MATLAB: Is there a graphical interface provided with MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine that allows me to both administer and monitor the cluster of machines

administrateadminstrationadminstratordcedctguiguisMATLAB Parallel ServermdcemonitoringParallel Computing Toolboxtooltoolsui

I am currently using the startup scripts provided with MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine to set up my job manager and workers. I am familiar with the nodestatus batch command that displays the status of the MDCE processes running on my machine.

Is there a more user-friendly tool that allows me to both administer my cluster as well as monitor the MDCE processes running on my network?

Best Answer

This enhancement has been incorporated in MATLAB Distributed Computing Server 3.3 (R2008a). Admin Center is a graphical user interface that allows verification of installation and configuration of MATLAB Distributed Computing Server software if you are using a job manager as your scheduler.

Howerver, there is no graphical user interface provided with MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine that allows users to administer or monitor their network.

You can download a utility called DCTOOL from MATLAB Central File Exchange and use it to monitor your network. Go to

 <http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/>

click on "File Exchange" and search for "DCTOOL".

 Note: MathWorks Technical Support does not support user-contributed files. 
 If you are having problems with a specific file you downloaded from MATLAB
 Central, please contact the author of the file.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Am I unable to validate the Job Manager configuration in the Parallel Computing Toolbox

There are several issues that can prevent the validation of the cluster. Run the following tests below to make sure that your configuration is setup properly. If at any point you receive an error message, you can submit a request to Installation support using the link at the bottom of the page. When submitting a request, be sure to include the following:

- Your license number

- The release of MATLAB on the client and the cluster

- The output of your validation (click details to get the full information)

- The results of the tests below

Also when submitting a request please reference Solution 1-BJRNU9.

1) Test the licensing of MATLAB Parallel Server

The first step is to ensure that the licensing for MATLAB Parallel Server works on your cluster. This will also test to see if MATLAB is crashing on startup on your cluster. To test this, go to one of the cluster nodes and open up a Windows Command Prompt by clicking on the Start Menu and go to All Programs, Accessories, and click on Command Prompt. In the command prompt, run the following commands:

cd $MATLAB\bin (where $MATLAB is the installation folder for MATLAB on the cluster)

matlab.exe -dmlworker -nodisplay -logfile C:\output.txt -r "ver;exit"

This will generate an output.txt file in C:\ that contains the ver output on the cluster. If the log file contains a license manager error, this is the issue. In that case, check the support site for the license manager error number and take the appropriate action to resolve the license error before proceeding.

2) Check the releases of MATLAB on the cluster and the client where you validated

If you get the output of the "ver" command in the log file, check the releases of all the products in the list. The release of each product should match for all the products. Additionally, the release should match the release that is installed on the client where you ran the validation. To check the release on the client, run the ver command in MATLAB's command window. If the release of Parallel Computing Toolbox and MATLAB do not match the release of MATLAB and MATLAB Parallel Server on the cluster, you will not be able to use this configuration until the installations are at the same release.

3) Use the Admin Center to confirm that the cluster is configured properly

As of MATLAB R2009a, the MathWorks Job Manager has a new tool called the Admin Center which can be used to verify the cluster has been setup properly. This tool will allow you to verify the cluster configuration as well as run some tests on the cluster.

Verify your cluster using the Admin Center. For the instructions on how to use the Admin Center, see the documentation here:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab-parallel-server/cluster-processes-and-profiles.html

NOTE: If the cluster fails the Admin Center tests, save the session and send the .mdcs file to Installation Support along with the other information requested above.

4) Manually set the client's return hostname

If there are multiple network configurations on the client computer, the client may be reporting the wrong return address. To change this, restart MATLAB and run the following command:

pctconfig('hostname','<ip address>')

where <ip address> refers to the external IP address of the client for which the cluster can contact. Once complete, retry validation to see if the return address was incorrect. If it validates, you can try reconfiguring the computer's network settings or create a startup.m file that calls the pctconfig each time MATLAB is launched. For more information about startup.m see the documentation here:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/startup.html

5) Check to ensure you have correctly configured the client configuration

In your client MATLAB, go to the Parallel menu to Manage Configurations. Right click on your jobmanager configuration and select Properties. For the Job Manager you must set the appropriate values for "LookupURL" (hostname of the Job Manager) and "Name" (the Job Manager name).

6) If automatic validation does not assist the troubleshooting process, you can run a manual validation test by submitting sample jobs to MATLAB Parallel Server. To do so, please reference the below article:

How do I manually validate my MATLAB cluster?

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/130554

If the manual tests passed, your configuration is working and you should be able to submit jobs.

If you are still having an issue, contact Installation support here:

http://www.mathworks.com/support/contact_us/index.html

NOTE: Starting in R2019a the following name changes occurred:

MATLAB Distributed Computing Server was renamed to MATLAB Parallel Server
mdce_def was renamed to mjs_def
mdce binary was renamed to mjs

MATLAB: How to configure a MATLAB worker in a cluster to have the security setting of a user who submits the job

By default, on Windows the workers run as a local system user, and on Linux and Mac OS X as root users. These users might have limited access to certain directories and network mounted drives. To change this setting you will need to modify the MDCE_USER property in mdce_def.bat file. You will need to set this property to a user who has read and write permissions to the group folder.

You will need to restart the MDCE daemon for the changes to take effect by executing the following commands:

 mdce stop
 mdce uninstall
 mdce install
 mdce start

Additionally, starting with MATLAB R2010b MATLAB Distributed Computing Server allows for a finer level of job security control, where each parallel job can be run as the user who submitted it to the cluster. To enable this, set the SECURITY_LEVEL to 3 in the mdce_def file. For more information on setting the job security level in MATLAB Distributed Computing Server please refer to the following documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2020a/matlab-parallel-server/set-matlab-job-scheduler-cluster-security.html

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Am I unable to validate the Job Manager configuration in the Parallel Computing Toolbox

MATLAB: How to configure a MATLAB worker in a cluster to have the security setting of a user who submits the job

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