Configuring the HPC platform

To use Simcenter Amesim on the remote HPC cluster, you must perform certain configurations after initial installation. These modifications can be made directly to the global user settings by the IT administrators or by users themselves in their home directory configuration files (such as .bashrc or .profile files for example).

• The HPC cluster must be installed on a Linux operating system. Note You can also use a Microsoft Windows operating system, in this case, refer to the section AMEHPCStudystart.

• Simcenter Amesim must be installed on all nodes (including the head node to run job submissions and monitor scripts): all nodes of the cluster are candidates to run simulations and thus might need to access Simcenter Amesim resources. Usually the installation is performed in a shared directory to avoid multiple installations. Contact the HPC Platform IT service for more information.

• X server: Some Simcenter Amesim scripting API commands may need an X server to execute correctly. If your simulation uses such commands and if the HPC has no X server (which is highly probable) set up the additional options --xserver in the template with the command to start the virtual X server.

Simcenter Amesim needs to be installed and the user configuration needs to know where it is located. You need to set up the following environment variables:

Environment variable	Value	Location
AME	Simcenter Amesim install path	all nodes
PATH	Add $AME	all nodes
PATH	Add $AME/scripting/python/hpc/	all nodes
SC1D_LICENSING_TYPE	Set to "ugs" to use the FlexLM licensing	Front node or in the user profile
SPLM_LICENSE_SERVER	License server address with port@location format	Front node or in the user profile

These environment variables are indeed required by Simcenter Amesim executables to be processed properly.

Modifying the behavior of Simcenter Amesim can be done by setting the following optional environment variables:

Environment variable	Value	Default value	Location
AME_HPC_PATH	Path of the HPC directory if you do not use the one from theSimcenter Amesim installation	$AME/scripting/python/hpc	Front node
AME_FRONT_HPC_PATH	Path of HPC directory accessible from the front node when Simcenter Amesim installation is not present on this node	$AME/scripting/python/hpc	Front node
AME_SIMULATIONPORT	Base TCP port number used by the simulation process manager for Simcenter Amesim to control simulation runs 40001-65535	40001	Front node
AME_SIMULATIONPORT_ SPREAD	TCP port spread to try to bind to. The port range used is then [base port: base port + spread] 0-25534	1000	Front node
AME_HPC_PYTHON	Path to python to use for direct call of AMEHPCStudyStart	$AME/AMEPython	Front node

Warning

When submitting a Simcenter Amesim study remotely from the graphical user interface, environment variables must be set in the non-interactive login script (.bash_profile for CentOS and Ubuntu/Debian distributions).

Note

As NFS is not well adapted for HPC, we recommend you use another more suitable file system. However, if you cannot avoid using NFS, we recommend you use the sync and noac options when mounting the NFS storage. This is especially necessary for Design Exploration studies.