Operating System for Ansys 13 HPC
 

Hi ,

I am plannign to buy a new computer with 256GB ram and 48 cores.
We have got Ansys 13 recently and I m nto sure which Operating system to use.
Since not every operating system uses 256GB ram, I had couple in mind.
Please tell me d best suitable operating system for the above configuration.

Windows server 2008 Enterprise
Windows 7
HPC server windows 2008 R2

Thanks in Advance
Mak

how about linux?

and it might be worth checking which OS ansys support, and what you intend to use for jobs dispatching.

Thanks for the link Sac.
I am thinking to go with WIndows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise.

Sail: As of Linux, I have heard tht Fluent dosent work properly on Linux sumhow. Thanks for the reply, I will cross check with OS support team, as well.

Cheers,
MAK

on my laptop i'm running ubuntu and fluent works.

my university cluster run on centos and hundreds of users run fluent, cfx and starccm+ symulations daily.

Sail is right. FLUENT works fine on Linux.

Good Morning and Thanks for the reply :)

Whts d major differenc between Windows n Linux??...d memory windows take thts all?...coz changig d paltform wont b d right choice for newbies i guess...
Its good to know tht Linux run fine with fluent..I mite use it on my Laptop too...but not with ofc system ..u knw.

Cheerzzz
MAK

Hi Makks,

There are lots of difference between linux and windows. It is not only with the memory but also with the processing speed and priority given to each process. Hence kindly don't under estimate Linux.

I would suggest you to install it in your personal computer. Test it out for some time and understand....

Megatron

Hi Megatron,
Thanks for the reply, actually I dont knw much bout Linux . I knw tht Windows uses a lot of memory to run its components which Linux dosent use, thts how Linux speed is more. I am not underestimating it, its just lack of knowledge on my part, my bad.
Well I wil try n load it on my PC n work on it so tht i hav better Idea wht u r trying to explain.

Cheerz
Mridul

Hi guys,

As said, I bought my super computer with 48 cores and Windows server 2008 R2 day before n installed my Ansys on it. But thr seems to be some problem running it on multicore.
I tried one solution on sinle core, it ran beautifully but when i tried local parallel with more cores it was stuck at solver, just froze.
I have license for multicore use which I hav tried on my 12 core machine already and was working smoothly. But when I ran it on my new computer it is not working sumhow...
what could be the possible problem?...can SUm1 help me out in this?
Thanks In advance

Regards
MAK

to make it clear, its not Windows HPC server and its Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise tht I am using on this system.

Hi guys,
Could you tell me which Linux (exactly) you use?
I tryed different Centos Versions and also newest Ubunutu. During installation of Ansys the error file /usr/ansys_inc/install.err is written which says that calling

/usr/ansys_inc/v130/aisol/.workbench -cmd /usr/ansys_inc/v130/aisol/mw/bin-amd64_linux_optimized/regsvr32 -c -nodisplay /usr/ansys_inc/v130/aisol/dll/linx64/libans.cadint.pluginfemcom.so

has gone wrong. Workbench crushes when trying to create a grid in a Fluent project.
Calling the above command 'by hand' leads to:

RegSvr32: LoadLibrary("/usr/ansys_inc/v130/aisol/dll/linx64/libans.cadint.pluginfemcom.so") failed.
GetLastError returns 0x0000007e.

Thanks for any help.

plug your super computer to the internet and try it again.

It actually was connected. I installed Windows. I guess commercial software and free linux doesn't like each other.

@makkks

Hello,

start your solution in serial; run this for 1-2 steps; after that switch to parallel. It should do the trick. I've noticed a similar problem with Fluent 6.3 and 12 ... I suspect the parallel solver doesn't properly initialize a solution when you start from scratch ...

Do

Hi DoHander,

Thanks for your reply.

I worked it out already and is working fine with all cores.
It was just few .exe which needed special permission and the settings for parallel run.
I contatced Ansys guys to fix it and thy sent me a procedure to do tht.

Thanks again,
Cheerz
Mak

Sorry, but if you have invested that amount of money on such an expensive machine, to me it would make sense to invest some time into installing an appropriate operating system.
Windows is not and will never be an HPC operating system. It doesn't matter what it says on the box, it is just a stripped out release of Vista with some extra basic POSIX features, eg sshd, snmp, that they deem "HPC". For a high throughput high compute and high memory demanding task like CFD, UNIX wins hands down in terms of scheduling, memory management, and internode communication.
Have a look at the TOP500 and see how many are running Windows... I have worked on a few big clusters, and have NEVER seen Windows being run. Most compute machines won't even have a GUI installed just to cut down on the overhead, let alone Windows svchost! Windows is great if you want pretty coloured buttons and a talking paperclip, but if you want performance and reliability Red Hat Enterprise is officially supported by Ansys.
Don't worry, you will not be the first (or last) person to make the mistake of installing Windows for an HPC application. Have a look at what happened when LSE installed Windows in 2008.........

Stu

Thanks Stu for ur concern.

but i need to say that my operating system is working more than fine.
I m workign on really big problems and I m not facing a single problem.
May b you shud try it and then compare.
I am not in opposition of Red hat but Windows is friendly and colourful and give good results thn y not WIndows. :)


Cheerz
MAK

Oh well, each to their own I guess!

Where abouts in Melbourne are you anyway? Monash Uni here.

Indeed!!

Same uni but not thr anymore~~ working :)

FLUENT runs fine on linux and normally faster. It was actually "make for linux" as you can see in the documentation the original GUI was made using mosix.

I already have problems when running in one of the unsupported distros like you and most of the problems come from the new "workbench" crap. If you are just running fluent go straight to the fluent executable and everything should work, or it should at least give you more meaningful errors. If i remember correctly you may have to install some extra libraries in ubuntu to make it run properly.

List os supported os:
http://www.ansys.com/Support/Platform+Support

Hi,

I have installed fluent 14 in linux ubuntu but it seems have some problem.
It gives me an error while starting:

/loadmanager.fl: not found
Error: Failed to start Fluent under loadmanager.

do you have any idea?

thanks in advance!

Sorry to dig up this post so many years after. If you still can read this, could you please tell me the procedure you dealt with this problem? I've come across exactly the same situation like you and not in the mood of switching the OS to Linux, thx