multiple instances of SnappyHexMesh
 

I'm firing up four cases one after another and want to let them run on the same machine. Seems SHM only allows two instances to run at the same time and kills the other processes.

Use a script, have a look at any runScript within any of the OF tutorials.

you mean like this one...or is there something simpler?

#!/bin/sh
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# ========= |
# \\ / F ield | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox
# \\ / O peration |
# \\ / A nd | Copyright (C) 2011 OpenFOAM Foundation
# \\/ M anipulation |
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# License
# This file is part of OpenFOAM.
#
# OpenFOAM is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# OpenFOAM is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
# ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
# for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with OpenFOAM. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
#
# Script
# Allrun
#
# Description
#
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
cd ${0%/*} || exit 1 # run from this directory

# Source tutorial run functions
. $WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/tools/RunFunctions

# logReport <logfile>
# Extracts useful info from log file.
logReport()
{
caseName=`dirname $1 | sed s/"\(.*\)\.\/"/""/g`
app=`echo $1 | sed s/"\(.*\)\."/""/g`
appAndCase="Application $app - case $caseName"

fatalError=`grep "FOAM FATAL" $1`
UxSS=`grep -E "Ux[:| ]*solution singularity" $1`
UySS=`grep -E "Uy[:| ]*solution singularity" $1`
UzSS=`grep -E "Uz[:| ]*solution singularity" $1`
completed=`grep -E "^[\t ]*[eE]nd" $1`

if [ "$fatalError" ]
then
echo "$appAndCase: ** FOAM FATAL ERROR **"
elif [ "$UxSS" -a "$UySS" -a "$UzSS" ]
then
echo "$appAndCase: ** Solution singularity **"
elif [ "$completed" ]
then
completionTime=`tail -10 $log | grep Execution | cut -d= -f2 | sed 's/^[ \t]*//'`
if [ "$completionTime" ]
then
completionTime="in $completionTime"
fi
echo "$appAndCase: completed $completionTime"
else
echo "$appAndCase: unconfirmed completion"
fi
}


# Recursively run all tutorials
foamRunTutorials cases


# Analyse all log files
rm testLoopReport > /dev/null 2>&1 &
touch testLoopReport

for appDir in *
do
(
[ -d $appDir ] && cd $appDir || exit

for log in `find . -name "log.*" | xargs ls -rt`
do
logReport $log >> ../testLoopReport
done
echo "" >> ../testLoopReport
)
done

find . -name "log.*" -exec cat {} \; >> logs

# ----------------------------------------------------------------- end-of-file

Nope, I would say something much easier like:

that is kind of what I am doing. only two instances can run. if more are open it starts killing the previous processes.

If you use a script like the one I posted every instance will start after the previous one has ended.

i see...
do you k now if the solvers,rather than the meshers, for multiple cases can run simultaneously?

Don't know, sorry…

Greetings to both of you!

@Mihai: if the 4 cases have independent folders and if you have enough RAM available, then the snappyHexMesh processes should not affect each other during serial execution!

Knowing the machine specifications you are using and the mesh resolutions you are using as well, it's possible to infer what the actual problem is.

For example: a simple cube-like hexahedral mesh generated with blockMesh to have 1 million cells, will need about 1GB of RAM. When running snappyHexMesh on top of this base mesh, with level 1 of additional resolution, you'll need at a maximum of (2^1)^3 times the mesh resolution, namely 8 million cells -> 8GB RAM. If using level 2 -> 4^3 -> 64 million cells!
Of course these values are only the maximum resolution, if and only if we used a resolution increase all over the mesh. When using localized resolution increments, the cell count will not increase this much.

If you are using mesh resolutions similar in all 4 cases, then after one of them is complete, run checkMesh. It will tell you the cell count and any issues that the mesh might have.

Best regards,
Bruno

by serial you mean one starting after the previous ended?

Hi Mihai,

Let me quote from wikipedia ;)
Basically, taking lovecraft22's example, the serial execution of simultaneous snappyHexMesh processes would be this:
The added ampersand (&) will cause the process to be launched (somewhat) independently of the shell.

For launching snappyHexMesh in a parallel meshing job, you can see the following tutorials on 2.1.x:

• "incompressible/pisoFoam/les/motorBike" - this is a rather complex case, in the sense that it solves the case by using 2 cases! Similar to the "cavity graded" example from the user guide.
• "incompressible/simpleFoam/turbineSiting" - this one shows how to generate with 2 cores and then redistributes the mesh to 4 cores for solving the case.

There is also another case familiar to me, which is a somewhat modified "motorBike" case, designed for doing some benchmarking: http://code.google.com/p/bluecfd-sin...untimes202_211


Now, as for the last detail: Can two or more simultaneous parallel runs interfere with one another?
The answer should be No, but I've seen some rare cases where the communications seemed to have gotten crossed over each other... but this should lead to simultaneous destruction, simply because both cases would get corrupted. This shouldn't happen, but either a bug in the MPI toolbox or some other issue could cause this.
But technically - aside from a possible bug and network issues - the only reason for two distinct parallel jobs to interfere with each other would be insufficient RAM for both to run... or a communication timeout, in a situation where one case is getting all of the CPU time, making the other one too late to answer a call...

Best regards,
Bruno

Hi Mihai,

OK, here is a test case that needs about 1.5GB of RAM when running 4 separate cases and takes about 280s (on AMD 1055T 64bit x6 cores :D) for each snappyHexMesh:

1. Assuming we've already got our own copy of the "tutorials" folder at $FOAM_RUN:
   Code:

   ---

   cd $FOAM_RUN/mesh/snappyHexMesh
cp -r flange flange1

   ---

2. Edit the file "flange1/constant/polyMesh/blockMeshDict" and change the resolution to this line:
   
   Code:

   ---

   hex (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) (40 32 24) simpleGrading (1 1 1)

   ---

   This way the base mesh occupies about 40*32*24 = 30.7 kCells ~= 31 MB of RAM for each case.
3. Let's clone the case 3 more times:
   Code:

   ---

   cp -r flange1 flange2
cp -r flange1 flange3
cp -r flange1 flange4

   ---

4. Now lets launch them all simultaneously:
   Code:

   ---

   for a in 1 2 3 4; do cd flange$a; ./Allrun & cd ..; done

   ---

5. Using top you can monitor the current status. Check the "log.snappyHexMesh" files on each "flange*" folder, in case one or more stop working.

Best regards,
Bruno