Effective but stingy installation of MDCS

If there are 3 nodes and 12 cores each, mdcs has to be installed in all 36 cores right?

Now for the nodes to communicate with each other, is installing mdcs in 1 core (or the master) of each node enough for the nodes to communicate with each other? Since we can use PCT to work with the cores within the system, we don't need to install MDCS in every core right?

This might mean a compromise on speed but is it possible?

Answer 1

[Kojiro Saito]

MDCS is to be installed in each node not per core. You can use one MDCS worker per node which utilizes one CPU core and also launch multiple workers (for example, 12 workers which utilizes 12 cores) as much as the maximum number of your MDCS worker license.

[Viswanath Hariharan]

So that means, I just need to install 3 MDCS licenses on 3 nodes consisting of 12 workers each?

[Kojiro Saito]

No, MDCS licenses are purchasable per a worker but minimum workers are 16 workers. Here is MDCS price link.

[Viswanath Hariharan]

Actually. I have 9 systems with 12 cores each. I am thinking if I can buy 9 licenses, install MDCS in each system and make each system communicate with each other instead of buying 108 licenses. Is what I'm thinking possible?

[Kojiro Saito]

Technically, total 9 workers (per a worker in each system) will work for communication and they will use one CPU core in each system. In terms of licenses, a minimum license volume is 16 workers, so you need to purchase at lease 16 workers licenses.

[Viswanath Hariharan]

So if I buy 16 workers licenses, I can make the 9 nodes communicate with each other without needing to buy 108 (12 cores each node) licenses, correct?

[Viswanath Hariharan]

If yes, how do I do that?

[Kojiro Saito]

Yes, with MDCS 16 workers licenses, you can install MDCS in 9 nodes, and launches 1 worker per node, then you can make 9 nodes communications with 9 workers. Each worker consumes 1 CPU cores, so only 1 core is used per node.

Before purchasing, I recommend that you would test it with a trial license. You can submit a trial MDCS license from the link below.

MDCS trial license request page

[Viswanath Hariharan]

Thank you for your reply. You said only 1 core is used per node right? But I can use the Parallel Computing Toolbox to perform intra-node functions right? Meaning use the toolbox to make this one core communicate with other 11 cores within the node.

[Jason Ross]

The default is that each worker has one computational thread. You can change that in the cluster profile to allow the use of more computational threads per worker.