[mpich-discuss] Question to the group about Linux

[Hiatt, Dave M]

Of the users or ANL personnel who are using Linux, are you using any special tools to assist memory allocation?  We are trying to add some Linux servers to our test cluster.   It is a very memory hungry app, but what we are seeing is that the same app on Windows 7 uses about 1/3 the space for the same allocations that it uses on RHEL 5.5.  We've traced this to Linux itself.  I leap to the conclusion that we're for sure not the first ones to encounter this anomaly.  The source code itself is not changed between the systems save for a few non material #ifdef ..... #else   ...... #endif statements to address differences in time stamp formats.  We are compiling with Visual Studio 2008 and VS 2010 from the Windows side and Intel C++ 11.1 on the Linux side. As the major memory consumer is loaded, on the Linux side memory allocations are dramatically larger, so large that they consume about 3.5 times the space that they do in Windows.   And we observe other anomalies involving how memory is handled in Linux.  We are new to Linux, so what flavor of Linux are others using, are there add on tools that can help mitigate what appear to be very inefficient memory allocation characteristics?

Thanks
dave

"With sufficient thrust pigs can fly, but that does not necessarily mean it is a good idea"

Dave M. Hiatt
Director, Risk Analytics
CitiMortgage
1000 Technology Drive
O'Fallon, MO 63368-2240

Telephone:  636-261-1408

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