Grid Computing and Remote Computing in COMSOL Multiphysics

The Cluster Sweep and Cluster Computing studies can be configured to start COMSOL simulations on other machines. This is useful if you want to perform a parametric study and you have multiple machines that are free (often referred to as grid computing) or that you have a cluster with a job scheduler to which you want to submit COMSOL simulations. The COMSOL software supports a number of common configurations. The main requirement is that you can start COMSOL Multiphysics on the machines you run simulations on and that one of the supported methods can be used to access the machines. Some example configurations are:

•

You have COMSOL Multiphysics installed on your desktop computer and want to run on a cluster where COMSOL Multiphysics is installed.

•

You have COMSOL Multiphysics installed on your desktop computer and want to start simulations on other computers that you have login access to — for instance, using the secure shell protocol (SSH).

•

You have access to a remote computer through a client-server connection and want to start simulations on computers that you can login to from the remote computer.

•

You have a job scheduler that can schedule jobs to remote computers.

In the first case, you can configure the section of the Cluster Sweep or Cluster Computing studies to log in to the cluster’s job submit node and use the section to configure the scheduler. If the login to the cluster can be done using a locally installed SSH client, you can use an SSH key file pair to login. You can also configure your own login command. Use secure copy (SCP, based on secure shell) or configure a command to copy the files from the local directory to the remote directory. The host name of the cluster login node should be set in the Remote hosts section. In the section, it is important to distinguish between settings for the local machine and settings for the remote machine. The settings apply to the local machine while the refers to the remote machine. The paths have to be accessible for the respective computers. The can be used to start COMSOL Multiphysics when the installation path on the remote machine is different than on the local machine. Use the setting to select the job scheduler to use.

In the second case above, you can configure the section of the Cluster Sweep or Cluster Computing studies to log in to other computers and use the section to configure the start command used on the other computers. If the login to the cluster can be done using a locally installed SSH client, you can use an SSH key file pair to log in. You can also configure your own login command. Use SCP or configure a command to copy the files from the local directory to the remote directory. The host names of the remote computers should be set in the list in the section. In the , it is important to distinguish between settings for the local machine and settings for the remote machine. The settings apply to the local machine while the refers to the remote machine. The paths have to be accessible for the respective computers. The can be used to start COMSOL Multiphysics when the installation path on the remote machines is different than on the local machine.

In the third case, you can use similar settings as in the second case. The only difference is that if you should set the if you want the data stored in a special place on the server side.

In the fourth and last case above, you only need to use the section of the Cluster Sweep or Cluster Computing study. In this case it is important that the setting and the Specify external refer to the same physical path. The paths are usually different because you have set a hard drive path in the setting and a network path in the path. Use the setting to select the job scheduler to use.