Changes between Version 5 and Version 6 of Documentation/Howto/UseHiveForOptimization
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- 06/27/11 16:19:57 (13 years ago)
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Documentation/Howto/UseHiveForOptimization
v5 v6 4 4 Hive gives you the possibility to execute independent algorithms in parallel. It distributes those algorithms as jobs to a network of slaves which execute them and post back the results. Hive performs best if there is a large number of jobs which have long executen-times. Also if limited memory is a issue on a local PC, Hive can be an advantage since it can decide to run the jobs only on machines with enough memory (like the blade server nodes). 5 5 6 Hive is currently at beta stage (18.04.2011) and can (and should) be tested by anyone who needs to execute a large number of algorithms.The following steps are required to run a Hive Experiment:6 The following steps are required to run a Hive Experiment: 7 7 8 8 1. Download the most recent plugins for the Hive Experiment Manager Client (source:/branches/HeuristicLab.Hive-3.4/binaries/HeuristicLab.Hive.ExperimentManager-3.4.zip) 9 9 1. Copy plugins to HeuristicLab directory (usually "C:\Program Files\HeuristicLab 3.3\") 10 * Notice that you also need to copy ''"HeuristicLab 3.3.exe.config"'' and overwrite the existing one. This is no problem as long as you haven't made any modifications in the config file. If you have your own version of the config file see [wiki:HiveHowTosUseHiveForOptimization -3.4#Mergingconfigurationfiles Merging Configuration Files].10 * Notice that you also need to copy ''"HeuristicLab 3.3.exe.config"'' and overwrite the existing one. This is no problem as long as you haven't made any modifications in the config file. If you have your own version of the config file see [wiki:HiveHowTosUseHiveForOptimization#Mergingconfigurationfiles Merging Configuration Files]. 11 11 1. Start HeuristicLab Optimizer 12 12 1. Go to ''Services > Set Username / Password'' and enter your credentials 13 13 * You need a user and proper privileges as ''Hive User'' on the server (which is services.heuristiclab.com). These privileges can be requested from S. Wagner. 14 1. Go to ''Services > Hive > Experiment Manager (dev)''. Now you see a list of your Hive Experiments which are stored on the server.15 1. Click the plus symbol on top of the list to create a new ''Hive Experiment'' \\ [[Image(HiveExperiment -3.4.png, width=700)]] \\14 1. Go to ''Services > Hive > Experiment Manager''. Now the list of your Hive Experiments is updated. The experiments are grouped into the owners of the experiments. 15 1. Click the plus symbol on top of the list to create a new ''Hive Experiment'' \\ [[Image(HiveExperiment.png, width=700)]] \\ 16 16 1. Now you need to specify which experiment should be executed on the Hive. You can either 17 17 * ... create a new experiment by clicking the ''"plus symbol"''. 18 18 * ... move an existing experiment onto the view via drag and drop. 19 19 1. After having created or loaded an experiment you can click ''"Modify Optimizer"'' in the details view to modify it. 20 1. Each algorithm (also experiments and batch-runs) represent one job. \\ [[Image(JobConfiguration -3.4.png, width=800)]] \\20 1. Each algorithm (also experiments and batch-runs) represent one job. \\ [[Image(JobConfiguration.png, width=800)]] \\ 21 21 1. Important configurations are: 22 22 * CoresNeeded: (default: 1) Specifies how many cores will be reserved for this job on the executing machine. If you know the algorithm corresponding to this job will use multiple threads for computation, increase this number! … … 26 26 * Experiment: (default: true) If true, a job will be created for each child-optimizer. If false the whole experiment will be executed as one job. 27 27 * BatchRun: (default: false) If true, a number of jobs will be created corresponding to the number of repetitions specified. If false the batch-run will be executed as one job. 28 1. After configuring the jobs you can hit ''"Start Experiment"'' and the jobs will be uploaded to the Hive. Hive will then take care of the distribution and execution of each job. 29 1. While you keep the Hive Experiment Manager open, it will periodically fetch the status-updates of all jobs. When jobs are finished it will download the results automatically. \\ [[Image(JobExecution-3.4.png, width=800)]] \\ 28 1. There are also some configurations available for the whole experiment: 29 * ResourceIds: You can specify on which machines your jobs should be executed. Those machines/resources are grouped into resource-groups. The top group is ''"HEAL"''. You can either enter the name of a group or the name of a specific machine. 30 * !IsPrivileged: Jobs on Hive are executed in a secure sandboxed appdomain. However some plugins might require elevated privileges. If !IsPrivileged is checked, the jobs will be executed in a unrestricted appdomain. This option is only enabled if the user is allowed to (there is a role called ''"Hive IsAllowedPrivileged"''). If you need this permission, please contact S. Wagner. 31 1. After configuring the experiment you can hit ''"Start Experiment"'' and the jobs will be uploaded to the Hive. Hive will then take care of the distribution and execution of each job. 32 1. While you keep the Hive Experiment Manager open, it will periodically fetch the status-updates of all jobs. When jobs are finished it will download the results automatically. \\ [[Image(JobExecution.png, width=800)]] \\ 30 33 1. You can also close HeuristicLab after uploading an ''Hive Experiment''. When you open the ''Hive Experiment Manager'' again, it will download you list of ''Hive Experiments'' and you can choose to download a specific one. 31 34 1. Notice that when results are downloaded they will be reassembled into the original experiment. So after it finished you can again open the original experiment (''"Open Experiment"'') and see all the results in the RunCollection as if it would have been executed locally. … … 39 42 If Hive notices that you have a modified assembly, it is automatically uploaded to the server. 40 43 44 == Job-States == 45 You can observe the states of all jobs in the ''"States"'' tab. It shows a gantt-chart of your jobs. This is very helpful to get a quick overview of the runtimes of all jobs: \\ [[Image(JobStates.png, width=700)]] 46 41 47 == Merging configuration files == 42 48 If you are building the trunk or your own HL-solution, the build-process will most likely overwrite ''"HeuristicLab 3.3.exe.config"'' in the target folder. This will overwrite all the Hive-specific configuration. To avoid this, you can use the ConfigMerger to merge the Hive-specific configurations in your own build-process:
