Hardware Question: Speed up sim time with SSD

Crashphys
Crashphys Altair Community Member
edited October 2020 in Community Q&A

Hi,

 

I noticed I have very high wall time from OptiStruct. I currently run OptiStruct on a server through my school. I am wondering: if I install an external SSD and run my .fem files off of it, will this reduce wall time? 

 

The thing is, OptiStruct itself cannot be installed on the SSD - I can only have my own files on it. So my process would be running OptiStruct on the server but using files in my SSD instead of from a local HDD. Can I expect any benefit for this?

 

Thanks in advance.

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Answers

  • FaroukM
    FaroukM Altair Community Member
    edited May 2020
    Altair Forum User said:

    if I install an external SSD and run my .fem files off of it, will this reduce wall time? 

    I think it's an interesting alternative to reduce the computational cost if you use scratch folder on SSD drive.

  • Crashphys
    Crashphys Altair Community Member
    edited May 2020

    Thank you for the help. So you think it is worth a try? If possible, would you kindly elaborate what you mean (I'm not super great with computers, not sure what you mean by scratch folder and how to set it up)?

     

    Thanks again!

  • FaroukM
    FaroukM Altair Community Member
    edited May 2020
    Altair Forum User said:

    Thank you for the help. So you think it is worth a try?

    Yes and It depends on your FE model (I mean the number of DOFs should be higher ...)

     

    Altair Forum User said:

    what you mean by scratch folder and how to set it up

    When you perform a FE simulation with X solver. It highly recommended to use 2 folders :

    - The main folder : where you will find the results of the simulation (*out file if you use optistruct).

    - The scratch or temp folder : where the solver write things to solver your problem.

     

    Here is an example :

     

    #!/bin/bash
    module load altair/2019
    cd ${PBS_O_WORKDIR}
    optistruct Job1.fem -ddm -np 4 -nt 4 -core IN -minlen 10000 -scr /scratch/beegfs/RunTime

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