Program stuck when writing HDF5 dataset using parallel HDF5

I use parallel HDF5 and tested a problem from the HDF5 group, except that I changed the size of the dataset, and the datatype to double. The original code example is at:

https://support.hdfgroup.org/ftp/HDF5/examples/parallel/Hyperslab_by_row.c

The code I use is:

#include "hdf5.h"
#include "stdlib.h"

#define H5FILE_NAME     "SDS_row.h5"
#define DATASETNAME 	"IntArray" 
#define NX     800                      /* dataset dimensions */
#define NY     6554
#define RANK   2

int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
    /*
     * HDF5 APIs definitions
     */ 	
    hid_t       file_id, dset_id;         /* file and dataset identifiers */
    hid_t       filespace, memspace;      /* file and memory dataspace identifiers */
    hsize_t     dimsf[2];                 /* dataset dimensions */
    double         *data;                    /* pointer to data buffer to write */
    hsize_t	count[2];	          /* hyperslab selection parameters */
    hsize_t	offset[2];
    hid_t	plist_id;                 /* property list identifier */
    herr_t	status;

    /*
     * MPI variables
     */
    int mpi_size, mpi_rank;
    MPI_Comm comm  = MPI_COMM_WORLD;
    MPI_Info info  = MPI_INFO_NULL;

    /*
     * Initialize MPI
     */
    MPI_Init(&argc, &argv);
    MPI_Comm_size(comm, &mpi_size);
    MPI_Comm_rank(comm, &mpi_rank);  
 
    /* 
     * Set up file access property list with parallel I/O access
     */
     plist_id = H5Pcreate(H5P_FILE_ACCESS);
     H5Pset_fapl_mpio(plist_id, comm, info);

    /*
     * Create a new file collectively and release property list identifier.
     */
    file_id = H5Fcreate(H5FILE_NAME, H5F_ACC_TRUNC, H5P_DEFAULT, plist_id);
    H5Pclose(plist_id);
   

    /*
     * Create the dataspace for the dataset.
     */
    dimsf[0] = NX;
    dimsf[1] = NY;
    filespace = H5Screate_simple(RANK, dimsf, NULL); 

    /*
     * Create the dataset with default properties and close filespace.
     */
    dset_id = H5Dcreate(file_id, DATASETNAME, H5T_NATIVE_DOUBLE, filespace,
			H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT);
    H5Sclose(filespace);

    /* 
     * Each process defines dataset in memory and writes it to the hyperslab
     * in the file.
     */
    count[0] = dimsf[0]/mpi_size;
    count[1] = dimsf[1];
    offset[0] = mpi_rank * count[0];
    offset[1] = 0;
    memspace = H5Screate_simple(RANK, count, NULL);

    /*
     * Select hyperslab in the file.
     */
    filespace = H5Dget_space(dset_id);
    H5Sselect_hyperslab(filespace, H5S_SELECT_SET, offset, NULL, count, NULL);

    /*
     * Initialize data buffer 
     */
    data = (double *) malloc(sizeof(double)*count[0]*count[1]);
    for (hsize_t i=0; i < count[0]*count[1]; i++) {
        data[i] = mpi_rank + 10;
    }

    /*
     * Create property list for collective dataset write.
     */
    plist_id = H5Pcreate(H5P_DATASET_XFER);
    H5Pset_dxpl_mpio(plist_id, H5FD_MPIO_COLLECTIVE);
    
    status = H5Dwrite(dset_id, H5T_NATIVE_DOUBLE, memspace, filespace,
		      plist_id, data);
    free(data);

    /*
     * Close/release resources.
     */
    H5Dclose(dset_id);
    H5Sclose(filespace);
    H5Sclose(memspace);
    H5Pclose(plist_id);
    H5Fclose(file_id);
 
    MPI_Finalize();

    return 0;
}     

If I compile this using parallel HDF5, and run it with

mpirun -np 12 ./test

the program gets stuck. If however, I use NX=500, then it is OK. Moreover, if I use 4 cores, then it is also OK. I have searched online for a whole afternoon and couldn’t find a solution. Could someone please let me know how to fix this, or what the problem of this code is? I use MacOS, and I compile the code using openmpi with gcc9. My HDF5 version, I believe, is 1.10.

The code is written poorly in that it doesn’t document or check the assumption that the number of processes mpi_size evenly divides dimsf[0] (= NX). If that’s not the case, on the last rank, count[0] needs to be adjusted to dimsf[0]%mpi_size. G.

Thanks. I did notice the relation between mpi_size and dimsf[0] in the example, and made some adjustment to the original code — but same issues still exist.

However, all problem disappeared and the codes runs smoothly if I change “H5FD_MPIO_COLLECTIVE” to “H5FD_MPIO_INDEPENDENT”. I don’t know what happened with the collective writing, but I firmly believe that is where the problem is.