[Beowulf] PVM on wireless...

[Gerry Creager]

FWIW, we saw this with ROCKS and MPICH, a couple of years ago.  Took a 
lot of firewall tweaking, and it's been too many beers to recall the 
details, to get things working.  It is odd.

gerry

Robert G. Brown wrote:
> On Thu, 7 Feb 2008, Bill Rankin wrote:
> 
>> I think that I managed to replicate your problem, Rob.
>>
>> Laptop running CentoOS5, pvm 3.4.5-7(rpm), wireless ethernet.
>> Server running FC6, pvm 3.4.5-7(rpm)
>>
>> Ssh working fine in both directions, PVM_ROOT and PVM_RSH set 
>> accordingly.
> 
> Try it with the firewalls completely down and I'll bet it works.
> 
> However, it is REALLY strange that it works with them UP for some
> combinations.  Or not so strange -- that's what was fooling me, after
> all.  Perhaps the port ranges being used are varying with version or
> chance.
> 
>    rgb
> 
>>
>> Running "pvm" from the shell on the server and doing an "add <laptop>" 
>> at the prompt.
>> Prompted for password.
>> PVM then hangs waiting to add remote host.
>> On the remote host, we see the pvmd running with a "ps".
>>
>> If I do nothing: the remote pvmd eventually dies and after that the 
>> command prompt on the server returns with a "1 successful" message, 
>> but a "conf" command shows that no hosts were added.
>>
>> Here is the weird part: if after I issue the "add <laptop>" command, I 
>> then go over to the laptop and run "pvm" from a shell, the connection 
>> is made and the hosts are successfully added.
>>
>> So you may want to try this and see if you get similar behavior.
>>
>>
>> Last datapoint: if from my laptop I attempt to add a host that has PVM 
>> 3.4.4 (CentOS4 rpm) installed, it starts up fine.  So I think that 
>> it's a bug in 3.4.5-7.  I haven't tried it over a wired connection yet.
>>
>> So you may want to try dropping back to version 3.4.4 on all machines 
>> and see if that helps.
>>
>>
>> Jim Kohl at ORNL seems to have several patches to 3.4.5, and I'm 
>> wondering if this issue has already been addressed.
>>
>>
>> -bill
> 

-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.862.3982 FAX: 979.862.3983
Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843