Starting and configuring PVM

Starting PVM from the console

Starting PVM from the console involves executing pvm.

The console (pvm) may be started and stopped multiple times on any of the hosts on which PVM is running.
The PVM console prints the prompt
```
pvm>
```
and accepts commands from standard input.
The console allows reconfiguration of the virtual machine as well as interactive starting and killing of PVM processes.

Configuration of PVM

To list the configuration of the virtual machine including hostname, pvmd task ID, architecture type, and a relative speed rating.

ig% pvm
pvm> conf

1 host, 1 data format

		HOST	DTID	ARCH	SPEED
		ig	40000	ALPHA	1

Re-configuring PVM

The console allows interactive addition and deletion of hosts to the virtual machine.

pvm> conf

2 Hosts, 2 data formats

		HOST	DTID	ARCH	SPEED
		ig	40000	ALPHA	1
		speedy	80000	RS6K	1

pvm> add thud honk
2 successful
		HOST	DTID
		thud	c0000
		honk	100000

pvm> delete speedy
1 successful

		HOST	STATUS
		speedy	deleted

pvm> conf

		HOST	DTID	ARCH	SPEED
		ig	40000	ALPHA	1
		thud	c0000	SUN4	1
		honk	100000	ALPHA	1

Leaving PVM from the console

To exit console, leaving daemons and PVM jobs running type

pvm> quit

To kill all PVM processes including console, and then shut down PVM.

pvm> halt

All daemons exit.

Other console commands

Examples of other commands available on the console are:

ps -a: List all processes currently on the virtual machine, their locations, their task IDs, and their parent task ID.
pstat: Show status of a single PVM process.
alias: Define or list command aliases.
setenv: Display or set environment variables.
help: Can be used to get information about any of the interactive commands.

Starting PVM with a hostfile

PVM may also be started using a hostfile as follows:

ig% pvmd3 hostfile &

The file hostfile lists the hosts in the user's virtual machine.
The hostfile in its simplest form is just a list of hostnames one to a line.
The first host listed must be the computer on which PVM is initially started.

A simple example of a hostfile.

#Configuration used for my run
sparky
honk.hpc.soton.ac.uk
thud.ecs.soton.ac.uk
sun4

Several options may be specified on each line after the hostname. These include:

lo=userid. Allows user to specify alternate login name for this host.
so=pw. Will prompt user for a password on this host.

Submitted by Mark Johnston,
last updated on 12 January 1995.