Intel® VTune™ Profiler

User Guide

ID 766319
Date 10/31/2024
Public
Document Table of Contents

Arbitrary Targets

Configure and generate a command line for performance analysis on a system that is not accessible from the current host.

Besides targets accessible to Intel® VTune™ Profiler directly on the host or via a remote connection (SSH or ADB), you have an Arbitrary Host option to create a command line configuration for a platform not accessible from the current host. You can select any of the supported hardware platforms and operating systems, configure corresponding target and analysis options, and generate a command line by clicking the Command Line button. The generated command line will be saved in the buffer and can be used later on the intended host.

NOTE:

The option to generate a command line from GUI via the Command Line button is available for both accessible and arbitrary targets.

To configure an analysis for an arbitrary host:

  1. Create a new project or click the Configure Analysis toolbar button for an existing project.

  2. From the Configure Analysis window, click the Browse button on the WHERE pane and select the Arbitrary Host (not connected) type of the target system.

  3. Specify a platform for profiling:

    • Select a hardware platform for analysis from the drop-down menu, for example: Intel® processor code named Anniedale.

    • Specify either Windows* or GNU*/Linux* operating system.

  4. Switch to the WHAT pane to configure analysis target options.

    For MPI analysis of an arbitrary target, enable the Use MPI launcher check box to generate a command line configuration. Configure the following MPI analysis options:

    • MPI launcher: Select an MPI launcher that should be used for your analysis. You can either enable the Intel MPI launcher option (default) or select Other and specify a launcher of your choice, for example: aprun, srun, or lbrun.

    • Number of ranks: Specify the number of ranks used for your application.

    • Profile ranks: Use All to profile all ranks, or choose Selective and specify particular ranks to profile, for example: 2-4,6-7,8.

    • Result location: Specify a relative or absolute path to the directory where the analysis result should be stored.

    If your target system is not powerful enough, consider selecting another system for the result finalization as follows:

    In this case, VTune Profiler calculates only binary checksum to be used for finalization on the host machine. This option is recommended for analysis on the Intel Xeon Phi processor (code name: Knights Landing).

  5. Switch to the HOW panechoose and configure (if required) an analysis type.

  6. Click the Command Line... button at the bottom to generate a command line for your configuration.

    For example, VTune Profiler generates the following command line for a test MPI application that will be launched on a GNU/Linux system via Intel MPI launcher and analyzed for Memory Access issues on ranks 2-4,6-7,8:

    $ mpirun -n 14 -gtool "vtune -collect memory-access:2-4,6-7,8" /temp/vtune/test

  7. Click the Copy button to copy the generated command line to the buffer and use it later on the intended host.