Cluster Computing For FEA (Need Information and Advice)

[vozgul]

Hii All,

As I have heard, cluster computing is one of the cost effective ways for FEA, where we combine the computers to use their own CPU's and RAM's. Can we use all FEA Softwares like NASTRAN, ABAQUS, etc. in this way? Which operating system is optimum for this case, for instance LINUX? Or any other? How about network management?

Are there any fine web sites which describes these concepts?

Faithfully

vozgul

 

[GSC]

Hi Vozgul,

Most of the FEA packages support more CPUs. This will be usually noticable on the price of the network license . There are many different approach on which solver supports what system and how. There is an increase of using AMD/Intel clusters and a fall on supporting Unix. Linux and Win2000/XP platforms are the future. For linux use Itanium, for Windows P4 or AMD. In a cluster the most important measure is the memory/cpu. A minimum of 1GB/CPU is recommended for most of the solvers. If you build the cluster from independent machines, you should have a Gbit subnetwork between, connecting to the company network through a switch. There is a limit on how many CPUs will cause significant improvement. Ususally its between 4-8CPUs.
Make sure you run a benchmark (1-2-4-8CPUs) on the software you use with jobs you usually do on a similar cluster you think of getting.

GSC

 

[vozgul]

Thank you GSC,

Can you also advise me some usefull websites about these consepts?

Sincerely

vozgul

 

[GSC]

Hi Vozgul,
Sorry for the late reply...

Unfortunately I don't know any good site... The information on clusters is very fragmented, you have to speak to the so-called experts .

The cluster technology is fairly new and quickly developing. The cluster is usually customised to your special needs. It is both hardware and software specific how the resources are shared. Think of for example the two very different cases of 50000 elements 50 time steps and 50 elements 50000 time steps. Both can take long, but they load the system differently...
It is recommended to make a hardware/network specialist and the FEA software's cluster support work together with the FEA engineer to customize the cluster to your special needs keeping the costs on an acceptable level.

GSC

 

[vozgul]

Thank you GSC, for your kindness.

You helped a lot.

Sincerely

vozgul