Underworld

a long term geodynamics simulation platform

MPI Implementation Setup

What is an MPI implementation and do I need to install one?

StGermain-based codes such as Underworld require an implementation of the MPI-1 standard for parallel message-passing, even if you only intend to run the code in serial. Fortunately, there are several free implementations of MPI than run on all flavours of Unix. If you intend to run Underworld on your desktop or a commodity cluster that doesn't yet have an MPI implementation, you could install one of the following free implementations:

  • Mpich2 - a portable, open source MPI. Suitable for "all flavours of UNIX", and should be used on macs if you want to use MUMPS, otherwise OpenMPI (see below) is recommended for macs. Further information on MPICH is available here, including documentation and manual pages.
  • OpenMPI - recommended for macs. Further information is available here.

If you already have an MPI implementation installed, you will need to set up some additional environment variables (see below).

Setting up Environment Variables and adding it to your path if you already have an MPI Installed

You will need to set up environment variables and add your MPI implementation to your path. Click on the links below for instructions on how to do this for MPICH2 and OpenMPI:

-- WendyMason - 27 October 2010