Re: [AMBER] Question about mdinfo file.

From: Ross Walker <ross.rosswalker.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:52:19 -0700

Hi Mayank,

To follow up on what others have said.

Firstly the mdinfo file in pmemd is only flushed at specific time intervals
hence why it is not always insync with mdout. Short answer, don't worry
about it. You just have to wait a while. The interval is 60 seconds so if
you are running a multiple hour job it makes no difference.

An example of the output shown in the mdinfo file is:


 NSTEP = 960000 TIME(PS) = 28170.000 TEMP(K) = 310.64 PRESS =
0.0
 Etot = -262918.0681 EKtot = 76197.9193 EPtot =
-339115.9874
 BOND = 4711.2662 ANGLE = 12150.7208 DIHED =
15850.2509
 1-4 NB = 5280.4684 1-4 EEL = 67234.5675 VDWAALS =
29059.5335
 EELEC = -473402.7946 EHBOND = 0.0000 RESTRAINT =
0.0000
 Ewald error estimate: 0.2009E-04
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
| Current Timing Info
| -------------------
| Total steps :   2500000 | Completed :    960000 | Remaining :   1540000
|
| Average timings for last    5000 steps:
|     Elapsed(s) =      64.4 Per Step(ms) =      12.9
|         ns/day =      13.4   seconds/ns =    6436.2
|
| Average timings for all steps:
|     Elapsed(s) =   12434.9 Per Step(ms) =      13.0
|         ns/day =      13.3   seconds/ns =    6476.5
|
|
| Estimated time remaining:       5.5 hours.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
The timing info is an estimate of the performance and is in two forms. It is
calculated entirely from the wallclock time to a resolution of ms. The
timers are started after the initial setup time so should be real
performance although still an estimate.
The first section "Average timings for last  XXXX steps:" provides the
approximate speed for the last XXXX steps of MD. This is an instantaneous
measure of the performance since the last mdinfo file was written, so
typically over the last 60 seconds. This is useful to see if something has
gone wrong with performance during a run. For example a node is misbehaving
and running slow. If the performance for the last XXXX steps is
significantly worse than the average timing then you should consider
checking your hardware etc.
The second section "Average timings for all steps: " shows the performance
over the entire run so far. This is the metric that really tells you the
achievable performance you are getting. It is useful if you want to quickly
see if you are getting better performance by using more processors etc. Note
it is still an estimate.
Finally there is the line: "Estimated time remaining:" This is an indication
of how long the run will take to complete the remaining nstlim steps based
on the current performance. The main use of this, except for checking if it
will take say 200 days to complete!, is to see if the calculation is likely
to complete within the remaining wallclock limit of your batch job. There is
nothing more annoying than having a job killed by a queuing system 10
minutes before it was due to finish.
All of this is information that you could calculate manually yourself from
the output file and the queuing systems wallclock time to date etc but this
approach just makes it much easier to see.
With regards to instantaneous performance it could be higher than the
average performance for a number of reasons. First the code can actually get
faster with time. Load balancing can help improve performance over time
during a run. Additionally changes in density of your system etc can
influence, slightly, the mathematical cost per step and communication
overheads etc. The second reason is just a basic stastical argument related
to convergence of averages. The average over the last XXX steps (approx 60
seconds) has much more noise on it that the average over all steps.
I hope that helps.
All the best
Ross
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mayank Daga [mailto:mdaga.vt.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 8:55 AM
> To: AMBER Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [AMBER] Question about mdinfo file.
> 
> What I am concerned is how would the ns/day be affected if and if not
> the
> simulations run to the entirety. The mdinfo file states ns/day obtained
> due
> to last 'x' steps, hence if the 'x' = 10000 and not 1000, is there a
> chance
> the average would be better for 10000 steps??
> ~mayank
> 
> On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 11:31 AM, Jason Swails
> <jason.swails.gmail.com>wrote:
> 
> > Hello,
> >
> > I believe that pmemd does not update the mdinfo file as often as it
> updates
> > the mdout file due to performance implications.  You can figure out
> the
> > source of this discrepancy by digging through the pmemd code, but
> this has
> > no effect on your results.
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> > Jason
> >
> > On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 11:10 AM, Mayank Daga <mdaga.vt.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I am a newbie using AMBER on the GPUs.
> > > When I run my simulations, I see two output files, mdout and
> mdinfo. In
> > the
> > > mdinfo file, I see the timing details as to how many ns/day I get.
> The
> > > issue
> > > is some steps are always uncompleted according to this file while
> mdout
> > > lists that all the steps have been completed. Why is this
> discrepancy?
> > > For example, if I run a simulation for 10000 steps, mdinfo shows
> 9000
> > steps
> > > remaining while mdout list energy values for all 10000 steps.
> > >
> > > I am using the input files as downloaded from the AMBER website and
> to
> > run
> > > the simulation:
> > >  ~/amber11/bin/pmemd.cuda -O -i mdin -o mdout -p prmtop -c inpcrd -
> r
> > restrt
> > > -x mdcrd -gpu 0
> > >
> > > Please explain this behaviour.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > ~mayank
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Mayank Daga | SyNeRGy Laboratory | Dept. of Computer Science
> > > Virginia Tech | http://synergy.cs.vt.edu | http://www.cs.vt.edu
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > AMBER mailing list
> > > AMBER.ambermd.org
> > > http://lists.ambermd.org/mailman/listinfo/amber
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jason M. Swails
> > Quantum Theory Project,
> > University of Florida
> > Ph.D. Graduate Student
> > 352-392-4032
> > _______________________________________________
> > AMBER mailing list
> > AMBER.ambermd.org
> > http://lists.ambermd.org/mailman/listinfo/amber
> >
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Mayank Daga | SyNeRGy Laboratory | Dept. of Computer Science
> Virginia Tech | http://synergy.cs.vt.edu | http://www.cs.vt.edu
> _______________________________________________
> AMBER mailing list
> AMBER.ambermd.org
> http://lists.ambermd.org/mailman/listinfo/amber
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Received on Tue Aug 17 2010 - 10:30:18 PDT
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