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Scoop

Scoop is a way to parallelize python code across multiple nodes without the need for MPI. This works best for applications that need to do a lot of independent operations, such as by iterating over a list of items.

Instructions

These instructions developed for use on the TERRA Cluster:

  1. Ensure that id_rsa.pub is copied to the authorized_keys file
    • Your id_rsa.pub should already exist and live under ~/.ssh
    • Create the authorized_keys file under ~/.ssh if necessary
    • Try cat id_rsa.pub >> authorized_keys
  2. Load your python toolchain (module load)
  3. Set up a virtual environment and pip install SCOOP in that environment
  4. Make sure that you have SCOOP version 0.7.1.1 or higher. Previous versions do not parse the hostnames correctly
    • If needed, you can download the latest version https://pypi.org/project/scoop/ and replace the scoop folder in your virtual environment's site-packages directory with the new version
  5. Create a SLURM batch script like the following to launch your program. (Replace the example names with your own)
    • The example python program is named Run.py
    • The example python module is named Python/3.7.4-GCCcore-8.3.0
    • The example virtualenv is located at gcc/bin/activate relative to the current directory.
#!/bin/bash
##ENVIRONMENT SETTINGS

##NECESSARY JOB SPECIFICATIONS

##LOAD YOUR PYTHON MODULE(S) AND ACTIVATE YOUR VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT
module load Python/3.7.4-GCCcore-8.3.0
source gcc/bin/activate

##CREATE A WRAPPER FOR SSH TO USE TO LOAD YOUR ENVIRONMENT ONTO EACH WORKER NODE
echo '#!/bin/bash' > scoop_wrapper.sh
echo module load Python/3.7.4-GCCcore-8.3.0 >> scoop_wrapper.sh
echo cd $(pwd) >> scoop_wrapper.sh
echo source gcc/bin/activate >> scoop_wrapper.sh
echo export SLURM_NTASKS=$SLURM_NTASKS >> scoop_wrapper.sh
echo python '$@' >> scoop_wrapper.sh
chmod +x scoop_wrapper.sh

##EXECUTE YOUR PYTHON SCRIPT
python -m scoop -n $SLURM_NTASKS -v --python-interpreter=$(pwd)/scoop_wrapper.sh Run.py

Use sbatch command to run your job

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