HFSS: How can I get Optimetics to use all CPUs

[DeboraHarry]

HFSS: How can I get Optimetrics to use all CPUs

I'm doing an optimetrics analysis in HFSS and want to look at 10 different lengths for a parameter. Given I have 8 CPUs, and I believe a license which allows these to be used, I'm puzzled that HFSS is doing these serially, not in parallel.

The license says at the top, so I believe the HPC pack license should work, enabling the multiple CPUs on the machine, but perhaps I am wrong.

# Products licensed in this file:
# 1. Ansoft Full-Wave SPICE (For HFSS) : 1 license(s), LEASE expiring 20-Nov-2012.
# 2. Ansoft HFSS : 1 license(s), LEASE expiring 20-Nov-2012.
# 3. Ansoft HFSS-IE Solver : 1 license(s), LEASE expiring 20-Nov-2012.
# 4. Ansoft HFSS/Q3D HPC Pack : 1 license(s), LEASE expiring 20-Nov-2012.
# 5. Ansoft Optimetrics (For HFSS, Q3D Extractor, Maxwell) : 1 license(s), LEASE expiring 20-Nov-2012.
# 6. AnsoftLinks - for MCAD (Enables IGES, STEP and Pro/E import) : 1 license(s), LEASE expiring 20-Nov-2012.

I've set the parameters for the solver (Tools -> Options -> HFSS Options, then the advanced tab), as below. Is there anything else I need to set?



The license server is the same as the local host - i.e. I'm not using a remote server for a license. There are no errors when HFSS starts to indicate it can't use the multiple processors.

This is on Linux - not Windows, although I doubt that makes any difference. I've seen similar issues on Windows.

Any ideas how I can speed things up?

 

[tallface65]

Unfortunately, you do not have the license necessary to solve multiple variations of a project simultaneously in HFSS You will need the license feature called "DSO" or Distributed Solve Option. However, you do have the license to solve multiple frequencies simultaneously!! To set this up you need to go to Options -> General options choose the Analysis tab and add your computer to the list for use for the number of cores you have ( I tend to set up 4 machines with each machine using 2 cores of multithreading). You should be able to search "DSO" in the HFSS help to assist with this setup. If you have issues, PM me and I will give more details to the full setup tomorrow when I am at the workstation and can see the interface '

Have Fun

 

[DeboraHarry]

Unfortunately, you do not have the license necessary to solve multiple variations of a project simultaneously in HFSS You will need the license feature called "DSO" or Distributed Solve Option. However, you do have the license to solve multiple frequencies simultaneously!! To set this up you need to go to Options -> General options choose the Analysis tab and add your computer to the list for use for the number of cores you have ( I tend to set up 4 machines with each machine using 2 cores of multithreading). You should be able to search "DSO" in the HFSS help to assist with this setup. If you have issues, PM me and I will give more details to the full setup tomorrow when I am at the workstation and can see the interface '

Have Fun

Thank you. Given I don't have a DSO license, so I can't analyze multiple variations simultaneously, how can I solve multiple frequencies at the same time, without running into license issues? I set the following settings



and started a simulation. (The local host is the IP given in the screenshot). So I've put this in 4 times, with the aim of using 4 of my 8 cores. I'm not sure if this is actually working or not on multiple cores, but at least it does the analysis. If I set the IP addresses to machines which don't exist, so it aborts as expected, so HFSS does appear to be using this configuration.

However, if the model has different variations to analyze with the Optimetrics, the analysis does not work sequentially (as before), but aborts when starting the Optimetrics with a license error. (The earlier analysis goes without any problems).

Failed to check out license 'ansoft_distrib_engine'

Rather annoyingly, rather than just abort, it actually locks up HFSS, so the only way to do anything is to kill the process. (I've had other license issues before, and never had it hang, but this particular license issue causes HFSS to hang).

So I'm not sure if the above changes have actually got multiple frequencies working in parallel or not, but they have resulted in the Optimetics analysis failing, rather than just running sequentially.

I'll PM you as suggested.

I need to find out how best to use the license I have, without trying something which results in simulations aborting rather than running sequentially.

 

[tallface65]

This happened to me and I found that this was a known issue in HFSS14.0.0. Go to the ANSYS site and download the patch for HFSS14.0.1 and this issue is fixed

Have Fun

 

[DeboraHarry]

This happened to me and I found that this was a known issue in HFSS14.0.0. Go to the ANSYS site and download the patch for HFSS14.0.1 and this issue is fixed

Have Fun

What exactly happened with you - the license checkout problem or the hang? I'm not going to be in a position to get the updates for a couple of weeks, as I don't have the login details for the Ansys site - someone else does, and he is on vacation. But the issue I have seem to have is HFSS is asking for a license I don't have. Is that a bug in HFSS, or have I mis-configured it to want to work with a license I don't have?

Deborah

 

[tallface65]

Deborah, this is a bug in HFSS14.0.0. When HPC is used in conjunction with Optimetrics, HFSS tries to grab a DSO license rather than the HPC license for the frequency sweep. This bug was fixed in the HFSS14.0.1 patch. In HFSS14.0.0 you cannot use HPC and Optimetrics at the same time unless you have a DSO license. You should be able to contact your ANSYS account manager and they will give you access to the site for downloads on your own .

Have Fun

 

[drkirkby]

Students don't get access to the account managers, so often wont be able to log in. That might be the problem Deborah has.

 

[tallface65]

perhaps and perhaps not... I do not know the situation. Irregardless, the patch for HFSS14.0.1 is needed to get past this particular bug.

Have Fun