How to use two computers to simulate the same project simultaneously and reduce simulation time? #

Problem Description #

In large-scale simulations or high-precision computations, the computational capacity of a single computer often fails to meet requirements, resulting in excessively long simulation times. I want to utilize multiple computers to perform parallel computation for a single simulation project to improve efficiency. How should I configure this?

Possible Causes #

If you need to run the same simulation project in parallel on two computers, this is considered multi-machine parallel simulation. This feature requires configuring Remote computing resources under the MPI environment in SimWorks FD Solutions software before it can be enabled.
Multi-machine parallel simulation relies on the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard. MPI provides a standardized programming interface, allowing the same function calls to be used for both multi-process communication on a single machine and communication across multiple computers, greatly simplifying distributed program development.
Mainstream MPI implementations include MPICH, Intel MPI, and Microsoft MPI.

Solutions #

Troubleshooting #

Users must correctly configure Remote computing resources in SimWorks FD Solutions to perform multi-machine parallel simulation.

Resolution Methods #

Please follow these steps for configuration:
1. Ensure all computers used for simulation have the same version of the MPI environment installed, and the installation paths are identical. This document uses MPICH as an example. You can download the installer from the MPICH official website.

• Verify account consistency: Make sure all computers are logged in with the same user account.

• Install and configure MPICH: Here, mpich2-1.4.1 is used as an example. Install it to the same directory on all computers involved in the simulation.
• Register the MPI account: In the installation directory, run wmpiregister.exe, enter the above account and password, and click the Register button to complete registration.

2. Configure Remote resources. For details, refer to Computing Resources.

• Set up Remote resources: On the resources page, select Remote. In the Mpi implementation field, select MPICH2. In the Mpiexec path field, enter the MPICH installation directory. In the MPI hosts field, enter the names or IP addresses of your computers.

• Resource validation: After configuration, perform a Resource Test. If the test passes, multi-machine parallel computing can be used normally.

If the test fails, troubleshoot as follows:
1) Check in Task Manager whether the mpich-related services are enabled.
2) Add mpich-related executables to the firewall whitelist.

If you still cannot resolve the issue, please contact technical support.

Further Reading #

Computing Resources