Advisor

Using Intel native compilers

To launch Advisor for an MPI plus OpenMP code use the following commands:

% salloc -N 1 -t 30:00 -q debug
% module load advisor
% export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8
% module load impi
% mpiicc -g -openmp  -o mycode.exe mycode.c
% export I_MPI_PMI_LIBRARY=/opt/slurm/default/lib/pmi/libpmi.so
% srun -n 1 -c 8 advixe-cl --collect survey --project-dir ./myproj  -- ./mycode.exe

This will store the results of the analysis performed by Advisor in the 'myproj' directory. 

Launching Advisor with Multiple MPI Ranks

It is recommended that the following commands should be executed from the Lustre file system.

Using MPMD

This can be done using code compiled with Cray compiler wrappers or Intel native compiler.

Using Cray Compiler Wrappers

To launch Advisor using MPMD for an MPI plus OpenMP code having multiple MPI ranks, use the following commands which involve creating the 'mpmd.conf' file:

% salloc -N 1 -t 30:00 -q debug  
% module load advisor
% export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8
% vi mpmd.conf

Contents of mpmd.conf:

0 advixe-cl --collect survey --project-dir ./myproj -- ./mycode.exe
1-3 ./mycode.exe

Compilation and Execution:

% cc -g -dynamic -openmp -O3 -o mycode.exe mycode.c
% srun --multi-prog ./mpmd.conf

Using Intel Native Compiler

To launch Advisor using MPMD for an MPI plus OpenMP code having multiple MPI ranks, use the following commands which involve creating the 'mpmd.conf' file:

% salloc -N 1 -t 30:00 -q debug  
% module load advisor
% export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8
% vi mpmd.conf

Contents of mpmd.conf:

0 advixe-cl --collect survey --project-dir ./myproj -- ./mycode.exe
1-3 ./mycode.exe

Compilation and Execution:

% module load impi
% mpiicc -g -openmp -O3 -o mycode.exe mycode.c
% export I_MPI_PMI_LIBRARY=/opt/slurm/default/lib/pmi/libpmi.so
% srun --multi-prog ./mpmd.conf

Using a script

This can be done using code compiled with Cray compiler wrappers or Intel native compiler.

Using Cray Compiler Wrappers

To launch Advisor using a script for an MPI plus OpenMP code having multiple MPI ranks, use the following commands which involve creating a script:

% salloc -N 1 -t 30:00 -q debug  
% module load advisor
% export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8
% vi ascript

Contents of ascript:

#!/bin/bash
if [ $SLURM_PROCID -eq 0 ]
then
 advixe-cl --collect survey   --search-dir src:r=./ -- ./mycode.exe
else
 ./mycode.exe
fi

Compilation and Execution:

% cc -g -dynamic -openmp -O3 -o mycode.exe mycode.c
% srun -n 4  -c 8 ./ascript

Using Intel Native Compiler

To launch Advisor using a script for an MPI plus OpenMP code having multiple MPI ranks, use the following commands which involve creating a script:

% salloc -N 1 -t 30:00 -q debug  
% module load advisor
% export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8
% vi ascript

Contents of ascript:

#!/bin/bash
if [ $SLURM_PROCID -eq 0 ]
then
 advixe-cl --collect survey   --search-dir src:r=./ -- ./mycode.exe
else
 ./mycode.exe
fi

Compilation and Execution:

% module load impi
% mpiicc -g -openmp -O3 -o mycode.exe mycode.c
% export I_MPI_PMI_LIBRARY=/opt/slurm/default/lib/pmi/libpmi.so
% srun –n 4 ./ascript

Using 'mpirun' 

This can be done using code compiled with Intel native compiler only.

Using Intel Native Compiler

To launch Advisor using 'mpirun' for an MPI plus OpenMP code having multiple MPI ranks, use the following commands:

% salloc -N 1 -t 30:00 -q debug  
% module load advisor
% export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8
% module load impi
% mpiicc -g -openmp -O3 -o mycode.exe mycode.c
% mpirun -n 4 advixe-cl --collect survey --project-dir ./myproj  -- ./mycode.exe

The I_MPI_PMI_LIBRARY environment variable needs to be unset for this.

Using the '-trace-mpi' flag

This can be done using code compiled with Cray compiler wrappers or Intel native compiler. However, this option is not available in the current version and is expected to be available in future versions of Advisor.

Using Cray Compiler Wrappers

To launch Advisor using the '-trace-mpi' flag for an MPI plus OpenMP code having multiple MPI ranks, use the following commands:

% salloc -N 1 -t 30:00 -q debug  
% module load advisor
% export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8
% cc -g -dynamic -openmp -O3 -o mycode.exe mycode.c
% srun -n 4  -c 8 advixe-cl --collect survey --trace-mpi --project-dir ./myproj  -- ./mycode.exe

Using Intel Native Compiler

To launch Inspector using the '-trace-mpi' flag for an MPI plus OpenMP code having multiple MPI ranks, use the following commands:

% salloc -N 1 -t 30:00 -q debug  
% module load advisor
% export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8
% module load impi
% mpiicc -g -openmp -O3 -o mycode.exe mycode.c
% export I_MPI_PMI_LIBRARY=/opt/slurm/default/lib/pmi/libpmi.so
% srun -n 4 -c 8 advixe-cl --collect survey --trace-mpi --project-dir ./myproj  -- ./mycode.exe

Using the GUI to View Results

Note that the performance of the X Windows-based Graphical User Interface can be greatly improved if used in conjunction with the free NX software.

Launching Advisor in GUI Mode

Login to Edison using the following command:

ssh -XY edison.nersc.gov

In the login node load Advisor module and then open the GUI.

% module load advisor
% advixe-gui

Viewing Results using the GUI 

Use the 'Open Result' button to browse for and open the '.advixeexp' file in the directory that contains the result. Then, you should see a screen similar to the following one which shows a list of top time consuming loops:

To exit the GUI, simply click the cross on the top left hand corner of the Advisor dialog box.

Some Important command Line Options for Intel Advisor

The general Intel Advisor 'advixe-cl' command syntax is:

advixe-cl <-action> [-project-dir PATH] [-action-options] [-global-options] [[--] target [target options]]

In our case, we use 'srun' or 'mpirun' with this command. Here, <-action> specifies the action to perform, such as collect. There must be only one action per command. There are a number of available actions, but 'report' and 'collect' are the most common. Following is a list of the available 'action-options' for these two types of actions:

Options for the Collect Action

The search-dir option  should be used to specify which directories store the source, symbol and binary files that are to be used during analysis. For the collect action option 'suitability', the annotations can only be found if the location of the source file is known. To perform a Suitability Analysis, the following command can be used. This command also specifies the source directory.

srun -n 1 advixe-cl -search-dir src:=/scratch2/scratchdirs/ahanarc --collect suitability --project-dir ./o3c  -- ./mulmvma 10000

Options for the Report Action

Using the Advisor GUI 

In order to launch Advisor in GUI mode so that the code is executed on the compute nodes, use the following commands:

% ssh -XY edison.nersc.gov
% cd $SCRATCH
% salloc -N 1 -t 30:00 -q debug
% module load advisor
% advixe-gui

Creating a Project

To create a project, click on the 'New Project' button in the Welcome screen.

Then enter the name of the project and click the 'Create Project' button.

Next, browse for and select the binary file that is to be executed. If required, also specify the parameters to be passed to the application and the required environment variables and their values.

You might also want to modify the working directory and the directory where the results will be stored. By default, the result directory is the same as the project directory. 

In the 'Source Search' tab, browse for and select the directory that contains your source file. 

Then click on the 'OK' button to create the project.

Opening a Project

To open an existing project, click on the 'Open Project' button on the welcome screen.

Browse for and select the '.advixeproj' file in the project directory and then click the 'Open' button.

Collecting Survey Data

After opening a project, click on the 'Collect Survey data' button in the Workflow or the 'Collect' button in the Survey 'Survey Target' box.

This executes the code and provides an analysis. It shows the time taken to execute the loops in decreasing order of time. It also shows the source code for the selected loop.

Inserting Annotations

Double click on a the line representing a specific loop in the survey output to open the following window:

The lower part of the window shows annotation suggestions. Use the 'Copy to Clipboard' button in order to copy the annotation suggestion. The annotation suggestions provide a description of exactly how the annotations should be placed in the source code.

After copying the annotations, double click on any part of the code in the upper half of the window to open the source code file in an editor.

Insert the annotations in the correct positions and save the file. Here, the annotation indicates the intent to parallelize a simple loop. Then, build the application again using the following command:

icpc -g -openmp -I${ADVISOR_XE_2016_DIR}/include -o mulmvs10 mulmv_fp.c

The '-I${ADVISOR_XE_2016_DIR}/include' option is used so that the annotations for Advisor can be recognized.

Performing Suitability Analysis for the Annotations

After compiling the annotated source file, collect the 'Survey' report once again. Then, click on the 'Collect' button in the 'Check Suitability' box in order to analyze the annotated program to check its predicted parallel performance.

Once the analysis has been performed, you will see the details of the result as follows:

By default, Advisor uses CPU as the target system with 8 threads and Intel TBB as the threading model. However, it is possible to increase or decrease the number of threads, change the Threading Model to any one of the other available options( including OpenMP) and change the Target System to Intel Xeon Phi. The number of coprocessor threads to be executed on the Intel Xeon Phi can also be selected.

The suitability analysis result also shows:

1. Expected speedup
2. Scalability graph: The green region in the scalability graph shows that the program scales well and the advantage to be obtained from parallelizing the code is well worth the effort. The yellow region indicates that there will be some advantage when the annotated part is parallelized but it may or may not justify the required effort. The red part indicates that parallelizing the annotated part might even degrade performance and is not worth the effort. The small red circle shows the currently selected conditions and marks out its location on the graph.
3. Runtime Environment: This indicates the amount of performance gain that can be obtained by selecting a runtime environment that minimizes different types of overheads or allows task chunking. Select the checkboxes against these options to identify the performance improvement or see the best possible performance.
4. The Task Modeling allows the user to model for different sizes of data sets ( by changing the number of iterations). Also, the duration of each iteration can be modified. This helps to see how the parallel code will scale.
5. It also shows the current percentages of Load Imbalance, Lock Contention and Runtime Overhead.

Comparison of Advisor Estimated Performance and Actual, Measured Performance

Comparison between Advisor estimated and measured wall clock times. The % variation range is 3-15% and increases with increasing numbers of threads.

Performing Trip Count Analysis

To find how many iterations of each loop are executed, click on the 'Collect' button in the 'Trip Count' box. However, this should only be done after the Survey information has been collected.

The number of times each loop was executed is displayed as follows:

Marking Loops for Deeper Analysis

In order to perform dependency analysis of a loop or check the memory access pattern, the check box next to the specific loop in the Survey report has to be marked.

Check Dependences

To check loop-carried dependences in the loops that have been marked for deeper analysis, click on the 'Collect' button in the 'Check Dependences' box.

As in the above screenshot, if there is no loop-carried dependency, the report will specify that. In case there is any loop-carried dependency, the report will specify the kind of dependency and when that row is selected, the bottom part of the window will show the line of code that causes this dependency.

Checking Memory Access Patterns

To check the memory access patterns in the loops that have been marked for deeper analysis, click on the 'Collect' button in the 'Check Memory Access Patterns' box. 

This analysis specifies the stride at which the data is accessed in the loop and helps in optimizations that can improve memory access, prefetching and locality.