14.2. Indirect Start Methods

Solver start methods can also be used to launch a user-defined script or program that can perform system interaction before re-executing a cfx5solve command under a different environment or system. These are known as indirect start methods, and are commonly used for executing CFX-Solver runs on remote or batch queuing systems.

Supported indirect start methods include:

  • Submit to Windows HPC Queue

  • Submit to UGE

  • Submit to Slurm

Modification or creation of indirect start methods can involve using a system scripting language (such as bash or Perl) to customize the solver start-up process for your specific environment.

Note:

For the "Submit to UGE" and "Submit to Slurm" start methods

  • Both the submitting host and the cluster head node must be Linux systems.

  • The working directory must be provided by a shared file system, accessible by the submitting machine and the cluster head node.

  • It must be possible to run remote shell commands on the head node without a password prompt. See Setting Up Remote Access on Linux in the Ansys, Inc. Installation Guides.

  • The Ansys installation on cluster and client must be the same or have the same path (accessible by all participating machines) unless explicitly specified otherwise in the hostinfo.ccl file.

  • You can customize an indirect start method using cfx5solve command line options, including job submission options such as -uge-queue <queuename>, -uge-pe <parallel environment>, and -slurm-partition <partition>. For details, see Command-Line Options and Keywords for cfx5solve.

For the "Submit to UGE" start method

  • On the UGE head node, the environment must be configured so that (1) UGE commands can be run non-interactively without a full path and (2) the SGE_ROOT environment variable is set.

  • The $SGE_ROOT/default/common/settings* scripts should provide the necessary configuration, but how this is implemented depends on the default shell:

    • For the csh shell, the requirements can usually be met system-wide by sourcing the file $SGE_ROOT/default/common/settings.csh from a script in /etc/profile.d.

    • For the bash shell, the requirements can usually be met by sourcing the file $SGE_ROOT/default/common/settings.sh from the user’s .bashrc file.

    You can verify that the settings of the SGE_ROOT and PATH are correct from the output of the following command:

    ssh <head node> env

  • You can add host definitions manually by editing the hostinfo.ccl file. You can alternatively add hosts to the hostinfo.ccl file by using the cfx5parhosts command with the -add-uge option.

For the "Submit to Slurm" start method

  • On the UGE head node, the environment must be configured so that SLURM commands can be run non-interactively without a full path.

    You can verify that the settings of the PATH are correct from the output of the following command:

    ssh <head node> env

  • You can add host definitions manually by editing the hostinfo.ccl file. You can alternatively add hosts to the hostinfo.ccl file by using the cfx5parhosts command with the -add-slurm option.