap 15.x?

I have opened a bug report: https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi? id=1118861

Kind regards,

Stefan

[1] "Stay with openmpi(1) also on PPC", boost, 2018-10-01, https:// build.opensuse.org/request/show/639401 [2] "Cntk packages do not support OpenMPI 2+", https://github.com/Microsoft/ CNTK/issues/3197

-- Stefan Brüns / Bergstraße 21 / 52062 Aachen home: +49 241 53809034 mobile: +49 151 50412019

No matter what we pick, I think it would be a good idea to do what we do with, say, gcc and llvm/clang, where we have separate "openmpi1", "openmpi2", and "openmpi3" packages, and have the "openmpi" package refer to the default version. This would make it easy to change default versions in the future, or set default versions on a per-architecture basis. As for openmpi 1 vs openmpi 2, the problem with openmpi 1 is that it is unmaintained [1]. The current version of openmpi is actually version 4. So using it openmpi 2 as the default comes with all the problems associated with unmaintained software, especially network-oriented software. openmpi 2 also adds support for MPI 3.x features. openmpi 2 is supposed to support PPC. If it doesn't that is probably a bug that should be reported upstream. Unfortunately the linked request doesn't explain what the problem is. [1] See left sidebar here: https://www.open-mpi.org/software/ompi/v4.0/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org