Regarding the 'borgification' of MPI on Windows....there is an opening for them to do this. MPI did not define how you start the tasks when you launch a parallel job....it left that up to the MPI implementation. Now most MPIs use something reasonable, like say ssh - or starting a mpd ring to launch the tasks (and this is all open source), however I believe that for Microsoft MPI they wrote their own replacement for 'ssh' and also modified how the tasks are launched to ensure their MPI fits into Microsoft's security model, here is specific information on this from Microsoft's site
"An important improvement that MS MPI brings to MPICH2 is in how security is managed during execution of MPI jobs. Each job is run with the credentials of the user. Credentials are only present while the job is being executed on the compute nodes and are erased when the job completes. Individual processes only have access to their logon token, and do not have access to the credentials (user name and password) that generated the token or to the credentials used by other processes." So this change effectively ties Microsoft MPI to only Microsoft Windows platforms, and the security changes are closed source. Not all of Microsoft's partners like MS MPI - when HP ships Microsoft CCS they remove MS MPI and put in HP MPI - which probably just adds to confusion on the end user side. Regards, Bill. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert G. Brown Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 8:22 PM To: Tom Mitchell Cc: beowulf@beowulf.org Subject: Re: [Beowulf] Win64 Clusters!!!!!!!!!!!! On Mon, 2 Apr 2007, Tom Mitchell wrote: > On Sun, Apr 01, 2007 at 02:02:53PM +0500, amjad ali wrote: >> Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2007 14:02:53 +0500 >> From: "amjad ali" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> To: beowulf@beowulf.org >> Subject: [Beowulf] Win64 Clusters!!!!!!!!!!!! >> >> Hi All, >> >> Would any of you please like to share usage-experience/views/comments >> about Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 based Beowulf Clusters? >> >> What in your opinion is the future of such clusters? >> >> How you compare these with the LINUX CLUSTERS? > > With full consideration to "fat, soft pretzels with > cheezy-mustard sauce or rolled in asiago parmesan and garlic." > > MS pulled a version of mpich/mvapich/MPI and ported it to windows. > They also developed some library code to gateway some *inx library/system > calls to windows. The root sources of MPI are public and not GPL so they can. > > It might be worth looking at the MS announcement -- but why > bother. If you look you might think that common MPI codes > would just compile and run... I have no idea I expect some will > and there begins silly porting for the next... Sure. MS did this, no doubt. And as you note below, no sooner do they get it in when they begin the borgification of MPI, just as they've borgified java, c, c++, and anything in the Universe they can sucker somebody into buying in borgified form. Borgifying MPI is the most humorous thing in the Universe, BTW, given its historical origins -- it was basically a language written (reluctantly!) by supercomputer vendors when the US government got tired of paying for all their important codes to be ported to each new generation of proprietary hardware with its proprietary low level calls. MS is doubtless trying to figure out just how much of that they can undo while building up a big enough market share and enough vendors of closed source applications written with their borgisms that they can... Oh wait. It IS GPL. Do you think that they actually read it? However, I was really referring to the other aspects of program development and performance tuning associated with using a closed source development environment. Resistance is Futile. rgb > > Once a set of boxes are interconnected and you have library > support for MPI or another way to share data (PVM... whatever) > you are off and running in the clustering world. Sadly MS > has a MS specific library that abuses "standard MPI" and could > quickly cause source code to surface that runs correctly or on a > MS cluster but not on another OS based cluster (Linux, Solaris, > Irix, AIX). I see this all the time with java script, and c, > c++, and other codes where little 'features' hook you in. > > Some will be fooled into thinking that this is something to look at > or worse something to spend money on. > > SUMMARY: > Since you posted this on 1 Apr 2007 all I can do is giggle > and wonder why I replied. > > Regards, > mitch > > PS: Ask in a year but not on April fools/joke day. > > -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:[EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
