Version 2024b and ServiceHost

Hello,

From the following question/response here ( https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/2111226-what-is-the-mathworks-service-host-and-why-is-it-running ), it would appear that this and related services cannot currently be disabled.

Is there a setting we can use to write this data and run these services from a different directory other than ~/.MathWorks?

The issue we are facing in our HPC environment is users can run matlab from any number of compute nodes and each run is creating a node specific directory. Our user home directories are limted with quotas and we're starting to receive complaints.

-Chris

Answer 1

[Damian Pietrus]

Hello Christopher,

As of now, there is no way to change the location of the MATLAB Service Host. This is feedback that we've heard from other HPC centers, so for now I'll ask you to create a service request with the issues you've seen so that it can be tracked and attached in our internal systems.

https://www.mathworks.com/support/contact_us.html

Please also feel free to reach out to me directly, as I work with Parallel Server integration in HPC.

[Christopher Rutledge]

Thanks for the quick response! I'll work on getting the service request created today.

-Chris

[David]

Dear Damian,

Do we have any idea of when this issue will be resolved or if there a way to track/comment on the progress of a solution? This is preventing us from upgrading the 2024b as there doesn't seem to be any viable work around.

kind regards,

David H

[Jörg]

Dear Damian,

we got the same problem on our HPC cluster as well. As it appears that MATLAB Service Host is required, it would be good to allow an environment variable to override the defaults, so we could use a job-specific temporary directory to get the files in there. This way, each job has its onw MATLAB Service Host folder, which could be destroyed at the end of the job. This also prevents cluttering up the home-directory with too many files.

As the previous comment reads: is there a way to see any progress on it? Right now we got users who cannot use MATLAB on our HPC cluster.

Best wishes

Jörg

[Damian Pietrus]

Right now I don't have any additional information. I'd recommend reaching out to our support teams directly with both feedback and questions, as they should have the most up-to-date information and can formally track and pass along feedback as well.

[Christopher Rutledge]

The first case I opened, I was told a fix was in the works and slated for June 12-14 release date (case 07055994). When I installed 2024a update 4, it did appear things had changed and it might have worked but fell just short. It looks like a change was made to use symlinks to a shared directory, however, it only did that for the first node where matlab was run. All others do not attempt to use the shared symlink directory: ~/.MathWorks/ServiceHost/-mw_shared_installs/v2024.6.0.6

I opened another case (07100832) and was simply told twice that this is the way it works now. Even after explaining I was told there would be a fix and showing a change in behavour that fell just short.

Jörg, I wish you luck with your case! If you happen to try update 4 and have behavour different than the following, please post here.

Second case I opened after update 4:

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It appears an attempt was made to solve the disk usage in shared environments with Update 4 and the ServiceHosts process. However, the problem persists.

If we are starting with a fresh ~/.MathWorks directory and start matlab on a host, it does appear that things will be setup for better disk usage:

$ pwd

/nas/cluster/home/yada/.MathWorks/ServiceHost

$ ls -l

total 0

drwxrwxr-x 2 yada users 4096 Jun 19 13:50 cluster-login4

drwxrwxr-x 2 yada users 4096 Jun 19 13:18 cluster-login6

drwxrwxr-x 2 yada users 4096 Jun 19 13:18 -mw_shared_installs

$ ls -l cluster-login6

total 3

-rw-rw-r-- 1 yada users 239 Jun 19 13:18 installDdux.info

-rw-rw-r-- 1 yada users 266 Jun 19 13:18 LatestInstall.info

drwxrwxr-x 2 yada users 4096 Jun 19 13:18 logs

drwxrwxr-x 2 yada users 4096 Jun 19 13:18 services

-rw-rw-r-- 1 yada users 1489 Jun 19 13:18 thisMSH.pem

lrwxrwxrwx 1 yada users 80 Jun 19 13:18 v2024.6.0.6 -> /nas/cluster/home/yada/.MathWorks/ServiceHost/-mw_shared_installs/v2024.6.0.6

Now, when we launch matlab from another host it's not making use of the symlink location:

$ ls -l cluster-login4

total 2

-rw-rw-r-- 1 yada users 258 Jun 19 13:44 LatestInstall.info

drwxrwxr-x 2 yada users 4096 Jun 19 13:45 logs

drwxrwxr-x 2 yada users 4096 Jun 19 13:44 services

-rw-rw-r-- 1 yada users 1489 Jun 19 13:45 thisMSH.pem

drwxrwxr-x 2 yada users 4096 Jun 19 13:44 v2024.6.0.6

I also cleared the ~/.MathWorks directory and ran the test in the opposite order and the results were the same -- only the first host gets the symlink.

Answer 2

[Conor Burgess]

Hi Chris,

We’ve recently published more information about MathWorks Service Host and how it can be administered in cases like yours here: https://github.com/mathworks-ref-arch/administer-mathworks-service-host. The scripts in that repository should help you to set up your machines with MathWorks Service Host installed into a different location, such that it doesn’t need to be installed into each user’s home directory on the HPC compute nodes.

Please also note that if MATLAB is launched from MATLAB Parallel Server, or if you start MATLAB with the `-batch` option for running non-interactive batch work, MathWorks Service Host is not currently required and wouldn’t be installed or started with R2024b.

Thanks,

Conor