From: Michael on
Hello!

I have tried to open a matlabpool with the command:
matlabpool open 4

It fails and I got the message:
??? Error using ==> matlabpool at 127
The interactive parallel job finished without any messages


Then I analyzed the issue with the Configurations Manager (local settings) and I have got the message:

Validation Details

Configuration: "local"
Type: local

--------------------------------------
Stage: Find Resource

Status: Passed
Description: Validation passed

Command Line Output: (none)

--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
Stage: Distributed Job

Status: Passed
Description: Validation passed

Command Line Output: (none)

--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
Stage: Parallel Job

Status: Failed
Description: The job in the given stage completed, but reported failed due to a task failure.

Command Line Output: (none)

Error Report: (none)

Debug Log:
LOG FILE OUTPUT:
[2]MATLAB:I18n:InconsistentLocale - The system locale setting, de_DE.1252, is different from the user locale setting, en_GB.1252.
[3]MATLAB:I18n:InconsistentLocale - The system locale setting, de_DE.1252, is different from the user locale setting, en_GB.1252.
[1]MATLAB:I18n:InconsistentLocale - The system locale setting, de_DE.1252, is different from the user locale setting, en_GB.1252.
[0]MATLAB:I18n:InconsistentLocale - The system locale setting, de_DE.1252, is different from the user locale setting, en_GB.1252.
[3]MATLAB is running in headless mode. Figure windows will not be displayed.
[2]MATLAB is running in headless mode. Figure windows will not be displayed.
[1]MATLAB is running in headless mode. Figure windows will not be displayed.
[3]Warning: Unable to locate a personal folder for $documents\MATLAB
[3]{Warning: Userpath must be an absolute path and must exist on disk.}
[2]Warning: Unable to locate a personal folder for $documents\MATLAB
[2]{Warning: Userpath must be an absolute path and must exist on disk.}
[1]Warning: Unable to locate a personal folder for $documents\MATLAB
[1]{Warning: Userpath must be an absolute path and must exist on disk.}
[0]MATLAB is running in headless mode. Figure windows will not be displayed.
[0]Warning: Unable to locate a personal folder for $documents\MATLAB
[0]{Warning: Userpath must be an absolute path and must exist on disk.}
[2]
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[3]
[0]
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[0]
[2] Student License -- for use in conjunction with courses offered at a
[2] degree-granting institution. Professional and commercial use prohibited.
[2]EDU» [1] Student License -- for use in conjunction with courses offered at a
[1] degree-granting institution. Professional and commercial use prohibited.
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[3]EDU» [0] Student License -- for use in conjunction with courses offered at a
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[0]EDU»
job aborted:
rank: node: exit code[: error message]
0: 127.0.0.1: 44: process 0 exited without calling finalize
1: 127.0.0.1: 123
2: 127.0.0.1: 44: process 2 exited without calling finalize
3: 127.0.0.1: 123


--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
Stage: Matlabpool

Status: Skipped
Description: Validation section skipped due to previous failure

Command Line Output: (none)

--------------------------------------







Computer information:
It is a Dell 1557, Core i7 Q720, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7 Business (64bit)

Matlab 2010a (Student version), 32bit.


Does anybody have a suggestion for a solution?

Many thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Michael
From: Edric M Ellis on
"Michael" <xyMueller(a)web.de> writes:

> Path: news.mathworks.com!not-for-mail
> Newsgroups: comp.soft-sys.matlab
> Subject: matlabpool open failure
> Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:59:19 +0000 (UTC)
> Organization: The MathWorks, Inc.
>
> Hello!
>
> I have tried to open a matlabpool with the command:
> matlabpool open 4
>
> It fails and I got the message:
> ??? Error using ==> matlabpool at 127
> The interactive parallel job finished without any messages

Could you please try running

distcomp.feature( 'LocalUseMpiexec', false )

before opening matlabpool and see if that fixes things? Please let me
know. We made some changes to the way the local scheduler launches the
workers for R2010a, that change puts things back to the R2009b way.

Cheers,

Edric.
From: Michael on
Hello Edric!

Many thanks it is working, now! :-)
Nevertheless it seems to depend on the OS and the Computer, since I have installed this version of Matlab also on my second Laptop (Lenovo X60t, 32 bit Windows 7, Intel Core Duo CPU L2400) and I expierence no problems.

Maybe you can also answer me this question:
It seems as if the optimization algorithm 'lsqcurvefit' is not working in parallel. In detail, I would expect that the calculation of the Jacobian will be calculated in parallel mode, if desired, but the option 'UseParallel' is missing (it exists for fmincon and other algorithms).
Because of this issue I have played around and I have tried to use my own Jacobian calculation (the function is working fine for a Levenberg Marquardt algorithm which I have implemented on my own) as a parallel version. Nevertheless, the execution time is nearly the same if I use this parallel Jacobian matrix calculation in the lsqcurvefit algorithm as if I would not use it (I have used 4 workes (core i7)).
Question concerning the lsqcurvefit algorithm: Will be the Jacobian matrix calculated in parallel somehow? Is there an option to switch this possibility on?


Thank you in advance!
Michael





Edric M Ellis <eellis(a)mathworks.com> wrote in message <ytwk4rpw7ua.fsf(a)uk-eellis-deb5-64.mathworks.co.uk>...
> "Michael" <xyMueller(a)web.de> writes:
>
> > Path: news.mathworks.com!not-for-mail
> > Newsgroups: comp.soft-sys.matlab
> > Subject: matlabpool open failure
> > Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:59:19 +0000 (UTC)
> > Organization: The MathWorks, Inc.
> >
> > Hello!
> >
> > I have tried to open a matlabpool with the command:
> > matlabpool open 4
> >
> > It fails and I got the message:
> > ??? Error using ==> matlabpool at 127
> > The interactive parallel job finished without any messages
>
> Could you please try running
>
> distcomp.feature( 'LocalUseMpiexec', false )
>
> before opening matlabpool and see if that fixes things? Please let me
> know. We made some changes to the way the local scheduler launches the
> workers for R2010a, that change puts things back to the R2009b way.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Edric.
From: Edric M Ellis on
"Michael" <xyMueller(a)web.de> writes:

> Many thanks it is working, now! :-)
> Nevertheless it seems to depend on the OS and the Computer, since I have
> installed this version of Matlab also on my second Laptop (Lenovo X60t, 32 bit
> Windows 7, Intel Core Duo CPU L2400) and I expierence no problems.

Glad that got it working, it would be useful if I could try to work out
what the differences are between these systems. From your earlier post
you said that the non-working system was:

> > Dell 1557, Core i7 Q720, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7 Business (64bit)
> > Matlab 2010a (Student version), 32bit.

Other than the OS difference, are there any other differences? In
particular, do you have different language settings on the machines? (I
assume your laptop also has MATLAB R2010a Student Version).

> Maybe you can also answer me this question: It seems as if the
> optimization algorithm 'lsqcurvefit' is not working in parallel. In
> detail, I would expect that the calculation of the Jacobian will be
> calculated in parallel mode, if desired, but the option 'UseParallel'
> is missing (it exists for fmincon and other algorithms). [...]

According to this page

<http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/toolbox/optim/ug/briutqn.html>

lsqcurvefit does not have Parallel Computing support. I'm afraid I'm not
familiar with the algorithm.

In general, to get reasonable speed-up using PARFOR, you need to ensure
that the amount of work done in the loop is computationally intensive
enough to balance out the overhead of distributing the work to the local
workers.

Cheers,

Edric.
From: Michael on
Hello Edric,

Yes, both OS are in German and on both computer is a Matlab 2010a Student Version.
On the Dell computer, there was the Intel MKL installed. But I removed it three weeks ago. Maybe the toolbox was not totally uninstalled and an artefact (library) was left causing a Matlab failure.?

I know about the overhead issues in parallelized mode and I have played around. I assume that the lsqcurvefit algorithm (the jacobian calculation) is very well optimized and therefore I do not receive better benchmarks with my own, parallized jacobian calculation - at least not with just having four cores and four threads.


Cheers,
Michael


Edric M Ellis <eellis(a)mathworks.com> wrote in message <ytweihxw1rx.fsf(a)uk-eellis-deb5-64.mathworks.co.uk>...
> "Michael" <xyMueller(a)web.de> writes:
>
> > Many thanks it is working, now! :-)
> > Nevertheless it seems to depend on the OS and the Computer, since I have
> > installed this version of Matlab also on my second Laptop (Lenovo X60t, 32 bit
> > Windows 7, Intel Core Duo CPU L2400) and I expierence no problems.
>
> Glad that got it working, it would be useful if I could try to work out
> what the differences are between these systems. From your earlier post
> you said that the non-working system was:
>
> > > Dell 1557, Core i7 Q720, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7 Business (64bit)
> > > Matlab 2010a (Student version), 32bit.
>
> Other than the OS difference, are there any other differences? In
> particular, do you have different language settings on the machines? (I
> assume your laptop also has MATLAB R2010a Student Version).
>
> > Maybe you can also answer me this question: It seems as if the
> > optimization algorithm 'lsqcurvefit' is not working in parallel. In
> > detail, I would expect that the calculation of the Jacobian will be
> > calculated in parallel mode, if desired, but the option 'UseParallel'
> > is missing (it exists for fmincon and other algorithms). [...]
>
> According to this page
>
> <http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/toolbox/optim/ug/briutqn.html>
>
> lsqcurvefit does not have Parallel Computing support. I'm afraid I'm not
> familiar with the algorithm.
>
> In general, to get reasonable speed-up using PARFOR, you need to ensure
> that the amount of work done in the loop is computationally intensive
> enough to balance out the overhead of distributing the work to the local
> workers.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Edric.