Hi,
I am a big fan of running repeated single node HPL and HPCC runs - it beats up memory and the cpu quite nicely. I would emphasize the repeated part. A lot of hardware issues don't show up until machines heat up and cool down a few times, so maybe wait a bit between runs. Also, feel free to exceed your physical memory and use a bit of swap too for a couple of runs - although I'd never do that for a qualifying or tuning run. All of that said, the individual node HPLs are the sort of baseline data that makes tuning during multinode HPLs easier down the line.
I'd also agree with the value of thousands of tars and untars - but I'd keep it to directories with large numbers of small files. One of my co-workers favors /usr/include for that purpose.
Happy Testing, William ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ William Scullin Systems Engineer 3006E NCSA Building National Center for Supercomputing Applications University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois 61801 office: +1-217-244-4866 mobile: +1-225-772-5273 AIM IM: WilliamAtNCSA
“Like almost all others that began with metaphysical discussions. The theory has advanced but the practical science is still in its infancy and the modern statesman is constantly short of facts on which he can base his speculations.”
- Antoine Lavosier
On Oct 8, 2006, at 11:32 AM, Karen Shaeffer wrote: On Sun, Oct 08, 2006 at 09:09:11AM +0100, John Hearns wrote: Nico Mittenzwey wrote: Other things to consider for a stress test are:
Unpack a clean Linux kernel tree. Do a kernel compile. Tar up the resulting tree. Repeat, and compare the two resulting tar files. A linux kernel compile is a surprisingly good way of stressing a system.
I would agree compiling the linux kernel is an excellent stress test. I've set it up in an endless loop, where multiple, independent tress are compiled in parallel. It does discover memory problems rather effectively, if you let it run a day or two.
Thanks, Karen -- Karen Shaeffer Neuralscape, Palo Alto, Ca. 94306 _______________________________________________
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