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Best practices using clusters

Posted 13 mai 2010, 11:45 UTC−4 3 Replies

Danial Tz
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I would imagine some of you run comsol on clusters already. Say I have several powerful machines laying around the institute. Can I turn them into a grid and run simulations on them? Something like BOINC.

The systems are windows 64bit and some linux. If necessary I can dualboot them into linux after daytime work.
3 Replies Last Post 12 août 2010, 07:25 UTC−4
Jean-Francois Leon
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Posted: 1 decade ago 13 mai 2010, 13:01 UTC−4
My experience of running such "distributed clusters [ but NOT COMSOL] with a dedicated software my former institution had written "in house" is that it is not worth the effort. The bottleneck I found was the network and associated routing was killing the cluster potential capabilities.
Indeed , to run efficiently an hpc cluster [ regardless of the app] fast network lingk and dedicated switch are needed.
and of course all the nodes need to run the same OS and are controlled by a "head node". it is possible tough [ again not speaking of comsol possible specifics need that will come on top of the general stuff I mention here] BUT it will be a pain in the butt, lot of night and week end time and associated coffee ..and computing performance will be very bad.
the ONLY scenario I can think of where such experience could be useful is that you want to learn how to run comsol on a cluster [ and how to set up and administer a cluster before that...] ....
well in that case have fun it can work ..and you will learn a lot for sure :-).
JF
afterthoughts: it is possible that for running parametric case you could benefit from such a cluster but in principle if you have comsol on all the machines you can write a script [ in python for eg] or maybe with matlab that will distribute the run. the tradeoff is spending time setting up same os on your network and setting up a cluster to benefit from comsol automatic parametric mode vs. distributing the comsol case at system level through a "non comsol" script..
no opinion on what will be best for you in that scenario
My experience of running such "distributed clusters [ but NOT COMSOL] with a dedicated software my former institution had written "in house" is that it is not worth the effort. The bottleneck I found was the network and associated routing was killing the cluster potential capabilities. Indeed , to run efficiently an hpc cluster [ regardless of the app] fast network lingk and dedicated switch are needed. and of course all the nodes need to run the same OS and are controlled by a "head node". it is possible tough [ again not speaking of comsol possible specifics need that will come on top of the general stuff I mention here] BUT it will be a pain in the butt, lot of night and week end time and associated coffee ..and computing performance will be very bad. the ONLY scenario I can think of where such experience could be useful is that you want to learn how to run comsol on a cluster [ and how to set up and administer a cluster before that...] .... well in that case have fun it can work ..and you will learn a lot for sure :-). JF afterthoughts: it is possible that for running parametric case you could benefit from such a cluster but in principle if you have comsol on all the machines you can write a script [ in python for eg] or maybe with matlab that will distribute the run. the tradeoff is spending time setting up same os on your network and setting up a cluster to benefit from comsol automatic parametric mode vs. distributing the comsol case at system level through a "non comsol" script.. no opinion on what will be best for you in that scenario
Christian Benjamin Ries
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Posted: 1 decade ago 12 août 2010, 06:32 UTC−4

Something like BOINC.


I will present a approach on the COMSOL Conference 2010 in Paris. Accepted paper title "ComsolGrid – A framework for performing large-scale parameter studies using Comsol Multiphysics and BOINC".
[QUOTE] Something like BOINC. [/QUOTE] I will present a approach on the COMSOL Conference 2010 in Paris. Accepted paper title "ComsolGrid – A framework for performing large-scale parameter studies using Comsol Multiphysics and BOINC".
Danial Tz
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Posted: 1 decade ago 12 août 2010, 07:25 UTC−4


Something like BOINC.


I will present a approach on the COMSOL Conference 2010 in Paris. Accepted paper title "ComsolGrid – A framework for performing large-scale parameter studies using Comsol Multiphysics and BOINC".


One more reason to attend the conference :)
[QUOTE] [QUOTE] Something like BOINC. [/QUOTE] I will present a approach on the COMSOL Conference 2010 in Paris. Accepted paper title "ComsolGrid – A framework for performing large-scale parameter studies using Comsol Multiphysics and BOINC". [/QUOTE] One more reason to attend the conference :)

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