[ewg] RFC: Do we wish to take MPI out of OFED?

[Dhabaleswar Panda]

Tziporet,

>Main reasons to keep MPI in OFED:
>- All participants test with the same MPI versions, and when installing
>OFED it is ensured that MPI will work fine with this version.
>- Customers convenience in install (no need to go to more sites to get
MPI)
>- MPI is an important RDMA ULP and although it is not developed in OFA
>it is widely used by OFED customers

I support keeping MPI packages in the OFED because of the above positive
points you have mentioned.

I would also like to mention that keeping MPI packages in OFED helps to
test out various new features and functionalities (such as APM and XRC in
the past and the new memory registration scheme being discussed now) as
they get introduced. Such an integrated approach helps to test out these
features at the lower layers as well as at the MPI layer. This process
helps to resolve out any bugs with the new features during the testing
process itself. It also accelerates the deployment and use of these new
features in the community.

However, to make the complete OFED release process work smoothly for
everybody (vendors, distros, users, etc.) without affecting the release
schedule, it is essential that stable MPI packages are added to OFED. This
is what we have been doing wrt MVAPICH and MVAPICH2 for the last several
years.

If the developers of any MPI package do not want it to be a part of the
OFED due to any constraints, it should be allowed. However, such an action
should not force to remove all MPI packages.

>From the point of view of MVAPICH and MVAPICH2 packages in OFED, we have
been providing stable packages to OFED for the last several years helping
the OFED community and would like to continue with this process.

Thanks,

DK