[IPython-dev] roadmap for IPython.zmq.parallel
Brian Granger
ellisonbg at gmail.com
Tue Dec 28 14:38:44 EST 2010
Barry,
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 7:25 AM, Barry Wark <barrywark at gmail.com> wrote:
> Min and Fernando,
>
> Thank you both for your comments. It sounds like we will keep a very
> close eye on the zmq.parallel work—and contribute where we can—but it
> may be a little premature (risk-averse mananger talking now) to plan a
> project with a dependency on it.
I think this is probably a smart move even though I would love to see
you use the new stuff.
> Error handling (and reporting) is
> going to be a big issue since we're letting users create both the
> workflow and the code that gets executed. Matlab's parallel computing
> toolbox is not a shinning example of an API, but they have done some
> nice work with error reporting; it may be a useful inspriration and
> perhaps something we could contribute. The zmq.parallel
That is interesting as in the past, the error handling was very
minimal (I have seen demos...). Do you have any links that
describe/show what they are doing in this respect now.
Cheers,
Brian
> I will certainly look into nipy more closely. Thanks for the
> suggestion, Fernando.
>
> Happy Holidays to all,
>
> Barry
>
> On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 8:44 PM, MinRK <benjaminrk at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I think targeting the current zmq.parallel code is worthwhile right now. I
>> would call the current state 'alpha' level, as it is has yet to be reviewed,
>> and is largely untested in the wild, but getting it up to code, so to speak,
>> shouldn't be a huge project.
>> The primary shortcomings currently:
>> * Configuration - Some very nice work has been done to add configurable
>> objects in IPython, and these tools are not yet used in the zmq parallel
>> code.
>> * Startup Scripts - Brian and others built some very nice tools for
>> deploying Twisted IPython on various clusters, and this work hasn't yet been
>> ported to use the existing ZeroMQ processes.
>> * Security - We do now allow for ssh tunnels, and it works with shell ssh,
>> as well as Paramiko. This is the newest code, and is largely untested
>> against the wide variety of key/password combinations used for ssh
>> authentication.
>> * Error handling - When code is going well, it's pretty solid, but there are
>> still decisions to be made on how to handle exceptions. It survives errors
>> just fine, but exactly how we deal with the failures is likely to change.
>> The main pains you may see from it being alpha is that the API is not yet
>> frozen. I wouldn't expect it to change much, but as we haven't had the
>> serious round of review yet, things are likely to change a little bit, so
>> you can expect to have your code require small adjustments while we iron
>> things out. But the basics are there, and won't change significantly.
>> -MinRK
>> On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 07:45, Barry Wark <barrywark at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> It's been too long since I've been able to hang out in IPython land.
>>> Given my previous interests, it's really exciting to see the work in
>>> frontends accelerating with the new refactoring.
>>>
>>> I'm very excited to have a new opportunity to get back to IPython work
>>> on a client project. The contract is to build a scientific data
>>> processing and analysis framework. The analyses are expressed as a
>>> DAG, with computation at the nodes done by exectuables that take a
>>> standardized set of arguments and return a contracted output format.
>>> Some of the executables are C, some Matlab, some Python, etc--standard
>>> fare in academia. Our job is to build the engine to execute these
>>> workflows, monitor results, etc. Jobs will initially execute on a
>>> single machine (thus multiprocessing or a higher-level framework like
>>> Rufus, http://www.ruffus.org.uk/) make sense, but the user may
>>> eventually want to expand onto a local cluster.
>>>
>>> MinRK's IPython.zmq.parallel branch, with its support for DAG
>>> dependencies looks like it might fit the bill as a base for our work.
>>> I'm curious what you think is the status and timeline of this branch.
>>> I am happy to dedicate time to improving and helping with the
>>> IPython.zmq.parallel branch; the contract includes 1/4 time for the
>>> duration of the project for work on project dependencies. The timeline
>>> for deploying our project is roughly Feb-March. Is it
>>> reasonable/adviseable to build on IPython.zmp.parallel in that
>>> timeframe? It looks like ssh tunnels are the current basis for
>>> security in the zmq branch. Is that correct? Are there any plans to
>>> implement any sort of pluggable authentication/authorization?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Barry Wark
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> IPython-dev mailing list
>>> IPython-dev at scipy.org
>>> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/ipython-dev
>>
>>
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--
Brian E. Granger, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Physics
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
bgranger at calpoly.edu
ellisonbg at gmail.com
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