3.4. Sharing and Accessing RSM Configurations

RSM configurations and queue definitions (.rsmcc and .rsmq files) are the key to successful HPC job submission, as they contain vital information about the HPC resource and how files will be handled.

In order for users to be able to submit jobs to an HPC resource, they must have access to the RSM configurations that you have defined. To accomplish this, there are two approaches that you can take:

Method 1: Share the RSM configuration directory

If you are an administrator who has defined RSM configurations for multiple people to use, you can make the RSM configurations accessible to users by making the RSM configuration directory a shared directory. This method ensures that all users have the most accurate and up-to-date RSM configurations, as files are centrally stored and managed.

  • If you changed the RSM configuration directory to a share-friendly folder before creating configurations (as described in Creating a Shareable RSM Configuration Directory), you can go ahead and share that folder. Make sure that the folder has read-only permission to prevent others from modifying your RSM configurations.

  • If you did not change the RSM configuration directory before creating configurations, your configurations are located in the default RSM configuration directory, which is a user-specific directory that is not suitable for sharing.

    In this case, follow these steps:

    Windows

    1. Create a folder in a location that is not associated with a user account (for example, C:\some\folder).

    2. Add the following required sub-folders to the folder: ANSYS\v242\RSM.

      In this example, the resulting path will be C:\some\folder\ANSYS\v242\RSM. This location will serve as the new RSM configuration directory.

    3. If the RSM service is currently running, stop it. As an administrator, run net stop RSMLauncherService242.

    4. Open a command prompt in the [RSMInstall]\bin directory.

    5. Issue the following command, replacing the path with the desired value:

      rsm.exe appsettings set JobManagement ConfigurationDirectory C:\some\folder

      You can specify a local path if the directory is on the local machine, or a UNC path if the directory is a network share.

    6. Go to the default RSM configuration directory:

      %APPDATA%\ANSYS\v242\RSM

      The path to this directory might be C:\users\%username%\appdata\Roaming\Ansys\V242\RSM, where %username% is the name of the RSM or system administrator.

    7. Copy the .rsmcc and .rsmq files from the default RSM configuration directory to the new directory (for example, C:\some\folder\ANSYS\v242\RSM).

    8. Set read-only permission on the folder to prevent others from modifying the configurations.

    9. Share the folder.

    10. Restart the RSM service.

    Linux

    1. Create a folder in a location that is not associated with a user account (for example, /some/folder).

    2. Add the following required sub-folders to the folder: ANSYS/v242/RSM.

      In this example, the resulting path will be /some/folder/ANSYS/v242/RSM. This location will serve as the new RSM configuration directory.

    3. If the RSM service is currently running, stop it using rsmlauncher stop.

      If the RSM service is running as a daemon, stop it using ./etc/init.d/rsmlauncher242 stop.

    4. Run the rsmutils shell script located in the [RSMInstall]\Config\tools\linux directory. Issue the following command, replacing the path with the desired value:

      rsmutils appsettings set JobManagement ConfigurationDirectory /some/folder

      You can specify a local path or a mounted file system depending on where the directory resides.

    5. Go to the default RSM configuration directory:

      ~/.ansys/v242/RSM

      On Linux, ~ is the home directory of the account under which RSM is being run.

    6. Copy the .rsmcc and .rsmq files to the new directory (for example, /some/folder/ANSYS/v242/RSM).

    7. Set read-only permission on the folder to prevent others from modifying the configurations.

    8. Share the folder.

    9. Restart the RSM service.

Once the RSM configuration directory has been shared, Workbench client users should set the RSM configuration directory on their local machines to the path of the shared RSM configuration directory. For example, the share path might be something like \\machineName\Share\RSM for Windows users, or /clusternodemount/share/RSM for Linux users. For details, see Specifying the Location of the RSM Configuration Directory.

Note:  One potential drawback of this method is that users may not be able to access the shared RSM configurations if the host goes offline or cannot be accessed for some reason (for example, if a user is working off-site and does not have access to the network). In this case RSM will automatically switch the RSM configuration directory back to the default RSM configuration directory on their local machines. This means that users will, at a minimum, be able to submit jobs to the Ansys RSM Cluster (ARC) already installed on their local machines using the localhost configuration that is generated in the default RSM configuration directory when RSM is installed.

Method 2: Have users copy RSM configuration files to their local machines

If you are a user looking to access RSM configurations that have been defined by your RSM or system administrator, you can do so by setting your RSM configuration directory to the shared RSM configuration directory that was set by the administrator (see Method 1 above). Alternatively you can copy the RSM configuration database to the appropriate directory on your machine.

As a user, you will need to:

  1. Obtain the RSM configuration files (.rsmcc and .rsmq files) from the RSM or system administrator. If the administrator has put the files in a shared directory that you can access, you can retrieve them directly from there.

  2. On your local machine, copy the files into your RSM configuration directory. For information about the location of this directory, see Setting the RSM Configuration Directory.

Note:  If any of the shared files that you are copying have the same name as files in your local RSM configuration directory, you will need to rename your local files if you do not want them to be overwritten. For example, you may want to rename your localhost.rsmcc file to mylocalhost.rsmcc to distinguish it from the remote localhost.rsmcc file, as its settings may be different.

Alternatively, to avoid this issue altogether:

  1. Create a new folder on your local machine (for example, C:\SharedRSMConfig).

  2. Add the following required sub-folders to the folder: ANSYS\v242\RSM.

    In this example, the resulting RSM configuration directory will be C:\SharedRSMConfig\ANSYS\v242\RSM.

  3. Use the RSM Utilities application to set the JobManagement ConfigurationDirectory setting to the new folder. See Specifying the Location of the RSM Configuration Directory.

  4. Copy the RSM configurations from the network share to the new directory (for example, C:\SharedRSMConfig\ANSYS\v242\RSM).