Installing MPI4py on CentOS

MPI for Python (mpi4py) provides bindings of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard for the Python programming language, allowing any Python program to exploit multiple processors.



Step 1: Install Python and dependencies
# yum install python python-devel python-lib

Step 2: Build OpenMPI with Intel Compiler
See Blog Entry Building OpenMPI with Intel Compiler (Ver 2)

Step 3: Get and install MPI4py
# wget http://mpi4py.googlecode.com/files/mpi4py-X.X.X.tar.gz

Step 4: Build the MPI4py

# cd /usr/local

# tar -zxf mpi4py-X.X.X.tar.gz

# cd mpi4py-X.X.X

Step 5: Setup of MPI
# python setup.py build
# python setup.py install

Step 6: Testing
Issuing at the command line:
$ mpiexec -n 5 python demo/helloworld.py
(will launch a five-process run of the Python interpreter and run the test scripts)

Important Notes
For more information on the installation of MPI4py, see the official MPI4py User Guide