FAQ | Network-Based Computing Laboratory

MVAPICH/MVAPICH2 Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Background

    1. What is MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?
    2. Why the name "MVAPICH/MVAPICH2"?
    3. Where can I get MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?
    4. Whom do I contact for support?
    5. Is there any more information on MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?
    6. Is there a user guide available for MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?

  2. General Technical Questions

    1. What to do in case of problems?
    2. How can I build MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?
    3. Where can I get enhancements and bug fixes for MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?
    4. How do I submit a patch to the MVAPICH Group?

A. Background

  1. What is MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?

    MVAPICH is a high performance implementation of MPI-1 over InfiniBand based on MPICH1. MVAPICH2 is a high performance MPI-2 implementation based on MPICH2. High performance and scalable support over the Verbs Level Interface (VAPI) are provided by these packages. These packages also support other underlying transport interfaces (such as the emerging uDAPL, OpenIB/Gen2 and the standard TCP/IP) for portability across multiple networks.

  2. Why the name "MVAPICH/MVAPICH2"?

    The name `MVAPICH' was chosen to reflect the fact that this implementation is an MPI implementation over the InfiniBand VAPI interface based on the MPICH implementation. MVAPICH is pronounced as ``em-vah-pich''.

  3. Where can I get MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?

    MVAPICH source is available in various forms. Depending upon your need, you may choose to download the release tarball (stable) or if you want to be on the bleeding-edge of our developments, you may choose to check out from our anonymous SVN repository. Currently MVAPICH2 is available only in release tarball form. We are working on making it available from SVN soon.

    Both software packages are available from our Download tab.

  4. Whom do I contact for support?

    Bug reports and suggestions can be posted to mvapich-discuss mailing list.

  5. Is there any more information available on MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?

    Yes. Please refer to the MPI over InfiniBand Project web site. This web page is frequently updated with latest releases, publications, benchmarks, installation guides and performance tuning guidelines.

    If you would like to get information about future updates, releases, publications, etc. related to the MPI over InfiniBand project, you may subscribe to the mvapich mailing list . Please note that if you are downloading the package, you are automatically added to this mailing list. There is no need to subscribe. There is also a mvapich-discuss mailing list associated with this project. You may subscribe to this list to participate in the discussions related to MVAPICH and MVAPICH2.

  6. Is there a user guide available for MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?

    Yes. Please refer to MVAPICH User Guide (HTML, PDF) and MVAPICH2 User Guide ( HTML, PDF).

B. General Technical Questions

  1. What to do in case of problems

    MVAPICH/MVAPICH2 provide detailed and very easy to follow guides to help troubleshoot your installation. Please follow these links to troubleshoot MVAPICH/MVAPICH2:

    The troubleshooting sections in our user guides deal with the following type of problems:

    • MPI programs hanging in MPI_Init
    • CQ or QP creation failures over OpenFabrics/Gen2
    • Error opening HCA
    • No Active Port found errors
    • Hangs using VIADEV_USE_LMC=1
    • SRQ Modification errors
    • RETRY_EXC (code 12) errors
    • Cannot open IA (uDAPL)
    • DAT_INSUFFICIENT_RESOURCE (uDAPL)
    • Cannot find libdapl.so

    If you still cannot figure out what went wrong, do not hesitate to contact the MVAPICH user community by sending an email (with attached logs) to the mvapich-discuss mailing list.

  2. How can I build MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?

    Please refer the appropriate sections on building and installing MVAPICH/MVAPICH2 in their respective user guides. You can follow these links to view these sections:

  3. Where can I get enhancements and bug fixes for MVAPICH/MVAPICH2?

    Based on the feedback obtained from current users, we provide general improvements and bug fixes to the current version of MVAPICH/MVAPICH2. These fixes can be obtained directly from our anonymous SVN or as patches to our release versions. Please use the download tab on the top menu to access the source code for MVAPICH/MVAPICH2.

  4. How do I submit a patch to the MVAPICH Group?

    The MVAPICH Group encourages patches from outside developers. There are two main "types" of patches: small bugfixes and general improvements.

    To submit your patch, please send an email to mvapich-discuss mailing list with your patch.