A Step by step guide to use Comsol MultiPhysics in batch mode on the HPC/Slurm Cluster.

• Prepare a work folder for your comsol jobs and copy a template to submit these jobs.

mkdir ~/comsol
cd ~/comsol
cp /deepstore/software/examples/run-comsol.sbatch .

• Modify the input/output files, required version of comsol, resource requirements (cpu/mem/gpu/nodes) etc. in the run-comsol.sbatch file.

• Start your job by submitting the job using sbatch.

sbatch run-comsol.sbatch

A Step by step guide to use Comsol MultiPhysics Server on the HPC/Slurm Cluster.

• Create a folder to store your comsol mphserver files and copy the example submit script.

mkdir ~/comsol
cd ~/comsol
cp /deepstore/software/examples/run-comsol-server.sbatch .

• Modify the comsol server requirements, required version of comsol, resource requirements (cpu/mem/gpu/nodes) etc. in the run-comsol-server.sbatch file.
• (Re)Set your comsol server password (this will start temporary the comsol server, close this after setting the password).

This password will be stored in ~/.comsol/<version>/login.properties

comsolpasswd

• Submit the job by running the following command :

sbatch run-comsol-server.sbatch

The command will show a <job-id>, wait until the job is actually running. Use this <job-id> to check the content of the comsol-server-<job-id>.log file. This will file will contain the required url to connect to the comsol-server using your local comsol-client.

Use your local comsol to connect to your comsol server by using the Server name, port and username listed in the log file. The content will probably look like this :

Adding Matlab r2019a
Adding Comsol MultiPhysics v5.3a
Server : ctit083.ewi.utwente.nl
Port : 8805
Username : laanstragj
COMSOL Multiphysics server 5.3a (Build: 348) started listening on port 8805
Use the console command 'close' to exit the program

The last two lines in the log file show the running comsol server.

• Please terminate the comsol server when you are done

scancel <job-id>

This will use the sinteractive wrapper, this will depend on the availability of the requested resources !

Load the slurm utils software module (sinteractive)

module load slurm/utils

Request resources using sinteractive (optionally modify the default resources, default is : 2 cpu's for 1 hour.).

sinteractive --cpus-per-task=4 --time=1-0:0:0

Once the resources are claimed you will get a similar response as the following:

srun: job 164362 queued and waiting for resources
srun: job 164362 has been allocated resources

The result is that you will get a prompt on one of the compute nodes.

module load comsol/v5.6
comsol
exit

Don't forget to exit the requested resources when you finish comsol (use the exit command) !