Remote Hosts Tab

The information in this section applies to Autodesk Simulation desktop products only. It is not applicable to Autodesk Simulation Mechanical 360. The Configure Remote Execution options do not appear within the Analysis tab of the program Options dialog box for the 360 version.

Activate the command:

The second setup task to remotely submit an analysis to a different computer is to identify the remote computer in the Remote Host tab.

Define a new Remote Host

  1. Press the New button. You will be prompted for a remote host name.
    • Type in a unique name to identify the host computer (such as John's Workstation or Linux Cluster).
    • Press the OK button and the Editing Remote System dialog box appears.
  2. Specify the following parameters for the remote host:
    • Host Name: This input is the name of the remote computer that identifies it on the network (such as, Engineering-PC5 ) or its IP address (such as, 12.128.202.56). For a Linux cluster, use the full name of the head computing node. If the host computer has a fixed IP address, using the IP address as the host name prevents potential name resolution problems. However, if the host computer has a dynamic IP address (one that is likely to change from day to day), specify the computer name instead.
    • User Name: This input is the name of the account whose credentials are used to log in to the remote system. For domain accounts, this field can include the domain as well (for example, domain\username). This value is case-sensitive on non-Window host machines.

      For a Linux PC or cluster, this value is the login name for the Samba service. We recommend using root because root has full permissions. If using another account, make sure that the other user account has permission to use SSH and Samba.

    • Password: This input is the password for the remote host computer account specified in the User Name field. This value is case-sensitive.
    • Rexec Program: This drop-down box contains entries for all the remote execution programs that have been defined in the Remote Exec Programs tab. Select the program you will use to access this remote host (such as Rexec, PsExec, or Plink).

System Section:

  1. Type: Use this drop-down box to select the type of system for the remote computer. Two choices are available, and the required additional data depends upon your selection:

    1. Use Uniprocessor/SMP to run the analysis on a single remote computer. When this option is chosen, also define the following item:

      • CPUs Available: Enter the total number of processors that are available in the remote system. The number of processors used during the analysis is set on the Analysis screen when the job is submitted. The availability of this control on the analysis control panel depends on the selected solver type.
    2. Use MPI Cluster (Message Passing Interface Cluster) to distribute the analysis to a cluster of Windows or Linux computers. When this option is chosen, also define the following item:
      • Nodes Available: Enter the total number of computers (nodes) in the cluster that are available for the analyses. The number of nodes used during an analysis is set on the Analysis screen when the job is submitted.
        Note: To install the MPICH software required for MPI Clustering on Linux or Windows, and for further setup instructions, refer to the following pages:

Processor Section:

  1. Type: Specifies the type of processor to use on the remote system for solving the analysis. Choose the Algor option (Autodesk Simulation Mechanical processor). Third-party processors are no longer supported.
  2. Path: Specify the path to the processor executable files. The path is specified as if you were sitting at the remote computer and navigating to the folder that contains the application. For example, specify "c:\Program Files\Autodesk\Simulation 2014\" for a Windows host, or /opt/algor for a Linux host. Substitute the actual installation folder path, if different. On most platforms other than Windows, this string is case-sensitive.
  3. Executable: This field is for specifying the executable filename for third-party solvers. It is not used for the Algor (Autodesk Simulation Mechanical) solvers. Since third-party solvers are no longer supported, this field is unavailable.
  4. Command Line Mask: This field contains a list of the placeholders used to perform the following tasks:
    • Start the application on the remote computer.
    • Pass the model name to the application.
    • Specify any runtime options to the processor.

    The format of this input is as follows:

    "%remoteprogname%" "%remotemodelname%" %execoptions%

    where

    • %remoteprogname% is the placeholder for the path and filename for the executable.
    • %remotemodelname% is the placeholder for the path and filename of the model.
    • %execoptions% is the placeholder for any runtime options required to start the executable.

      • Using literal strings, you can specify other options to the processor command line. On most platforms other than Windows, this string is case-sensitive.

Work Path Section

  1. Local: In order for the remote submission to work, the model must be copied into a shared folder on the remote machine. (The copying task is performed automatically when the analysis is started; you do not need to copy the files manually.) The Local field refers to the folder on the REMOTE computer, but as navigated to from the local computer. This string is how the path to the remote folder appears over a network (for example, \\hostname\my analyses\).

    The local path to the remote work folder must be expressed in a manner that allows a native Windows file copy to be used. While this task can be accomplished in a number of ways, we recommend using an SMB-based share on the remote system. SMB (Server Message Block) is the default file and printer sharing protocol for Microsoft Windows. For most popular non-Windows systems, a free SMB server implementation, Samba, is available (http://www.samba.org/). For most Linux distributions, Samba is included as an optional component. For other systems, the server can be built from the source code on the Web site.

    It is important to remember that both the SMB and the operating systems permissions constrain the shared folder you create through the Samba server. If the remote folder is shared using a single account name, we recommended that you map the share to a drive letter on the local computer. In this way, alternate credentials can be used. Select the Connect using a different user name option in the Map Network Drive dialog box and the connection can be automatically re-established on startup. Activate the Reconnect at login checkbox on the same dialog box to do so. If you are using local credentials on the remote computer or using domain-based credentials on both the local computer and remote Samba server, you can use a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path.

    On most platforms other than Windows, this string is case-sensitive.

    To test whether the Samba shared folder is accessible in Windows, open My Computer or Windows Explorer. Then, type the name of the path in the address bar (such as \\hostname\my analyses\) and press Enter. The remote computer's folder should be shown. (A login window appears the first time you try to access the folder for you to input the username and password. If the PC is rebooted, perform this step again to establish the Samba share connection.)

  2. Remote: Specify the path to the shared model folder as if you were at the remote system. This string is how the path to the folder would appear at a command prompt on the remote machine. This path must result in the same shared location as the path in the Local field. On most platforms other than Windows, this string is case-sensitive.
Important: Submit the analysis to a remote computer using the Target Computer drop-down selector within the analysis window that appears when you click the Run Simulation command. To specify the Target Computer, you must deactivate the Automate Analysis checkbox within the Analysis tab of the application Options dialog box. See the Automated Task section on the Analysis Tab page.

Additional Steps to Perform at a Linux PC before it can Function as a Remote Host

Note: Declare yourself as a super user by entering SU, or the equivalent command for your version of Linux. Enter the required account password if prompted. This declaration facilitates your starting of services and altering security settings (specifically, the firewall exclusions).
  1. Start the SSH service if you will be using Plink or a similar remote host client based on the SSH protocol.
  2. Start the Samba service.
  3. Access the firewall settings and select the following three items as exclusions, so the firewall does not block them:
    • SSH
    • Samba
    • Samba Client

Parent topic: Analysis Tab