root/trunk/man/xbps.1

.TH "xbps" "1" "1.2" "Paralogic, Inc." "Cluster Performance"
.SH "NAME"
xbps
.SH "SYNTAX"
xbps 
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
Beowulf Performance Suite (BPS)

The Beowulf Performance Suite (BPS) was designed to
provide a comprehensive and comparative way of
measuring cluster performance. Although BPS contains
many benchmarking programs, BPS is not designed to
benchmark clusters. BPS is designed as an analysis tool
to measure differences due to hardware or software
changes onthe same cluster. In addition, successfully
running all the tests provides some assurances that the
cluster is configured properly. The suite provides a
graphical user interface for running the programs as
well as generating HTML output files. The following
tests are available:

* bonnie \- hard drive performance

* stream \- memory performance

* netperf \- general network performance

* netpipe \- detailed network performance

* nas \- nas NASA parallel tests

* unixbench \- general Unix benchmarks

* lmbench \- micro Linux benchmarks

BPS provides an X windows interface. The interface
can be started by executing the following command:

# xbps

The desired set of benchmark(s) can then be selected
from the list. The selected benchmarks can then be run
by pressing the Run selected benches button. This will
not work with Netpipe or Netperf as they require user
settings. In addition, the NAS suite will only run on
one node unless other settings are provided. After your
benches have run, an HTML file of the results can be
produced by clicking on the Create html file of results
button. This will create a file called index.html in
the logs folder which you can open with your browser.

Settings
 
Using the settings is the better way to run the
benchmarks, and in the case of Netpipe and Netperf is
necessary. The settings, however, are not much more 
complex than running the benches. 

* Log Directory \- Sets the directory your bench logs
  will be placed into. Also, when creating an html file
  from the results, you must create the html file in
  the same directory as your log directory. Otherwise
  the program will not be able to find the files it
  needs to create the page.

* Netperf and Netpipe \- The settings for both of these
  look the same but are distinct, as Netpipe is
  different than Netperf. You must provide a valid
  receiver and sender node in both cases. The receiver
  node setting is the node that will be running the
  bench as a receiver, and the sender node is the one
  that will be running it as a sender. Since these
  benches run as benchmarks for the network
  communications between the two nodes, it is necessary
  to have both nodes specified. The interface is
  determined by the names of the hosts.

* NAS \- The default NAS settings are shown when you
  choose thisoption. The default settings will run the
  NAS suite on a single node for the S class size (i.e.
  workstation). However, if you have two or more
  nodes/processors, you can add them in the machine
  list. Because compilation is a part of the tests NAS
  runs, you can specify which compiler you want it to
  use. You should also select the MPI versionand number
  of processors you have.

* Machine Info \- This is standard information about
  your motherboard,memory, type of network interface,
  and the distribution of Linux youare using.

* Prompting \- This turns window prompts on/off.

In the Help menu, you can find a one sentence synopsis
of what each benchmark does by selecting Benchmark Info.
.SH "OPTIONS"
none
.SH "IMPORTANT NOTES"
All tests are archived in the src directory.  
  
The bps suite is best run as a normal user, not root.
Some of the tests (i.e. NAS parallel) will not run as root.
  
Not all features of the command line interface are
possible with the GUI.

When using Netpipe and Netperf Benchmarks, rsh with
no password must be permitted between the nodes.

Under normal operation, xbps will always preserve the
existing log directory. This feature is to ensure
previous results will not be overwritten. You can
copy previous log files (from log directories) into
the current log directory for bps\-html conversion.

Also, the tests have been designed so that the BPS
rpm only needs to be installed on the master node.
For this to work, the BPS log directory must be
mounted on all nodes (e.g. under /home).

When using the NAS Parallel Benchmarks it is
advisable to use the the Paralogic MPI's which which
have been tested to work with the NAS suite. Please
see the NAS documentation for more information.
Rather than limit potential BPS users, these are not
made a part of the required packages list. The
benchmark scripts have been written to rely on the
three environment variables (for LAM\-MPI, MPI\-PRO,
and MPICH). If you are having problems with the NAS
benchmarks, extract the npb.ta r.gz archive in
the/usr/bps/src directory and try running the scripts
manually. Consult the README.plogic file for more
information. Also, if you wish to use the Portland
Group or the Intel Compilers make sure they are
properly configured.


.SH "FILES"
/usr/share/doc/bps\-1.2/LICENSE
/usr/share/doc/bps\-1.2/README
/usr/share/doc/bps\-1.2/tests.html
.SH "IN CASE OF PROBLEMS"
The BPS suite is a collection of many tests. You should
have minimal or no problems with the single machine
tests. As more machines become involved with the tests,
there is room for more configuration errors to arise.
If a test does not run, check the test_name.log file in
the log directory. In the case of the NAS tests, the
resultsare in the form
npb.COMPILER.MPI.CLASS.PROCESSORS.

In general, if you have problems with a test it may be
best to run it from the command line. In the case of
the NAS suite, the \-k option will keep the npb
directory in the log directory so you can run the tests
more directly by using the run_suite script in the npb
directory. Also the README.plogic file in the npb
directly should provide more information on how the
tests are run and how to resolve possible problems.

.SH "SEE ALSO"
bps \- command line version of BPS

Additional benchmark information:

General Information 
  http://www.plogic.com/bps

bonnie++ Hard drive performance \-
  http://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++

stream Memory performance 
  http://www.cs.virginia.edu/stream

netperf General network performance
  http://www.netperf.org/netperf/NetperfPage.html

netpipe Detailed network performance
  http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/Projects/ClusterCookbook/nprun.html

unixbench General Unix benchmarks 
  http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Benchmarking\-HOWTO.html
  
LMbench Low level benchmarks 
  http://www.bitmover.com/lmbench
  
NAS Parallel tests 
  http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Software/NPB