Documentation

Distributed Algorithms

Gurobi Optimizer implements a number of distributed algorithms that allow you to use multiple machines to solve a problem faster. Available distributed algorithms are:

• A distributed MIP solver, which allows you to divide the work of solving a single MIP model among multiple machines. A manager machine passes problem data to a set of worker machines to coordinate the overall solution process.
• A distributed concurrent solver, which allows you to use multiple machines to solve an LP or MIP model. Unlike the distributed MIP solver, the concurrent solver doesn't divide the work among machines. Instead, each machine uses a different strategy to solve the whole problem, with the hope that one strategy will be particularly effective and will finish much earlier than the others. For some problems, this concurrent approach can be more effective than attempting to divide up the work.
• Distributed parameter tuning, which automatically searches for parameter settings that improve performance on your optimization model (or set of models). Tuning solves your model(s) with a variety of parameter settings, measuring the performance obtained by each set, and then uses the results to identify the settings that produce the best overall performance. The distributed version of tuning performs these trials on multiple machines, which makes the overall tuning process run much faster.

These distributed algorithms are designed to be nearly transparent to the user. The user simply modifies a few parameters, and the work of distributing the computation among multiple machines is handled behind the scenes by the Gurobi library.

Additional information about distributed algorithms can be found in a later section.