8.6. Overloading and Oversubscribing — PMIx Reference Run Time Environment 3.0.14 documentation

# 8.6. Overloading and Oversubscribing

This section explores the difference between the terms “overloading” and “oversubscribing”. Users are often confused by the difference between these two scenarios. As such, this section provides a number of scenarios to help illustrate the differences.

- `--map-by :OVERSUBSCRIBE` allow more processes on a node than allocated

- `--bind-to <object>:overload-allowed` allows for binding more than one process in relation to a CPU

The important thing to remember with oversubscribing is that it can be defined separately from the actual number of CPUs on a node. This allows the mapper to place more or fewer processes per node than CPUs. By default, PRRTE uses cores to determine slots in the absence of such information provided in the hostfile or by the resource manager (except in the case of the `--host` as described in the section on that command line option.

The important thing to remember with overloading is that it is defined as binding more processes than CPUs. By default, PRRTE uses cores as a means of counting the number of CPUs. However, the user can adjust this. For example when using the `:HWTCPUS` qualifier to the `--map-by` option PRRTE will use hardware threads as a means of counting the number of CPUs.

For the following examples consider a node with:

- 2 processor packages,

- 10 cores per package, and

- 8 hardware threads per core.

Consider the node from above with the hostfile below:

    $ cat myhostfile
    node01 slots=32
    node02 slots=32

The `slots` token tells PRRTE that it can place up to 32 processes before oversubscribing the node.

If we run the following:

    prun --np 34 --hostfile myhostfile --map-by core --bind-to core hostname

It will return an error at the binding time indicating an overloading scenario.

The mapping mechanism assigns 32 processes to `node01` matching the `slots` specification in the hostfile. The binding mechanism will bind the first 20 processes to unique cores leaving it with 12 processes that it cannot bind without overloading one of the cores (putting more than one process on the core).

Using the `overload-allowed` qualifier to the `--bind-to core` option tells PRRTE that it may assign more than one process to a core.

If we run the following:

    prun --np 34 --hostfile myhostfile --map-by core --bind-to core:overload-allowed hostname

This will run correctly placing 32 processes on `node01`, and 2 processes on `node02`. On `node01` two processes are bound to cores 0-11 accounting for the overloading of those cores.

Alternatively, we could use hardware threads to give binding a lower level CPU to bind to without overloading.

If we run the following:

    prun --np 34 --hostfile myhostfile --map-by core:HWTCPUS --bind-to hwthread hostname

This will run correctly placing 32 processes on `node01`, and 2 processes on `node02`. On `node01` two processes are mapped to cores 0-11 but bound to different hardware threads on those cores (the logical first and second hardware thread). Thus no hardware threads are overloaded at binding time.

In both of the examples above the node is not oversubscribed at mapping time because the hostfile set the oversubscription limit to `slots=32` for each node. It is only after we exceed that limit that PRRTE will throw an oversubscription error.

Consider next if we ran the following:

    prun --np 66 --hostfile myhostfile --map-by core:HWTCPUS --bind-to hwthread hostname

This will return an error at mapping time indicating an oversubscription scenario. The mapping mechanism will assign all of the available slots (64 across 2 nodes) and be left two processes to map. The only way to map those processes is to exceed the number of available slots putting the job into an oversubscription scenario.

You can force PRRTE to oversubscribe the nodes by using the `:OVERSUBSCRIBE` qualifier to the `--map-by` option as seen in the example below:

    prun --np 66 --hostfile myhostfile \
        --map-by core:HWTCPUS:OVERSUBSCRIBE --bind-to hwthread hostname

This will run correctly placing 34 processes on `node01` and 32 on `node02`. Each process is bound to a unique hardware thread.

## 8.6.1. Overloading vs. Oversubscription: Package Example

Let’s extend these examples by considering the package level. Consider the same node as before, but with the hostfile below:

    $ cat myhostfile
    node01 slots=22
    node02 slots=22

The lowest level CPUs are “cores” and we have 20 total (10 per package).

If we run:

    prun --np 20 --hostfile myhostfile --map-by package \
        --bind-to package:REPORT hostname

Then 10 processes are mapped to each package, and bound at the package level. This is not overloading since we have 10 CPUs (cores) available in the package at the hardware level.

However, if we run:

    prun --np 21 --hostfile myhostfile --map-by package \
        --bind-to package:REPORT hostname

Then 11 processes are mapped to the first package and 10 to the second package. At binding time we have an overloading scenario because there are only 10 CPUs (cores) available in the package at the hardware level. So the first package is overloaded.

## 8.6.2. Overloading vs. Oversubscription: Hardware Threads Example

Similarly, if we consider hardware threads.

Consider the same node as before, but with the hostfile below:

    $ cat myhostfile
    node01 slots=165
    node02 slots=165

The lowest level CPUs are “hwthreads” (because we are going to use the `:HWTCPUS` qualifier) and we have 160 total (80 per package).

If we re-run (from the package example) and add the `:HWTCPUS` qualifier:

    prun --np 21 --hostfile myhostfile --map-by package:HWTCPUS \
        --bind-to package:REPORT hostname

Without the `:HWTCPUS` qualifier this would be overloading (as we saw previously). The mapper places 11 processes on the first package and 10 to the second package. The processes are still bound to the package level. However, with the `:HWTCPUS` qualifier, it is not overloading since we have 80 CPUs (hwthreads) available in the package at the hardware level.

Alternatively, if we run:

    prun --np 161 --hostfile myhostfile --map-by package:HWTCPUS \
        --bind-to package:REPORT hostname

Then 81 processes are mapped to the first package and 80 to the second package. At binding time we have an overloading scenario because there are only 80 CPUs (hwthreads) available in the package at the hardware level. So the first package is overloaded.