Memory Profiling

Memory Profiling#

The openmdao mem command can be used to obtain an estimate of the memory usage of python function calls.

For example:

    openmdao mem -p openmdao -p openaerostruct --tree run_CRM.py

This will generate output to the console that looks like this:

3486.46  (1 calls)  Problem.setup
|3486.46  (1 calls)  System._setup:(Group)
|   |3485.49  (1 calls)  Group._setup_procs
|   |   |3481.97  (1 calls)  Group._setup_procs:(AeroPoint)
|   |   |   |3479.86  (1 calls)  Group._setup_procs:(VLMStates)
|   |   |   |   |2617.19  (2 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(EvalVelMtx)
|   |   |   |   |   |3917.41  (2 calls)  EvalVelMtx.setup
|   |   |   |   |   |   |  27.19  (2 calls)  ExplicitComponent.add_output:(EvalVelMtx)
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |  27.19  (2 calls)  Component.add_output:(EvalVelMtx)
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |  27.09  (2 calls)  </Users/banaylor/dev/blue/openmdao/utils/general_utils.py:151>.ensure_compatible
|   |   |   |   | 454.27  (2 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(GetVectors)
|   |   |   |   |   | 454.27  (2 calls)  GetVectors.setup
|   |   |   |   | 207.82  (1 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(VLMMtxRHSComp)
|   |   |   |   |   | 207.82  (1 calls)  VLMMtxRHSComp.setup
|   |   |   |   |   |   |  27.09  (3 calls)  Component.add_input:(VLMMtxRHSComp)
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |  27.09  (3 calls)  </Users/banaylor/dev/blue/openmdao/utils/general_utils.py:151>.ensure_compatible
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   9.13  (2 calls)  ExplicitComponent.add_output:(VLMMtxRHSComp)
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   9.12  (2 calls)  Component.add_output:(VLMMtxRHSComp)
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   9.03  (2 calls)  </Users/banaylor/dev/blue/openmdao/utils/general_utils.py:151>.ensure_compatible
|   |   |   |   | 162.62  (1 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(EvalVelocities)
|   |   |   |   |   | 162.62  (1 calls)  EvalVelocities.setup
|   |   |   |   |  36.21  (1 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(SolveMatrix)
|   |   |   |   |   |  36.21  (1 calls)  SolveMatrix.setup
|   |   |   |   1.31  (1 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(VLMGeometry)
|   |   |   |   |   1.31  (1 calls)  VLMGeometry.setup
|   |   |   3.35  (1 calls)  Group._setup_procs:(Geometry)
|   |   |   |   2.85  (1 calls)  Group._setup_procs:(GeometryMesh)
|   |   |   |   |   1.15  (1 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(Rotate)
|   |   |   |   |   |   1.15  (1 calls)  Rotate.setup
1399.43  (1 calls)  Problem.final_setup
|1399.41  (1 calls)  System._final_setup:(Group)
|   | 689.68  (1 calls)  Group._setup_transfers
|   |   | 689.68  (1 calls)  DefaultTransfer._setup_transfers
|   |   |   | 688.50  (1 calls)  Group._setup_transfers:(AeroPoint)
|   |   |   |   | 688.50  (1 calls)  DefaultTransfer._setup_transfers
|   |   |   |   |   | 688.33  (1 calls)  Group._setup_transfers:(VLMStates)
|   |   |   |   |   |   | 688.33  (1 calls)  DefaultTransfer._setup_transfers
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 516.52  (54 calls)  DefaultTransfer._setup_transfers.merge
|   | 354.49  (1 calls)  System._setup_bounds:(Group)
|   | 354.33  (1 calls)  System.set_initial_values:(Group)
4.27  (1 calls)  /Users/banaylor/dev/blue/openmdao/api.py:1<module>
|   1.09  (1 calls)  /Users/banaylor/dev/blue/openmdao/drivers/pyoptsparse_driver.py:7<module>
|   1.06  (1 calls)  /Users/banaylor/dev/blue/openmdao/components/meta_model_structured_comp.py:1<module>
169.36  (2 calls)  ExplicitComponent._solve_nonlinear:(GetVectors)
| 113.30  (2 calls)  DefaultVector.set_const
|  56.69  (2 calls)  GetVectors.compute
17.88  (1 calls)  ExplicitComponent._solve_nonlinear:(VLMMtxRHSComp)
|   9.04  (1 calls)  DefaultVector.set_const
|   8.84  (1 calls)  VLMMtxRHSComp.compute
8.57  (13 calls)  Group._transfer:(VLMStates)
|   8.57  (13 calls)  DefaultTransfer.transfer
147.45  (2 calls)  EvalVelMtx.compute
| 686.95  (10 calls)  </Users/banaylor/dev/OpenAeroStruct/openaerostruct/aerodynamics/eval_mtx.py:18>._compute_finite_vortex
|   |  57.44  (10 calls)  </Users/banaylor/dev/OpenAeroStruct/openaerostruct/utils/vector_algebra.py:10>.compute_dot
|   |  21.36  (20 calls)  </Users/banaylor/dev/OpenAeroStruct/openaerostruct/utils/vector_algebra.py:90>.compute_norm
54.19  (2 calls)  DefaultVector.set_const

Max mem usage: 5400.57 MB

The memory use is mapped to the call tree structure. Note that functions are tracked based on their full call tree path, so that the same function can appear multiple times in the tree, called from different places, and the different memory usage for those multiple calls can be seen in the tree.

To see a flat listing rather than a tree, don’t use the –tree arg, and you’ll get output like this:

06  (225 calls)  Vector.__init__:(DefaultVector)
06  (1 calls)  /Users/banaylor/dev/blue/openmdao/components/meta_model_structured_comp.py:1<module>
09  (1 calls)  /Users/banaylor/dev/blue/openmdao/drivers/pyoptsparse_driver.py:7<module>
15  (1 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(Rotate)
15  (1 calls)  Rotate.setup
31  (1 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(VLMGeometry)
31  (1 calls)  VLMGeometry.setup
85  (1 calls)  Group._setup_procs:(GeometryMesh)
35  (1 calls)  Group._setup_procs:(Geometry)
27  (1 calls)  /Users/banaylor/dev/blue/openmdao/api.py:1<module>
57  (13 calls)  Group._transfer:(VLMStates)
58  (43 calls)  DefaultTransfer.transfer
84  (1 calls)  VLMMtxRHSComp.compute
12  (2 calls)  Component.add_output:(VLMMtxRHSComp)
13  (2 calls)  ExplicitComponent.add_output:(VLMMtxRHSComp)
88  (1 calls)  ExplicitComponent._solve_nonlinear:(VLMMtxRHSComp)
36  (24 calls)  </Users/banaylor/dev/OpenAeroStruct/openaerostruct/utils/vector_algebra.py:90>.compute_norm
09  (3 calls)  Component.add_input:(VLMMtxRHSComp)
19  (2 calls)  Component.add_output:(EvalVelMtx)
19  (2 calls)  ExplicitComponent.add_output:(EvalVelMtx)
21  (1 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(SolveMatrix)
21  (1 calls)  SolveMatrix.setup
69  (2 calls)  GetVectors.compute
44  (14 calls)  </Users/banaylor/dev/OpenAeroStruct/openaerostruct/utils/vector_algebra.py:10>.compute_dot
25  (145 calls)  </Users/banaylor/dev/blue/openmdao/utils/general_utils.py:151>.ensure_compatible
45  (2 calls)  EvalVelMtx.compute
62  (1 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(EvalVelocities)
62  (1 calls)  EvalVelocities.setup
36  (2 calls)  ExplicitComponent._solve_nonlinear:(GetVectors)
06  (36 calls)  DefaultVector.set_const
82  (1 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(VLMMtxRHSComp)
82  (1 calls)  VLMMtxRHSComp.setup
33  (1 calls)  System.set_initial_values:(Group)
49  (1 calls)  System._setup_bounds:(Group)
27  (2 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(GetVectors)
27  (2 calls)  GetVectors.setup
44  (186 calls)  DefaultTransfer._setup_transfers.merge
95  (10 calls)  </Users/banaylor/dev/OpenAeroStruct/openaerostruct/aerodynamics/eval_mtx.py:18>._compute_finite_vortex
33  (1 calls)  Group._setup_transfers:(VLMStates)
50  (1 calls)  Group._setup_transfers:(AeroPoint)
68  (1 calls)  Group._setup_transfers
41  (1 calls)  System._final_setup:(Group)
44  (2 calls)  Problem.final_setup
28  (7 calls)  DefaultTransfer._setup_transfers
19  (2 calls)  Component._setup_procs:(EvalVelMtx)
86  (1 calls)  Group._setup_procs:(VLMStates)
97  (1 calls)  Group._setup_procs:(AeroPoint)
49  (1 calls)  Group._setup_procs
46  (1 calls)  System._setup:(Group)
46  (1 calls)  Problem.setup
41  (2 calls)  EvalVelMtx.setup

Max mem usage: 5400.57 MB

The -p argument(s) determine which package(s) will be traced. In the example above, the openmdao and openaerostruct packages were traced. If no -p args are supplied, the openmdao package is assumed. Note however that if any -p args are supplied, then the openmdao package will not be traced unless explicitly specified.

The output can be filtered by minimum memory usage so that the parts with memory usage below a certain amount will not be shown. The default minimum memory usage is 1 MB. If you wanted to set the minimum memory usage to 100 MB, for example, you could do it like this:

    openmdao mem <your_python_script_here> --min=100

Running openmdao mem generates a raw memory dump file with a default name of mem_trace.raw. To display the memory profile using a pre-existing memory dump file, you can use the openmdao mempost command, for example:

    openmdao mempost mem_trace.raw --min=100

This just allows you to take different looks at the memory profile without having to re-run your code.

As usual, any additional options for the openmdao mem and openmdao mempost commands can be seen by providing the -h argument, for example:

    openmdao mem -h

usage: openmdao [-h] [--version] command [command_options] filename mem
       [-h] [-o OUTFILE] [--min MIN_MEM] [-c] [--nogc] [-p PACKAGES] [-t] file

positional arguments:
  file                  Python file to profile.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -o OUTFILE, --outfile OUTFILE
                        Name of file containing memory dump. Default is
                        mem_trace.raw.
  --min MIN_MEM         Dump function trace with memory usage in MB above
                        min_mem to the given file. Default is 1 MB.
  -c, --colors          Display colors if the terminal supports it. Requires
                        'colorama' python package. Use 'pip install colorama'
                        to install it.
  --nogc                Disables automatic garbage collection.
  -p PACKAGES, --package PACKAGES
                        Determines which packages will be traced. Default
                        package is openmdao.
  -t, --tree            Display memory use in tree format, showing memory use
                        for each unique call sequence down to a function.

Note

These memory usage numbers are only estimates, based on the changes in the process memory measured before and after each method call. The exact memory use is difficult to determine due to the presence of python’s own internal memory management and garbage collection.