Clustering few machines

[ph]

Dear Sir,
1) I have  an  ATK12.2.2  license of 2 masters and 6 slaves, with this how many machines(each with 4 cores) I can cluster with good performence ?. I am using Ubuntu linux11.04 with mpi. All machines are  now in network.

2) With our license, Is it possible to run, the same file in multiple machines by make use of more cores to save time?. Running one input file in one machine(with 4 cores) is faster ? or running the same on multiple machines is faster, by make use of more cores ?
3) If it is possible, how to address  all the  machines and their cores using mpi. Kindly give command syntax?

 My license configuration is as follows:

FEATURE atkmaster
{
VENDOR = QUANTUM
COUNT = 2
VERSION = 12.8
KEY = --------------------
}

FEATURE atkslave
{
VENDOR = QUANTUM
COUNT = 6
VERSION = 12.8
KEY =---------------------------    
}
FEATURE vnl
{
VENDOR = QUANTUM
COUNT = 2
VERSION = 12.8
KEY =---------------------------------    
}
FEATURE atkdft
{
VENDOR = QUANTUM
COUNT = 1000
VERSION = 12.8
KEY = -----------------------
}
------------
--------------
----------------
I am waiting for your kind reply.

[Anders Blom]

First of all I would urge you to read the Parallel Guide. It contains the answer to most of your questions.

The general recommendation for best performance is to run 1 MPI process per socket. So, assuming you machines are all single socket quadcores, that would mean one MPI process per machine. Since you have 2 masters and 6 slaves you can choose how to distribute these between jobs. If you have 2 jobs to run, then run each on 4 nodes (1 master + 3 slaves per job), or 1 job on 7 nodes (if you have that many).

[ph]

Dear Sir,

Thanks a lot for your kind reply in right time.