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How do I execute an Abaqus job on the "mini-cluster"?
Please note: The FAQ pages at the HPCVL website are continuously being revised. Some pages might pertain to an older configuration of the system. Please let us know if you encounter problems or inaccuracies, and we will correct the entries.
HPCVL supplies a small cluster of AMD-Opteron based Linux machines to support Abaqus versions higher than 6.5. This "mini-cluster" presently consists of 12 nodes with a total of 140 cores each, running Abaqus 6.7, 6.9, and 6.10. This cluster is only to be used if the newer Abaqus version is necessary. Because of the limited number of cores per node, only 8-12 processor jobs can be run on it. Also, the total memory of each node is more limited than on the main M9000 servers, meaning that jobs with very large memory requirements cannot be submitted to this cluster.
To submit a job to the mini-cluster, a modified submission script must be used. The only difference in the script is that a special Abaqus queue is used for the mini-cluster. For this the lines
#$ -clear
#$ -q abaqus.q
have been inserted at the top. It is also important to use a different "usepackage" setup line to request the correct version of Abaqus (for instance, 6.7):
use abaqus67
before submitting the script. If the standard Abaqus 6.5 setup is used, jobs submitted to the mini-cluster will fail. Likewise, standard jobs submitted to the default clusters will fail if Abaqus was set up to run version 6.7.