# Humann program running was killed in the middle way

**URL:** <https://forum.biobakery.org/t/humann-program-running-was-killed-in-the-middle-way/814>\
**Category:** HUMAnN\
**Created:** [August 4, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/humann-program-running-was-killed-in-the-middle-way/814 "2020-08-04T03:59:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chaozhi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.biobakery.org/chaozhi/32/337_2.png) [@chaozhi](https://forum.biobakery.org/u/chaozhi)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/humann-program-running-was-killed-in-the-middle-way/814/1 "2020-08-04T03:59:14Z")

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Previously, I had problem with the bowtie2 databse in metaphlan and it showed -index option. After rebuild btindex files, the problem resolved. I updated the metaphlan 3.0.2. After running the  
humann -i demo.fastq -o demo\_result  
the final results were ok because all three tsv. files were generated as specified. However, when ran the commend for the own data sample, the terminal showed the “killed”:

Total species selected from prescreen: 101  
Selected species explain 99.94% of predicted community composition  
Creating custom ChocoPhlAn database …  
Running bowtie2-build …  
Running bowtie2 …  
Killed

In the running log, i find the following record:

07/31/2020 02:44:18 PM - humann.humann - INFO: TIMESTAMP: Completed nucleotide alignment : 1879 seconds  
07/31/2020 03:10:05 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments where percent identity is not a number: 0  
07/31/2020 03:10:05 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments where alignment length is not a number: 0  
07/31/2020 03:10:05 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments where E-value is not a number: 0  
07/31/2020 03:10:05 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments not included based on large e-value: 0  
07/31/2020 03:10:05 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments not included based on small percent identity: 0  
07/31/2020 03:10:05 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments not included based on small query coverage: 0  
07/31/2020 03:10:05 PM - humann.search.blastx\_coverage - INFO: Total alignments without coverage information: 0  
07/31/2020 03:10:05 PM - humann.search.blastx\_coverage - INFO: Total proteins in blastx output: 267838  
07/31/2020 03:10:05 PM - humann.search.blastx\_coverage - INFO: Total proteins without lengths: 0  
07/31/2020 03:10:05 PM - humann.search.blastx\_coverage - INFO: Proteins with coverage greater than threshold (50.0): 162359  
So i think the programm had finished the metaphlan to identify the microbes taxonomy but failed in the functional protein steps. Couldy ou help me to shoot the problems?

By the way, my computer has total 32 Gb RAM and 650 Gb space, so i guess it is not due to space or RAM limit.

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**Author:** ![lauren.j.mciver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lauren.j.mciver](https://forum.biobakery.org/u/lauren.j.mciver)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 8:53pm UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/humann-program-running-was-killed-in-the-middle-way/814/2 "2020-08-04T20:53:49Z")

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Hello, Thank you for the detailed post! It seems like you would have enough memory and disk space. Are you possibly running a few HUMAnN tasks at the same time or is maybe something else running on the same machine? If so would you try running one task and see if that solves it? Sorry in advance if you have already tried this! The fact that the run is killed seems like it is likely memory related but at the same time it does seem like you have plenty of compute.

Thank you,  
Lauren

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**Author:** ![chaozhi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.biobakery.org/chaozhi/32/337_2.png) [@chaozhi](https://forum.biobakery.org/u/chaozhi)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 12:23am UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/humann-program-running-was-killed-in-the-middle-way/814/3 "2020-08-05T00:23:55Z")

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Hi, Lauren:

Thank you for your reply. At the first time, i did run two tasks on conda and both of program would use the bowtie2 in different environments i created. After few hours, the sign of “killed” information showed. After that, I tried to run one terminal for just one sample (original fastq file 32 Gb) but the killed information repeated. However, when i ran the demo.fastq file and demo.sam file, expected three tsv. files could be generated. So i feel confused about the humann program. Current metaphlan version I installed is 3.0.2 and humann version is 3.alpha. I will try again and update later.

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**Author:** ![chaozhi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.biobakery.org/chaozhi/32/337_2.png) [@chaozhi](https://forum.biobakery.org/u/chaozhi)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 9:36am UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/humann-program-running-was-killed-in-the-middle-way/814/4 "2020-08-05T09:36:53Z")

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HI, Laurance:

I reinstall the biobakery3 environment and update the metapblan into 3.0.2. Following your suggestion, this time i just open one terminal for Humann program for one sample only. However, the same outcomes came out from terminal and sample log.

I also attached initial setting:  
08/05/2020 12:55:11 PM - humann.humann - INFO: Running humann v3.0.0.alpha.3  
08/05/2020 12:55:11 PM - humann.humann - INFO: Output files will be written to: /home/chaozhi/anaconda3/envs/biobakery3/working\_file/BSF1\_meta  
08/05/2020 12:55:11 PM - humann.humann - INFO: Writing temp files to directory: /home/chaozhi/anaconda3/envs/biobakery3/working\_file/BSF1\_meta/BSF1\_nohost\_humann\_temp  
08/05/2020 12:55:11 PM - humann.utilities - INFO: File ( /home/chaozhi/anaconda3/envs/biobakery3/working\_file/BSF1\_nohost.fastq ) is of format: fastq  
08/05/2020 12:55:11 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Check software, metaphlan, for required version, 3.0  
08/05/2020 12:55:16 PM - humann.utilities - INFO: Using metaphlan version 3.0  
08/05/2020 12:55:16 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Check software, bowtie2, for required version, 2.2  
08/05/2020 12:55:17 PM - humann.utilities - WARNING: Can not call software version for bowtie2  
08/05/2020 12:55:17 PM - humann.utilities - INFO: Using bowtie2 version UNK  
08/05/2020 12:55:17 PM - humann.humann - INFO: Search mode set to uniref90 because a uniref90 translated search database is selected  
08/05/2020 12:55:17 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Check software, diamond, for required version, 0.9.24  
08/05/2020 12:55:17 PM - humann.utilities - INFO: Using diamond version 2.0.1  
08/05/2020 12:55:17 PM - humann.config - INFO:  
Run config settings:

DATABASE SETTINGS  
nucleotide database folder = /home/chaozhi/anaconda3/envs/biobakery3/chocophlan  
protein database folder = /home/chaozhi/anaconda3/envs/biobakery3/uniref  
pathways database file 1 = /home/chaozhi/anaconda3/envs/biobakery3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/humann/data/pathways/metacyc\_reactions\_level4ec\_only.uniref.bz2  
pathways database file 2 = /home/chaozhi/anaconda3/envs/biobakery3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/humann/data/pathways/metacyc\_pathways\_structured\_filtered  
utility mapping database folder = /home/chaozhi/anaconda3/envs/biobakery3/utility\_mapping

RUN MODES  
resume = False  
verbose = False  
bypass prescreen = False  
bypass nucleotide index = False  
bypass nucleotide search = False  
bypass translated search = False  
translated search = diamond  
pick frames = off  
threads = 8

SEARCH MODE  
search mode = uniref90  
nucleotide identity threshold = 0.0  
translated identity threshold = 80.0

ALIGNMENT SETTINGS  
bowtie2 options = --very-sensitive  
diamond options = --top 1 --outfmt 6  
evalue threshold = 1.0  
prescreen threshold = 0.01  
translated subject coverage threshold = 50.0  
translated query coverage threshold = 90.0  
nucleotide subject coverage threshold = 50.0  
nucleotide query coverage threshold = 90.0

PATHWAYS SETTINGS  
minpath = on  
xipe = off  
gap fill = on

INPUT AND OUTPUT FORMATS  
input file format = fastq  
output file format = tsv  
output max decimals = 10  
remove stratified output = False  
remove column description output = False  
log level = DEBUG

After finish taxonomic part, from terminal:  
Total species selected from prescreen: 101  
Selected species explain 99.94% of predicted community composition  
Creating custom ChocoPhlAn database …  
Running bowtie2-build …  
Running bowtie2 …  
Killed

From sample log:  
08/05/2020 02:31:45 PM - humann.humann - INFO: TIMESTAMP: Completed nucleotide alignment : 2252 seconds  
08/05/2020 02:57:34 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments where percent identity is not a number: 0  
08/05/2020 02:57:34 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments where alignment length is not a number: 0  
08/05/2020 02:57:34 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments where E-value is not a number: 0  
08/05/2020 02:57:34 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments not included based on large e-value: 0  
08/05/2020 02:57:34 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments not included based on small percent identity: 0  
08/05/2020 02:57:34 PM - humann.utilities - DEBUG: Total alignments not included based on small query coverage: 0  
08/05/2020 02:57:34 PM - humann.search.blastx\_coverage - INFO: Total alignments without coverage information: 0  
08/05/2020 02:57:34 PM - humann.search.blastx\_coverage - INFO: Total proteins in blastx output: 275978  
08/05/2020 02:57:34 PM - humann.search.blastx\_coverage - INFO: Total proteins without lengths: 0  
08/05/2020 02:57:34 PM - humann.search.blastx\_coverage - INFO: Proteins with coverage greater than threshold (50.0): 167876

Since my linux run in the virtual machine so one possible reason the high usage of memory by virtual machine. Besides, i can not figure out the potential reason. I am looking forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

```
                                       Chaozhi Pan
```

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**Author:** ![lauren.j.mciver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lauren.j.mciver](https://forum.biobakery.org/u/lauren.j.mciver)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/humann-program-running-was-killed-in-the-middle-way/814/5 "2020-08-05T18:26:28Z")

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Hi Chaozhi Pan, Thank you for trying again and for the detailed follow up message. I agree with you that the memory error might be because you are running in a virtual machine. We estimate approximately 24 to 32 Gb of memory for a HUMAnN run based on the size of the input file. If your input file is 32 Gb that is a fantastic number of reads! However, I would expect a file of that size to need memory on the higher range of the estimate. Would it be possible to install and run HUMAnN outside of the VM? If so that might resolve the memory issue.

Thank you,  
Lauren

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**Author:** ![chaozhi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.biobakery.org/chaozhi/32/337_2.png) [@chaozhi](https://forum.biobakery.org/u/chaozhi)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2020, 4:21am UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/humann-program-running-was-killed-in-the-middle-way/814/6 "2020-08-06T04:21:41Z")

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Hi, Laruren:

I just tried again this morning by increasing the available RAM in virtual machine. The program was killed again in the middle way but it run a bit far away to the step of running diamond. Likely, my issue is the limited memory. I will find way to resolve the problem.

Thank you for your intermediate and patient reply. I really enjoy the discussion in this forum with passion from you guys.

Best
