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

[László Sándor <sandorl@gmail.com>]

Thanks, Joe. IT did not say more than that they limited each job on
the server to 4 cores. We seem to use our own little batch submission
(and presumably management or scheduling) system, so maybe this is not
a system-wide Windows Server setting. I don't know, sorry.

On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 12:41 PM, Joe Canner <jcanner1@jhmi.edu> wrote:
> 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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>
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