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Metrics

User-defined metrics

To log time-series metrics use the log_metrics method, for example: 

run.log_metrics({'parameter1': 1.2, 'parameter2': 3.5})
The argument is a dictionary consisting of the metric names and their values.

The log_metrics method can be called as many times as necessary during a run, and the time of each is recorded with microsecond precision. The timestamp can be overriden if necessary, for example if the metrics are being extracted from another source with its own timestamps. For example: 

run.log_metrics({'parameter1': 1.2}, timestamp='2021-05-03 14:13:27.281920')
In addition to the timestamp the relative time since init() was called is also recorded. The relative time can be set manually if needed, e.g.: 
run.log_metrics({'parameter1': 1.2}, time=time)
where here time is a floating point number.

Furthermore, an integer step is recorded for each metric. Typically it represents some measurement of the progress of the simulation. By default this starts at 0 and increments by 1 each time log_metrics is called. Alternatively it can be defined explicitly, e.g. 

run.log_metrics({'parameter1': 1.2}, step=step)

Naming metrics

It can be useful to employ a similar prefixes for metric names. The web interface allows you to group metrics with the same prefix together into a single plot. For example, metrics with names:

  • residuals.Ux
  • residuals.Uy
  • residuals.Uz

would be displayed on the same panel. In order to distinguish between sub-categories we can extend this prefix, for example in the following case:

  • residuals.Ux
  • residuals.Uy
  • residuals.Uz
  • residuals.p

we can separate the components of U from p:

  • residuals.U.x
  • residuals.U.y
  • residuals.U.z
  • residuals.p

this resulting in residuals.U.x, residuals.U.y and residuals.U.z being displayed in one panel residuals.p in another.

Note

You can of course select exactly what you want to displayed in a metrics plot, but for the default view displaying all metrics in a single page the dot notation is taken into account.

Resource usage metrics

Resource usage metrics are collected automatically by the Python client (unless disabled using the config method), which consist of:

  • resources/cpu.usage.percent: CPU usage as a percentage, where 100% indicates one CPU is 100% utilised. For example, 800% indicates that 8 CPUs are fully utilised.
  • resources/memory.usage: memory usage in MB.
  • resources/gpu.utilisation.percent.i: GPU utilisation as a percentage.
  • resources/gpu.memory.percent.i: GPU memory utilisation as a percentage.

In the above i is the GPU index. If multiple GPUs are used metrics will be available for each separately.

By default the resource usage of the Python script itself is monitored (including any processes added by Run.add_process). To monitor an external code execution not handled by the client, for example a FORTRAN or C++ simulation code, the (parent) PID needs to be specified using the set_pid method of the Run class, e.g. 

run.set_pid(18231)
Note that resource utilisation metrics are collected for the sum of the parent PID and all children. The PID must be specified before calling the init method.

Important

There is a limitation currently for MPI jobs: only the resource usage of the processes on the node running the Python client will be measured, not any other node (for the case of multi-node jobs). This limitation will hopefully be removed in future.

Further Documentation