RE: st: number of processes/threads open and used under StataMP

[Joe Canner <jcanner1@jhmi.edu>]

Laszlo,

Thanks for the update; this is very useful.  Do you have any information on what system settings are involved?  I am interested to check and see if this is an issue on our servers.

Regards,
Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of László Sándor
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 11:24 AM
To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Subject: Re: st: number of processes/threads open and used under StataMP

For the record: system settings limited Stata from utilizing all the cores it was licensed to use. IT fixed the problem for me since, but never noticed.

There might be a deeper lesson here: Maybe advanced users want to check up on this every once in a while.

Or even Stata could have a warning about this on startup, esp. if it can verify the number of cores on the system being larger than how many processes/threads the OS allows to open (and the license would apply for more).

On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 3:18 AM, Maarten Buis <maartenlbuis@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is more question for Stata's techsupport.
>
> -- Maarten
>
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 7:30 PM, László Sándor <sandorl@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I would also like to understand StataMP 13 threading. I am running 
>> StataMP 13 batches on a Windows server where I have no access to job 
>> scheduling. I can only submit a job and see it slowly progressing.
>>
>> Now I checked the details of the jobs, and usually I see six threads 
>> open for any of my jobs, but only 4 having used the CPU at all. (The 
>> monitoring tool does keep a running account of CPU usage.)
>>
>> The Stata license is for 8 cores.
>>
>> I think I have three related questions:
>>
>> 1. For my information: is it normal that Stata open more threads than 
>> it uses (which depends on the operations, obviously). If so, why not 
>> open all 8?
>>
>> 2. More operationally: Do the two open threads slow Stata down 
>> because it hopes to access them but never gets scheduled on our 
>> server? Am I better off with ramping -set processor- down to 4?
>>
>> 3. Related to both previous points: Shall I contact our IT staff that 
>> maybe the scheduling setup holds me back because I could benefit from 
>> the use of 8 cores and it is unlikely that Stata would never opened 
>> them if it were allowed? (In case it matters, my operations involved 
>> -sum-, -replace- and third-party Mata code.)
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Laszlo
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>
>
>
> --
> ---------------------------------
> Maarten L. Buis
> WZB
> Reichpietschufer 50
> 10785 Berlin
> Germany
>
> http://www.maartenbuis.nl
> ---------------------------------
>
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