Mix of serial and parallel tests

Hi, I would like to run some test in parallel meanwhile other in serial. The real use is to run compute tests in parallel with storage benchmark of shared target (you do not want to run multiple differrent IOR at the same time on the same target).

Consider the following example:

@rfm.simple_test
class ARunTest(rfm.RunOnlyRegressionTest):
    descr = "A Run"
    valid_systems = ["hpc:hpc"]
    valid_prog_environs = ["*"]
    param = parameter(["AA", "AB"])
#    max_jobs = 1

    def __init__(self):
        self.executable = f"date; echo {self.param}"

#    @run_before("run")
#    def set_exec(self):
#        self.current_partition.max_jobs = 1

    @sanity_function
    def assert_passed(self):
        return True

@rfm.simple_test
class BRunTest(rfm.RunOnlyRegressionTest):
    descr = "B Run"
    valid_systems = ["hpc:hpc"]
    valid_prog_environs = ["*"]
    param = parameter(["BA", "BB"])

    def __init__(self):
        self.executable = f"date; echo {self.param}"

    @sanity_function
    def assert_passed(self):
        return True

The ARunTest should run in serial: ARunTest_AA first and on completion start ARunTest_AB. While BRunTest should run in parallel: BRunTest_BA concurrent to ARunTest_BB.

Using the default settings ARunTest_AA, ARunTest_AB, BRunTest_BA, BRunTest_BB run in parallel. Instead using the option --exec-policy=serial it will run ARunTest_AA then ARunTest_AB then BRunTest_BA then BRunTest_BB.

The trick would be to set a max_jobs = 1 variable for the class ARunTest but it is simply skipped. Or:

    @run_before("run")
    def set_exec(self):
        self.current_partition.max_jobs = 1

but I get: can't set attribute self.current_partition.max_jobs = 1

It there a workaround for this?

Thanks

[yellowhat]

Thanks for the information. I will have a play and report back.

[jjotero]

Hi @yellowhat ! Glad that it worked. We will probably add the corresponding tutorial once we address all the issues mentioned above. This case access protected variables (_rfm_param_space) and it would get a lot more complicated if one has 2 or more parameters, so this is by all means a workaround and I doubt is general enough for the general audience.