[Gate-users] Jobs killed "memory exceeded"?

[Amy Meldrum]

John,

I am using Gate version 6.2, and GEANT4 version 4.9.5.p01. I am using ASCII
output, specifically the Hits.dat file with scintillation and optical
photons. All of my other simulations with this same geometrical setup
produce data files that are not exceptionally large. However when using an
alpha source instead of a beta source, this is where the problems occur.


The simulation will run for a few minutes, and approximately 30-50 alpha
particles are run successfully. Then the simulation will stop, and the
message will be something like 'job killed, memory (Large number) GB
exceeds limit.' I am running Gate on a computing cluster at my university,
and requested 48 gb of memory for the job. No matter how much memory I
request, the memory used in a simulation will ramp up until exceeding the
limit.

I have run other simulations involving scintillation with an alpha source,
and they run fine. It is just with this other setup that I am getting these
issues.

-Amy

On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 4:18 AM, John Apostolakis <john.apostolakis at cern.ch>
wrote:

> Dear Amy,
>
> I see a couple of possibilities for your problem:
> 1) that the number of particles in flight becomes too large for your
> memory; this may be due to the processes which create the optical photon,
> your initial energy, or a new strategy for deciding the order in which
> tracks are selected for tracking;
> 2) That the output you are trying to create is too big.
> What type of output ate you creating?
> 3) there is a bug somewhere, and it creates a memory leak.
>
> Can you provide information about what version of GATE you use and the the
> version of Geant4.
>
> Also can you give more information about the crash you get, how many
> tracks/effects have been processed, and the amount of memory your machine
> has.
>
> Best regards,
> John
>
> On September 14, 2014 2:55:20 PM CEST, Amy Meldrum <ameldru at g.clemson.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> Gate users,
>>
>> I have been running simulations using optical photons that run to
>> completion when I am using a beta source. However, when I change the source
>> to an alpha source, suddenly all of my simulations only run for a few
>> minutes before being killed. It seems like the memory usage skyrockets
>> beyond some limit and get killed.
>>
>> Why would changing only the source do this? Is there something I can do
>> to stop this from happening? The simulation runs fine for a few particles,
>> but I am not sure why it would behave like this.
>>
>>
>> Please help. Thank you,
>>
>> Amy
>>
>> ------------------------------
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>>
>>
> --
> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>
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