Running on a Windows HPC Cluster Using General Job Submission

To run a Design Manager project on a Windows HPC cluster, you must submit the project in general job submission mode. General job submission means that Design Manager submits each design simulation individually to the HPC Job Scheduler.

注	All file system paths that you specify in your Design Manager project file must be network shared between the node that submits the jobs to the HPC Job Scheduler, such as the head node, and the compute nodes. Always use the full network path using uniform naming convention (UNC).

Additionally, you must provide Design Manager with the UNC path to the Design Manager project file (*.dmprj). There are two options to satisfy this requirement:

Load the Design Manager project file using the UNC path, such as \\cluster\data\home\user1\work\DesignManager\project1\project1.dmprj. See Saving, Closing, and Loading a Design Manager Project.
Load the Design Manager project file using the local path, such as H:\home\user1\work\DesignManager\project1\project1.dmprj. Then select the Design Manager project node at the root of the object tree and set Project Artifact Directory to the UNC path of your project artifact directory on the cluster.

The first option offers the advantage that Design Manager keeps using the relative path to the project artifact directory that contains the *.dmprj file. This approach allows you to move the file without having to update the Project Artifact Directory entry.

To run a design study using general job submission on a Windows HPC cluster:

This mode requires a Windows HPC Cluster compute resource. For each design study in your Design Manager project, define the run and resource settings:
1. To create a linux cluster compute resource, right-click the Tools > Compute Resources node and select New Resource > Windows HPC Cluster.
2. Select the Compute Resources > Linux Cluster node and set the properties described in Computer Resource—Windows HPC Cluster.
3. Select the Design Studies > [design study] > Settings > Run Settings node and set Resource Mode to Single Resource and specify the following properties:
  When setting the numbers for Simultaneous Jobs and Compute Processes, check that you have enough cores available (simultaneous jobs * compute processes).
4. Select the Run Settings > Single Resource node and select the [Windows HPC Cluster] as Compute Resource for Design Run
Select File > Save and save the project file.
Transfer the Design Manager project file (*.dmprj) and associated input files such as the reference simulation file (*.sim) and custom Java macro files (*.java) to your cluster project root directory.

Run the design studies.

As the general job submission mode leverages the client-server capability of Simcenter STAR-CCM+, you can run design studies directly from the Graphical User Interface (GUI) on your workstation. Alternatively, you can run design studies on your cluster from a batch client.

Method Procedure

Running directly from a local GUI client

For more information, see Working With Remote Servers.

If you want to run the Design Manager server remotely from your local workstation, you require remote shell access to the cluster without password prompting.

On your local workstation, launch Simcenter STAR-CCM+ and click (Load a File).
In the Load a File dialog, set Type to Design Manager Project.
Activate the Remote Server option and set the remote server properties:
- Remote Host: Specify the name of a cluster node that has the ability to submit jobs to the queue, such as the head node. If you require the domain name to connect from your local machine, include it here.
- Remote User: Specify the user name that is required to log into the specified remote host.
- Remote Shell: Choose the type of remote shell command.
In the File text box, specify the UNC path and the full name of the Design Manager project file in your cluster project root directory.
In the Command text box, insert the UNC path and the name of the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ executable on the cluster.
To activate the Unlicensed Design Manager Server license scheme, add -dmnoshare (optional). For more information, see Design Manager Licensing.
Click OK.
The Design Manager object tree loads.
Run the design studies interactively:
- To run a specific design study, right-click the design study node and select Run Study.
- To run all design studies sequentially from first to last, right-click the Design Studies manager node and select Run All Studies.
If your local workstation restarts or shuts down during the night, you can disconnect from and reconnect to the remote Design Manager server from your local client, see Making Client-Server Connections.

The Design Manager server remains active on the head node until you close the project.

Running from a batch client

For more information, see Running the Client in Batch.

On a cluster node that has the ability to submit jobs to the Windows HPC scheduler, such as the head node, submit the Design Manager project in batch from the command line.

Example:

[STAR-CCM+_INSTALL_DIR]\star]bin\starccm+ -batch run [PROJECT_ROOT_DIR]\[PROJECT].dmprj [-dmnoshare] [-passtodesign <options>]

where:

[STAR-CCM+_INSTALL_DIR] is the UNC path to the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ installation directory on your cluster.
[PROJECT_ROOT_DIR] is the UNC path to the project root directory.
[PROJECT] is the name of your Design Manager project file.
-dmnoshare activates the Unlicensed Design Manager Server license scheme. Omitting this option uses the Default license scheme. For more information, see Design Manager Licensing.
-passtodesign <options> allows you to pass additional simulation command line options, such as license options, to the design simulations. Passing simulation command line options directly from the command line is useful for machine-specific or user-specific options, which you do not want to save within your Design Manager project file (see step 1b). However, command line options that require double quotes are not supported—you must set these options in the STAR-CCM+ Command Line Options property. For more information, see Design Manager Options.

注	If [PROJECT_ROOT_DIR] or [PROJECT] contains spaces, you must pass the Design Manager project file with quotes: [STAR-CCM+_INSTALL_DIR]\star\bin\starccm+ -batch run "[PROJECT_ROOT_DIR]\[PROJECT].dmprj" [-dmnoshare] [-passtodesign <options>]

To follow the progress of your design studies, you can connect to and disconnect from the running Design Manager server, see Making Client-Server Connections.

The Design Manager server shuts down automatically as soon as all design simulations are complete.

The Design Manager server submits the specified number of simultaneous design simulations to the queue. As soon as one design simulation completes, Design Manager submits the next design simulation. This job submission procedure continues until all design simulations are complete.

The output from the Design Manager server is displayed in the Output window. The Simcenter STAR-CCM+ servers for each design simulation are visible in the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ server list.

注

The Design Manager server does not have any capabilities to interact with the job scheduler on your cluster. Design Manager can not detect what type of scheduler is used on your cluster. The tracking of each design—the detection of failure or completion—solely relies on files that are written to disk by each design simulation. Therefore, when a Design Manager project submits a design simulation to the cluster and the submission of the simulation fails or anything unexpected happens in the scheduler, the Design Manager server can not detect this failure. However, as soon as a resource is assigned and Simcenter STAR-CCM+ is executed, then Design Manager can detect failures. Design Manager marks the design simulation as failed and moves to the next design simulation to complete the design study.