Running COMSOL Multiphysics on Clusters
You can launch COMSOL cluster jobs from the COMSOL Desktop and the command line. To run COMSOL Multiphysics on a cluster, you need to make the cluster features visible: in the Model Builder tree, click the Show More Options button () and select Batch and Cluster in the Show More Options dialog box. Then, in the Model Builder, right-click a Study node and select Cluster Computing or Cluster Sweep to create cluster jobs. Cluster computing requires a Floating Network License.
The following terms occur frequently when describing the hardware for cluster computing and shared-memory parallel computing:
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Compute node: The compute nodes are where the distributed computing occurs. Each distributed COMSOL process resides in a compute node and communicates with other compute nodes using MPI (message-passing interface).
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Host: The host is a physical machine (hardware) with a network adapter and unique network address. The host is part of the cluster. It is sometimes referred to as a physical node.
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Core: The core is a processor core used in shared-memory parallelism by a computational node with multiple processors.
The number of used hosts and the number of computational nodes are usually the same. For some special problem types, like very small problems with many parameters, it might be beneficial to use more than one computational node on one host.
A tutorial for cluster testing is included in the Application Libraries window under COMSOL Multiphysics/Cluster_and_Batch_Tutorials/micromixer_cluster.
Running From a Desktop PC
To access the COMSOL Multiphysics running on a cluster, it is recommended to work on a desktop PC. To do so, use one of the following options:
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Install COMSOL Multiphysics on your local PC. Also install Windows HPCS2008R2, HPCS2012, HPCS2012R2, or HPCS2016 Pack Client portion on the desktop PC. This software is free and shipped with HPCS2008R2, HPCS2012, HPCS2012R2, and HPCS2016, and it enables you to access the cluster from your workstation.
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Alternatively, connect to the head node via a remote desktop connection and start COMSOL Multiphysics on the head node.
quick troubleshooting
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Your first step is to make sure you have the latest release installed. Check that you have COMSOL Multiphysics 6.1 or later. Also make sure to install the latest product updates.
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For Windows HPC Server, log in to each node with remote desktop and start the COMSOL Desktop GUI. No error messages should be displayed.
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If you get the error message “Process status indicates that process is running,” then cancel any running jobs in the Windows HPCS Job manager or other scheduler that you use. In the COMSOL Desktop, locate the External Process page at the lower-right. Click the Clear Status button.
For more information about how to run COMSOL Multiphysics in parallel on Windows clusters, see the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual. For installation on Clusters, see Cluster Installation.