[petsc-users] creation of parallel dmplex from a partitioned mesh

[Cameron Smith]

Hello,

Bringing this thread back from the dead...

We made progress with creation of a distributed dmplex that matches our 
source mesh partition and are in need of help writing values into a 
vector created from the dmplex object.

As discussed previously, we have created a DMPlex instance using:

DMPlexCreateFromCellListPetsc(...)
DMGetPointSF(...)
PetscSFSetGraph(...)

which gives us a distribution of mesh vertices and elements in the DM 
object that matches the element-based partition of our unstructured mesh.

We then mark mesh vertices on the geometric model boundary using 
DMSetLabelValue(...) and a map from our mesh vertices to dmplex points 
(created during dmplex definition of vtx coordinates).

Following this, we create a section for vertices:

>     DMPlexGetDepthStratum(dm, 0, &vStart, &vEnd);                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
>     PetscSectionCreate(PetscObjectComm((PetscObject) dm), &s);
>     PetscSectionSetNumFields(s, 1);
>     PetscSectionSetFieldComponents(s, 0, 1);
>     PetscSectionSetChart(s, vStart, vEnd);
>     for(PetscInt v = vStart; v < vEnd; ++v) {
>         PetscSectionSetDof(s, v, 1);
>         PetscSectionSetFieldDof(s, v, 0, 1);
>     }
>     PetscSectionSetUp(s);
>     DMSetLocalSection(dm, s);
>     PetscSectionDestroy(&s);
>     DMGetGlobalSection(dm,&s); //update the global section

We then try to write values into a local Vec for the on-process vertices 
(roots and leaves in sf terms) and hit an ordering problem. 
Specifically, we make the following sequence of calls:

DMGetLocalVector(dm,&bloc);
VecGetArrayWrite(bloc, &bwrite);
//for loop to write values to bwrite
VecRestoreArrayWrite(bloc, &bwrite);
DMLocalToGlobal(dm,bloc,INSERT_VALUES,b);
DMRestoreLocalVector(dm,&bloc);

Visualizing Vec 'b' in paraview, and the
original mesh, tells us that the dmplex topology and geometry (the 
vertex coordinates) are correct but that the order we write values is 
wrong (not total garbage... but clearly shifted).

Is there anything obviously wrong in our described approach?  I suspect 
the section creation is wrong and/or we don't understand the order of 
entries in the array returned by VecGetArrayWrite.

Please let us know if other info is needed.  We are happy to share the 
relevant source code.

Thank-you,
Cameron


On 8/25/20 8:34 AM, Cameron Smith wrote:
> On 8/24/20 4:57 PM, Matthew Knepley wrote:
>> On Mon, Aug 24, 2020 at 4:27 PM Jed Brown <jed at jedbrown.org 
>> <mailto:jed at jedbrown.org>> wrote:
>>
>>     Cameron Smith <smithc11 at rpi.edu <mailto:smithc11 at rpi.edu>> writes:
>>
>>      > We made some progress with star forest creation but still have
>>     work to do.
>>      >
>>      > We revisited DMPlexCreateFromCellListParallelPetsc(...) and got it
>>      > working by sequentially partitioning the vertex coordinates across
>>      > processes to satisfy the 'vertexCoords' argument. Specifically,
>>     rank 0
>>      > has the coordinates for vertices with global id 0:N/P-1, rank 1 
>> has
>>      > N/P:2*(N/P)-1, and so on (N is the total number of global
>>     vertices and P
>>      > is the number of processes).
>>      >
>>      > The consequences of the sequential partition of vertex
>>     coordinates in
>>      > subsequent solver operations is not clear.  Does it make process i
>>      > responsible for computations and communications associated with
>>     global
>>      > vertices i*(N/P):(i+1)*(N/P)-1 ?  We assumed it does and wanted
>>     to confirm.
>>
>>     Yeah, in the sense that the corners would be owned by the rank you
>>     place them on.
>>
>>     But many methods, especially high-order, perform assembly via
>>     non-overlapping partition of elements, in which case the
>>     "computations" happen where the elements are (with any required
>>     vertex data for the closure of those elements being sent to the rank
>>     handling the element).
>>
>>     Note that a typical pattern would be to create a parallel DMPlex
>>     with a naive distribution, then repartition/distribute it.
>>
>>
>> As Jed says, CreateParallel() just makes the most naive partition of 
>> vertices because we have no other information. Once
>> the mesh is made, you call DMPlexDistribute() again to reduce the edge 
>> cut.
>>
>>    Thanks,
>>
>>       Matt
>>
> 
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> This is being used for PIC code with low order 2d elements whose mesh is 
> partitioned to minimize communications during particle operations.  This 
> partition will not be ideal for the field solve using petsc so we're 
> exploring alternatives that will require minimal data movement between 
> the two partitions.  Towards that, we'll keep pursuing the SF creation.
> 
> -Cameron
>