Error opening matlabpool on Ubuntu R2013b, but not R2012b.

Hi, I have MATLAB 2012b and 2013b installed in /usr/local/MATLAB directory of our Ubuntu server. I am able to open matlabpool in R2012b, but not R2013b. No install errors were thrown when I installed R2013b. I installed both as through sudo. I have appended the error I get when I try to Validate the local configuration:

Thanks for the ideas, Shalin

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VALIDATION DETAILS Profile: local Scheduler Type: Local

Stage: Cluster connection test (parcluster) Status: Passed Description:Validation Passed Command Line Output:(none) Error Report:(none) Debug Log:(none)

Stage: Job test (createJob) Status: Failed Description:The validation stage encountered a MATLAB exception. Command Line Output:(none) Error Report: Tasks can only be added to jobs which are in state 'pending'. Debug Log:(none)

Stage: SPMD job test (createCommunicatingJob) Status: Failed Description:The validation stage encountered a MATLAB exception. Command Line Output:(none) Error Report: The property "NumWorkersRange" cannot be set after submission. Debug Log:(none)

Stage: Pool job test (createCommunicatingJob) Status: Skipped Description:Validation skipped due to previous failure. Command Line Output:(none) Error Report:(none) Debug Log:(none)

Stage: Parallel pool test (parpool) Status: Skipped Description:Validation skipped due to previous failure. Command Line Output:(none) Error Report:(none) Debug Log:(none)

[Edric Ellis]

That is a very strange failure mode - it might indicate that there's something wrong with your installation. Could you please try the following, and post the results (full command-window output)?

    c = parcluster('local');
    j = createJob(c);
    disp(j.State)
    t = createTask(j, @rand, 1, {});
    submit(j)
    wait(j)
    disp(t)

[Shalin Mehta]

Hi Edric, Thanks for the tip. Running your code, I found that MATLAB was trying to create a swap space for parallel jobs where it did not have rights to write files. Changing it to a folder inside my home directory did the trick. After that, resetting the path to default (empty) also works fine.

[Robert]

Shalin, Could you give me a little detail on your solution? i.e. how do you change the folder where MATLAB creates the swap space? I am having the same problem on Ubuntu with R2013b.

Thanks in advance, Rob

Answer 1

[Shalin Mehta]

This problem was solved by pointing "JobStorageLocation" of local cluster profile to a directory where my account had write access.

It can be reached as follows: parallel icon on bottom left -> Parallel Preferences -> Cluster Profile Manager -> local (under Cluster Profile column) -> Edit -> Properties tab on the right.