The File > Debug New Parallel Program dialog box (TotalView) or the Add parallel program screen (MemoryScape) let you select a parallel configuration. If the default configurations that Rogue Wave Software provides do not meet your needs, you can either overwrite these configurations or create new ones.

The default definitions for parallel configurations reside in the parallel_support.tvd file, located in your totalview/lib installation directory. For TotalView — and MemoryScape when used with TotalView — you can use the variable TV::parallel_configs to customize parallel configurations. For standalone MemoryScape, you need to instead add any new configurations directly to the parallel_support.tvd file. Both these methods are discussed here.

If you are using TotalView, set the TV::parallel_configs variable, either local to your TotalView installation or globally:

For TotalView, if you are using a locally-installed MPI implementation, you should add it to your PATH variable. By default, both TotalView and MemoryScape use the information in PATH to find the parallel launcher (for example, mpirun, mpiexec, poe, srun, prun, dmpirun, and so on). Generally, if you can run your parallel job from a command line, TotalView can also run it.

If you have multiple installed MPI systems — for example, multiple versions of MPICH installed on a common file server — only one can be in your path. In this case, specify an absolute path to launch it, which means you will need to customize the TV::parallel_configs list variable or the parallel_support.tvd file contained within your installation directory so that it does not rely on your PATH variable.

The easiest way to create your own startup configuration for TotalView is to copy a similar configuration from the TV::private::parallel_configs_base variable (found in the parallel_support.tvd file, located in your installation directory at totalview/lib) to the TV::parallel_configs variable, and then edit it. Save the TV::parallel_configs variable in the tvdrc file located in the .totalview subdirectory in your home directory. For standalone MemoryScape, please see Standalone MemoryScape.

When you add configurations, they are simply added to a list. This means that if TotalView supplies a definition named foo and you create a definition also named foo, both exist and your product chooses the first one in the list. Because both are displayed, be careful to give each new definition a unique name.

For the standalone MemoryScape product, to customize the way an MPI program starts up, edit the parallel_support.tvd file, located in the totalview/lib installation directory area, using its existing syntax and definitions as a model for any new MPI implementations you add.

Note that this file is overwritten when you install a new TotalView or MemoryScape release. Be sure to make a backup copy of any customizations you make to this file. See Customizing Your Parallel Configuration for information on how to edit this file.

Make a backup copy of customizations you add to the parallel_support.tvd file, since the file is overwritten if you reinstall TotalView or MemoryScape.