+++ /dev/null
-/*! \page tracing Tracing Simulations for Visualization
-
-
-The trace visualization is widely used to observe and understand the behavior
-of parallel applications and distributed algorithms. Usually, this is done in a
-two-step fashion: the user instruments the application and the traces are
-analyzed after the end of the execution. The visualization itself can highlights
-unexpected behaviors, bottlenecks and sometimes can be used to correct
-distributed algorithms. The SimGrid team has instrumented the library
-in order to let users trace their simulations and analyze them. This part of the
-user manual explains how the tracing-related features can be enabled and used
-during the development of simulators using the SimGrid library.
-
-\section tracing_tracing_howitworks How it works
-
-For now, the SimGrid library is instrumented so users can trace the <b>platform
-utilization</b> using the MSG, SimDAG and SMPI interface. This means that the tracing will
-register how much power is used for each host and how much bandwidth is used for
-each link of the platform. The idea with this type of tracing is to observe the
-overall view of resources utilization in the first place, especially the
-identification of bottlenecks, load-balancing among hosts, and so on.
-
-The idea of the tracing facilities is to give SimGrid users to possibility to
-classify MSG and SimDAG tasks by category, tracing the platform utilization
-(hosts and links) for each of the categories. For that,
-the tracing interface enables the declaration of categories and a function to
-mark a task with a previously declared category. <em>The tasks that are not
-classified according to a category are not traced</em>. Even if the user
-does not specify any category, the simulations can still be traced in terms
-of resource utilization by using a special parameter that is detailed below.
-
-\section tracing_tracing_enabling Enabling using CMake
-
-With the sources of SimGrid, it is possible to enable the tracing
-using the parameter <b>-Denable_tracing=ON</b> when the cmake is
-executed. The sections \ref instr_category_functions, \ref
-instr_mark_functions, and \ref instr_uservariables_functions describe
-all the functions available when this Cmake options is
-activated. These functions will have no effect if SimGrid is
-configured without this option (they are wiped-out by the
-C-preprocessor).
-
-\verbatim
-$ cmake -Denable_tracing=ON .
-$ make
-\endverbatim
-
-\section instr_category_functions Tracing categories functions
-\li \c TRACE_category(const char *category)
-\li \c TRACE_category_with_color(const char *category, const char *color)
-\li \c MSG_task_set_category(msg_task_t task, const char *category)
-\li \c MSG_task_get_category(msg_task_t task)
-\li \c SD_task_set_category(SD_task_t task, const char *category)
-\li \c SD_task_get_category(SD_task_t task)
-
-\section instr_mark_functions Tracing marks functions
-\li \c TRACE_declare_mark(const char *mark_type)
-\li \c TRACE_mark(const char *mark_type, const char *mark_value)
-
-\section instr_uservariables_functions Tracing user variables functions
-
-For hosts:
-
-\li \c TRACE_host_variable_declare(const char *variable)
-\li \c TRACE_host_variable_declare_with_color(const char *variable, const char *color)
-\li \c TRACE_host_variable_set(const char *host, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_host_variable_add(const char *host, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_host_variable_sub(const char *host, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_host_variable_set_with_time(double time, const char *host, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_host_variable_add_with_time(double time, const char *host, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_host_variable_sub_with_time(double time, const char *host, const char *variable, double value)
-
-For links:
-
-\li \c TRACE_link_variable_declare(const char *variable)
-\li \c TRACE_link_variable_declare_with_color(const char *variable, const char *color)
-\li \c TRACE_link_variable_set(const char *link, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_link_variable_add(const char *link, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_link_variable_sub(const char *link, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_link_variable_set_with_time(double time, const char *link, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_link_variable_add_with_time(double time, const char *link, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_link_variable_sub_with_time(double time, const char *link, const char *variable, double value)
-
-For links, but use source and destination to get route:
-
-\li \c TRACE_link_srcdst_variable_set(const char *src, const char *dst, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_link_srcdst_variable_add(const char *src, const char *dst, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_link_srcdst_variable_sub(const char *src, const char *dst, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_link_srcdst_variable_set_with_time(double time, const char *src, const char *dst, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_link_srcdst_variable_add_with_time(double time, const char *src, const char *dst, const char *variable, double value)
-\li \c TRACE_link_srcdst_variable_sub_with_time(double time, const char *src, const char *dst, const char *variable, double value)
-
-\section tracing_tracing_options Tracing configuration Options
-
-To check which tracing options are available for your simulator, you
-can just run it with the option <b>--help-tracing</b>. These are the
-options accepted by the tracing system of SimGrid as of today, you
-can use them by running your simulator with the <b>--cfg=</b> switch:
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing
-</b>:
- Safe switch. It activates (or deactivates) the tracing system.
- No other tracing options take effect if this one is not activated.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/categorized
-</b>:
- It activates the categorized resource utilization tracing. It should
- be enabled if tracing categories are used by this simulator.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/categorized:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/uncategorized
-</b>:
- It activates the uncategorized resource utilization tracing. Use it if
- this simulator do not use tracing categories and resource use have to be
- traced.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/uncategorized:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/filename
-</b>:
- A file with this name will be created to register the simulation. The file
- is in the Paje format and can be analyzed using Triva or Paje visualization
- tools. More information can be found in these webpages:
- <a href="http://triva.gforge.inria.fr/">http://triva.gforge.inria.fr/</a>
- <a href="http://paje.sourceforge.net/">http://paje.sourceforge.net/</a>
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/filename:mytracefile.trace
-\endverbatim
- If you do not provide this parameter, the trace file will be named simgrid.trace.
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/onelink_only
-</b>:
- By default, the tracing system uses all routes in the platform file
- to re-create a "graph" of the platform and register it in the trace file.
- This option let the user tell the tracing system to use only the routes
- that are composed with just one link.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/onelink_only:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/smpi
-</b>:
- This option only has effect if this simulator is SMPI-based. Traces the MPI
- interface and generates a trace that can be analyzed using Gantt-like
- visualizations. Every MPI function (implemented by SMPI) is transformed in a
- state, and point-to-point communications can be analyzed with arrows.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/smpi:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/smpi/group
-</b>:
- This option only has effect if this simulator is SMPI-based. The processes
- are grouped by the hosts where they were executed.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/smpi/group:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/msg/process
-</b>:
- This option only has effect if this simulator is MSG-based. It traces the
- behavior of all categorized MSG processes, grouping them by hosts. This option
- can be used to track process location if this simulator has process migration.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/msg/process:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/buffer
-</b>:
- This option put some events in a time-ordered buffer using the
- insertion sort algorithm. The process of acquiring and releasing
- locks to access this buffer and the cost of the sorting algorithm
- make this process slow. The simulator performance can be severely
- impacted if this option is activated, but you are sure to get a trace
- file with events sorted.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/buffer:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/onelink_only
-</b>:
-This option changes the way SimGrid register its platform on the trace
-file. Normally, the tracing considers all routes (no matter their
-size) on the platform file to re-create the resource topology. If this
-option is activated, only the routes with one link are used to
-register the topology within an AS. Routes among AS continue to be
-traced as usual.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/onelink_only:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/disable_destroy
-</b>:
-Disable the destruction of containers at the end of simulation. This
-can be used with simulators that have a different notion of time
-(different from the simulated time).
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/disable_destroy:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/basic
-</b>:
-Some visualization tools are not able to parse correctly the Paje file format.
-Use this option if you are using one of these tools to visualize the simulation
-trace. Keep in mind that the trace might be incomplete, without all the
-information that would be registered otherwise.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/basic:1
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/comment
-</b>:
-Use this to add a comment line to the top of the trace file.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/comment:my_string
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-tracing/comment_file
-</b>:
-Use this to add the contents of a file to the top of the trace file as comment.
-\verbatim
---cfg=tracing/comment_file:textual_file.txt
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-triva/categorized
-</b>:
- This option generates a graph configuration file for Triva considering
- categorized resource utilization.
-\verbatim
---cfg=triva/categorized:graph_categorized.plist
-\endverbatim
-
-\li <b>\c
-triva/uncategorized
-</b>:
- This option generates a graph configuration file for Triva considering
- uncategorized resource utilization.
-\verbatim
---cfg=triva/uncategorized:graph_uncategorized.plist
-\endverbatim
-
-\section tracing_tracing_example_parameters Case studies
-
-Some scenarios that might help you decide which tracing options
-you should use to analyze your simulator.
-
-\li I want to trace the resource utilization of all hosts
-and links of the platform, and my simulator <b>does not</b> use
-the tracing API. For that, you can run a uncategorized trace
-with the following parameters (it will work with <b>any</b> Simgrid
-simulator):
-\verbatim
-./your_simulator \
- --cfg=tracing:1 \
- --cfg=tracing/uncategorized:1 \
- --cfg=tracing/filename:mytracefile.trace \
- --cfg=triva/uncategorized:uncat.plist
-\endverbatim
-
-\li I want to trace only a subset of my MSG (or SimDAG) tasks.
-For that, you will need to create tracing categories using the
-<b>TRACE_category (...)</b> function (as explained above),
-and then classify your tasks to a previously declared category
-using the <b>MSG_task_set_category (...)</b>
-(or <b>SD_task_set_category (...)</b> for SimDAG tasks). After
-recompiling, run your simulator with the following parameters:
-\verbatim
-./your_simulator \
- --cfg=tracing:1 \
- --cfg=tracing/categorized:1 \
- --cfg=tracing/filename:mytracefile.trace \
- --cfg=triva/categorized:cat.plist
-\endverbatim
-
-
-\section tracing_tracing_example Example of Instrumentation
-
-A simplified example using the tracing mandatory functions.
-
-\verbatim
-int main (int argc, char **argv)
-{
- MSG_init (&argc, &argv);
-
- //(... after deployment ...)
-
- //note that category declaration must be called after MSG_create_environment
- TRACE_category_with_color ("request", "1 0 0");
- TRACE_category_with_color ("computation", "0.3 1 0.4");
- TRACE_category ("finalize");
-
- msg_task_t req1 = MSG_task_create("1st_request_task", 10, 10, NULL);
- msg_task_t req2 = MSG_task_create("2nd_request_task", 10, 10, NULL);
- msg_task_t req3 = MSG_task_create("3rd_request_task", 10, 10, NULL);
- msg_task_t req4 = MSG_task_create("4th_request_task", 10, 10, NULL);
- MSG_task_set_category (req1, "request");
- MSG_task_set_category (req2, "request");
- MSG_task_set_category (req3, "request");
- MSG_task_set_category (req4, "request");
-
- msg_task_t comp = MSG_task_create ("comp_task", 100, 100, NULL);
- MSG_task_set_category (comp, "computation");
-
- msg_task_t finalize = MSG_task_create ("finalize", 0, 0, NULL);
- MSG_task_set_category (finalize, "finalize");
-
- //(...)
-
- MSG_clean();
- return 0;
-}
-\endverbatim
-
-\section tracing_tracing_analyzing Analyzing the SimGrid Traces
-
-The SimGrid library, during an instrumented simulation, creates a trace file in
-the Paje file format that contains the platform utilization for the simulation
-that was executed. The visualization analysis of this file is performed with the
-visualization tool <a href="http://triva.gforge.inria.fr">Triva</a>, with
-special configurations tunned to SimGrid needs. This part of the documentation
-explains how to configure and use Triva to analyse a SimGrid trace file.
-
-- <b>Installing Triva</b>: the tool is available in the Inria's Forge,
-at <a href="http://triva.gforge.inria.fr">http://triva.gforge.inria.fr</a>.
-Use the following command to get the sources, and then check the file
-<i>INSTALL</i>. This file contains instructions to install
-the tool's dependencies in a Ubuntu/Debian Linux. The tool can also
-be compiled in MacOSX natively, check <i>INSTALL.mac</i> file.
-\verbatim
-$ git clone git://scm.gforge.inria.fr/triva/triva.git
-$ cd triva
-$ cat INSTALL
-\endverbatim
-
-- <b>Executing Triva</b>: a binary called <i>Triva</i> is available after the
- installation (you can execute it passing <em>--help</em> to check its
-options). If the triva binary is not available after following the
-installation instructions, you may want to execute the following command to
-initialize the GNUstep environment variables. We strongly recommend that you
-use the latest GNUstep packages, and not the packages available through apt-get
-in Ubuntu/Debian packaging systems. If you install GNUstep using the latest
-available packages, you can execute this command:
-\verbatim
-$ source /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh
-\endverbatim
-You should be able to see this output after the installation of triva:
-\verbatim
-$ ./Triva.app/Triva --help
-Usage: Triva [OPTIONS...] TRACE0 [TRACE1]
-Trace Analysis through Visualization
-
-TimeInterval
- --ti_frequency {double} Animation: frequency of updates
- --ti_hide Hide the TimeInterval window
- --ti_forward {double} Animation: value to move time-slice
- --ti_apply Apply the configuration
- --ti_update Update on slider change
- --ti_animate Start animation
- --ti_start {double} Start of time slice
- --ti_size {double} Size of time slice
-Triva
- --comparison Compare Trace Files (Experimental)
- --graph Configurable Graph
- --list Print Trace Type Hierarchy
- --hierarchy Export Trace Type Hierarchy (dot)
- --stat Trace Statistics and Memory Utilization
- --instances List All Trace Entities
- --linkview Link View (Experimental)
- --treemap Squarified Treemap
- --merge Merge Trace Files (Experimental)
- --check Check Trace File Integrity
-GraphConfiguration
- --gc_conf {file} Graph Configuration in Property List Format
- --gc_apply Apply the configuration
- --gc_hide Hide the GraphConfiguration window
-\endverbatim
-Triva expects that the user choose one of the available options
-(currently <em>--graph</em> or <em>--treemap</em> for a visualization analysis)
-and the trace file from the simulation.
-
-- <b>Understanding Triva - time-slice</b>: the analysis of a trace file using
- the tool always takes into account the concept of the <em>time-slice</em>.
-This concept means that what is being visualized in the screen is always
-calculated considering a specific time frame, with its beggining and end
-timestamp. The time-slice is configured by the user and can be changed
-dynamically through the window called <em>Time Interval</em> that is opened
-whenever a trace file is being analyzed. The next figure depicts the time-slice
-configuration window.
-In the top of the window, in the space named <i>Trace Time</i>,
-the two fields show the beggining of the trace (which usually starts in 0) and
-the end (that depends on the time simulated by SimGrid). The middle of the
-window, in the square named <i>Time Slice Configuration</i>, contains the
-aspects related to the time-slice, including its <i>start</i> and its
-<i>size</i>. The gray rectangle in the bottom of this part indicates the
-<i>current time-slice</i> that is considered for the drawings. If the checkbox
-<i>Update Drawings on Sliders Change</i> is not selected, the button
-<i>Apply</i> must be clicked in order to inform triva that the
-new time-slice must be considered. The bottom part of the window, in the space
-indicated by the square <i>Time Slice Animation</i> can be used to advance
-the time-frame automatically. The user configures the amount of time that the
-time-frame will forward and how frequent this update will happen. Once this is
-configured, the user clicks the <i>Play</i> button in order to see the dynamic
-changes on the drawings.
-<center>
-\htmlonly
-<a href="triva-time_interval.png" border=0><img src="triva-time_interval.png" width="50%" border=0></a>
-\endhtmlonly
-</center>
-<b>Remarks:</b> when the trace has too many hosts or links, the computation to
-take into account a new time-slice can be expensive. When this happens, the
-<i>Frequency</i> parameter, but also updates caused by change on configurations
-when the checkbox <i>Update Drawings on Sliders
-Change</i> is selected will not be followed.
-
-- <b>Understanding Triva - graph</b>: one possibility to analyze
- SimGrid traces is to use Triva's graph view, using the
- <em>--graph</em> parameter to activate this view, and
- <em>--gc_conf</em> with a graph configuration to customize the graph
- according to the traces. A valid graph configuration (we are using
- the non-XML <a
- href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_list">Property List
- Format</a> to describe the configuration) can be created for any
- SimGrid-based simulator using the
- <em>--cfg=triva/uncategorized:graph_uncategorized.plist</em> or
- <em>--cfg=triva/categorized:graph_categorized.plist</em> (if the
- simulator defines resource utilization categories) when executing
- the simulation.
-
-<b>Basic SimGrid Configuration</b>: The basic description of the configuration
-is as follows:
-\verbatim
-{
- node = (LINK, HOST, );
- edge = (HOST-LINK, LINK-HOST, LINK-LINK, );
-\endverbatim
-
-The nodes of the graph will be created based on the <i>node</i>
-parameter, which in this case is the different <em>"HOST"</em>s and
-<em>"LINK"</em>s of the platform used to simulate. The <i>edge</i>
-parameter indicates that the edges of the graph will be created based
-on the <em>"HOST-LINK"</em>s, <em>"LINK-HOST"</em>s, and
-<em>"LINK-LINK"</em>s of the platform. After the definition of these
-two parameters, the configuration must detail how the nodes
-(<em>HOST</em>s and <em>LINK</em>s) should be drawn.
-
-For that, the configuration must have an entry for each of
-the types used. For <em>HOST</em>, as basic configuration, we have:
-
-\verbatim
- HOST = {
- type = square;
- size = power;
- values = (power_used);
- };
-\endverbatim
-
-The parameter <em>size</em> indicates which variable from the trace
-file will be used to define the size of the node HOST in the
-visualization. If the simulation was executed with availability
-traces, the size of the nodes will be changed according to these
-traces. The parameter <em>type</em> indicates which geometrical shape
-will be used to represent HOST, and the <em>values</em> parameter
-indicates which values from the trace will be used to fill the shape.
-
-For <em>LINK</em> we have:
-
-\verbatim
- LINK = {
- type = rhombus;
- size = bandwidth;
- values = (bandwidth_used);
- };
-}
-\endverbatim
-
-The same configuration parameters are used here: <em>type</em> (with a
-rhombus), the <em>size</em> (whose value is from trace's bandwidth
-variable) and the <em>values</em>.
-
-<b>Customizing the Graph Representation</b>: triva is capable to handle
-a customized graph representation based on the variables present in the trace
-file. In the case of SimGrid, every time a category is created for tasks, two
-variables in the trace file are defined: one to indicate node utilization (how
-much power was used by that task category), and another to indicate link
-utilization (how much bandwidth was used by that category). For instance, if the
-user declares a category named <i>request</i>, there will be variables named
-<b>p</b><i>request</i> and a <b>b</b><i>request</i> (<b>p</b> for power and
-<b>b</b> for bandwidth). It is important to notice that the variable
-<i>prequest</i> in this case is only available for HOST, and
-<i>brequest</i> is only available for LINK. <b>Example</b>: suppose there are
-two categories for tasks: request and compute. To create a customized graph
-representation with a proportional separation of host and link utilization, use
-as configuration for HOST and LINK this:
-
-\verbatim
- HOST = {
- type = square;
- size = power;
- values = (prequest, pcomputation);
- };
- LINK = {
- type = rhombus;
- size = bandwidth;
- values = (brequest, bcomputation);
- };
-\endverbatim
-
-This configuration enables the analysis of resource utilization by MSG tasks,
-and the identification of load-balancing issues, network bottlenecks, for
-instance. \n
-
-<b>The Graph Visualization</b>: The next figure shows a graph visualization of a
-given time-slice of the masterslave_forwarder example (present in the SimGrid
-sources). The red color indicates tasks from the <i>compute</i> category. This
-visualization was generated with the following configuration:
-
-\verbatim
-{
- node = (LINK, HOST, );
- edge = (HOST-LINK, LINK-HOST, LINK-LINK, );
-
- host = {
- type = square;
- size = power;
- values = (pcompute, pfinalize);
- };
- link = {
- type = rhombus;
- size = bandwidth;
- values = (bcompute, bfinalize);
- };
-}
-\endverbatim
-
-<center>
-\htmlonly
-<a href="triva-graph_visualization.png" border=0><img src="triva-graph_visualization.png" width="50%" border=0></a>
-\endhtmlonly
-</center>
-
-- <b>Understading Triva - colors</b>: Colors are now registered in
-trace files. See the tracing API to how to define them for your
-simulator.
-
-*/
