[openfabrics-ewg] MPI teleconf notes

[Jeff Squyres (jsquyres)]

- Mellanox will re-check that external packages (such as PMB) are ok to
distribute (especially given that they have no copyright / license
information included)

- Mellanox will split the MPI applications (PMB, benchmarks, etc.) off
into a separate package (it is currently included in the MVAPICH RPM
right now).  This package will automatically be compiled against all the
MPI's that are selected to be installed, and RPMs will be created for
each (e.g., "mpitest-mvapich-gcc", "mpitest-openmpi-gcc", etc.).

- The installer will create shell script files (for both sh- and
csh-flavored shells) that users can source to set their environment for
each MPI that is installed.
--> One followup question here: are these files supposed to be in the
MPI RPM?  Or will the installer mail supplemental RPMs with just these
files?  Since it's just PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and MANPATH, I think the
installer should be able to handle making the supplemental RPMs (with a
proper Requires dependency to the parent RPM).

- Mellanox will add text into the release notes about how the user can
modify their shell startup files to source the environment variable
files installed by the IBED installer.  I suggest looking here for some
starter text:
http://www.open-mpi.org/faq/?category=running#adding-ompi-to-path (it
talks about adding to PATH/LD_LIBRARY_PATH, shell startup files, etc.).
--> This is (in my opinion) definitely sub-optimial, but given the
compressed time frame to get IBED out the door, I don't think we have
much choice -- we all agreed that this was "good enough".  For future
versions, I would like to do something better (e.g., environment
modules, softenv, menu-based selection, etc.).  

- As a result of the above bullet, no MPI will be placed in the user's
PATH by default (!).
--> This is also sub-optimal.  Thinking about this more (after the
teleconference), I'm becoming more convinced that this is a good idea.
MPI is one currently one of the most visible aspects of using OpenIB.
Not having at least one of the installed MPI's in your path will violate
the Law of Least Surprise from the end-user's perspective.

- Testing.  For the moment, each vendor will do what they have always
done for an MPI release (i.e., use their own test setups).  However, we
should all make an effort to send around our testing setups: platforms /
number of nodes, compilers, test suites / applications.  This way, we
can compute the intersection and divide up the work -- and hopefully
avoid duplication of effort.  In the future, we hope to move to the MPI
Testing Tool, a sub-project out of the Open MPI project (more on that
later).  But the MTT will not be ready in time for this IBED release.

- Cisco will initially commit an Open MPI SRPM into the OF SVN under
trunk/contrib/cisco (unless the final IBED location is settled before
the commit occurs).  The first SRPM will likely be an Open MPI v1.0.2
release candidate, but will be good enough for script integration.  The
final v1.0.2 SRPM will be comitted before Tuesday.  A README will
accompany this SRPM describing how to use the rpmbuild --define options
to pass in various values to the SRPM (options to configure, compiler
overrides, prefix, etc.).  A package BUILD_ID will also be committed.

- Mellanox will take this SRPM and integrate it into the IBED
installation scripts.  Mellanox will coordinate with Jeff/Gleb for any
adjustments that need to be made to the Open MPI SRPM.

-- 
Jeff Squyres
Server Virtualization Business Unit
Cisco Systems