basicClusterInit          package:varSelRF          R Documentation

_I_n_i_t_i_a_l_i_z_e _a _c_l_u_s_t_e_r _o_f _w_o_r_k_s_t_a_t_i_o_n_s

_D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n:

     Use Snow to initialize a cluster of workstations, with either MPI
     or PVM as the type of cluster, setup the random number generator,
     and load randomForest library in all the nodes.

_U_s_a_g_e:

     basicClusterInit(clusterNumberNodes = 1, nameCluster = "TheCluster",
                      typeCluster = "MPI")

_A_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s:

clusterNumberNodes: The number of nodes in the cluster. If you only
          have 1 CPU you can pass a 1 here.

nameCluster: The name you want to give to the newly created cluster.

typeCluster: Either "MPI" or "PVM".

_D_e_t_a_i_l_s:

     This function is a wrapper to 'makeCluster' with a little bit of
     additional code (load randomForest and varSelRF in all the nodes
     and initialize the random number generator). It can be used to
     initialize a cluster of workstations. It will be called by several
     other functions in the package if you ask that computations be
     done using a cluster and you do not specify a cluster name. In
     this case, a "dummy" cluster of only one node will be created.

     For this function to run you MUST have installed the following
     Rpackages:  snow, Rmpi or rpvm, and rsprng. You might also need to
     start your cluster environment (e.g., "lamboot
     whatever.the.name.of.your.def.file" from a shell).

_V_a_l_u_e:

     This function is used to create a cluster. An object with name
     "nameCluster" with a reference to the cluster will be created. See
     'makeCluster' for details.

_N_o_t_e:

     It is a lot better if you specify all arguments: if you really
     have a netwrok of workstations you can use, you will need to
     specify the number of nodes and the correct type of cluster (MPI
     or PVM). If you don't have a network of workstations then nothing
     is gained (and a little bit lost) from asking  the functions in
     this package to use the cluster, and you should specify
     "usingCluster = FALSE".

     I have only tested the workings of this and similar functions, and
     the workings of the package, extensively with MPI, not PVM, though
     I'd expect things to work equally well with both PVM and MPI.

     Instead of using the rsrpng library, you could use the rlecuyer
     package. Changing the code should be straightfoward (see
     'clusterSetupRNG').

_A_u_t_h_o_r(_s):

     Ramon Diaz-Uriarte rdiaz@ligarto.org

_R_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e_s:

     <URL:
     http://ligarto.org/rdiaz/Papers/rfVS/randomForestVarSel.html>

_S_e_e _A_l_s_o:

     'makeCluster', 'randomVarImpsRF, \code{varSelRFBoot}'

_E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s:

     ## Create a simple cluster with only one slave node. Will work even
     ## in 1 CPU cases if you have the required packages.
     ## Not run: 
     basicClusterInit(clusterNumberNodes = 1,
                      nameCluster = "TheCluster",
                      typeCluster = "MPI") 
     ## End(Not run)

