What is the difference between running a set of programs with independent invocations of mpirun vs specifying --app? The programs do not need to talk to each other.
I think that if one job fails it will take the others down if I use --app. Is that correct? This is the main reason I'm considering alternatives. On the other hand, if my app file is something like -np 1 prog1 -np 1 prog2 ... I believe I will avoid oversubcription. But, if I do mpirun -np 1 prog1 miprun -np 1 prog2 .... do I end up oversubscribing the first node? It would also be nice if OMPI automatically picked the least loaded node (the load might come from other programs), but it does not appear it takes this into account. Is that right? The FAQ mentions load leveler, but we don't seem to have it installed. Context: we have a cluster without a batch system or scheduler, and want to run multiple independent jobs at once. The cluster is running Debian Lenny -> OMPI 1.2.7rc2. Thanks for any help you can offer. Ross Boylan
