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Abaqus FEA is a software suite for finite element analysis and computer-aided engineering.

Using your own license

Abaqus is available on Compute Canada clusters, but you must provide your own license. In your account, create a file named $HOME/.licenses/abaqus.lic containing this single line:

File : abaqus.lic

prepend_path("LM_LICENSE_FILE","port@server")

...replacing port@server with the port number and name of your Abaqus license server.

Your license server must be reachable by our compute nodes, so your firewall will need to be configured appropriately. This usually requires our technical team to get in touch with the technical people managing your license software. Please contact our technical support and we will provide a list of IP addresses used by our clusters and obtain the information we need on the port and IP address of your server.

Cluster batch job submission

Below is an example submission script for a small Abaqus Explicit job running on four cores:

File : file.txt

#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --account=def-account  # specify some account
#SBATCH --time=00-06:00        # days-hours:minutes
#SBATCH --mem=2500M            # total memory on node
#SBATCH --cpus-per-task=4      # match to cpus below
 
module load abaqus/6.14.1
unset SLURM_GTIDS
export MPI_IC_ORDER='tcp'

abaqus job=Job-SBS-ALU-EXPLICIT input=SBS-ALUMINUM-EXPLICIT.inp scratch=$SCRATCH cpus=4 interactive

To get a list of available Abaqus' command line options, load the abaqus module and run command: abaqus -help | less.

Site specific usage

Sharcnet license

Sharcnet provides a small but free license consisting of 2cae and 21 execute tokens where usage limits are imposed 10 tokens/user and 15 tokens/group. For groups that have purchased tokens, the free token usage limits are added to their reservation. The free tokens are available on a first come first serve basis and mainly intended for testing and light usage before deciding whether or not to purchase dedicated tokens. The license can be used by any Compute Canada member but only on SHARCNET hardware - purchased tokens that run on the license server fall under the same agreement. Such hardware includes gra-vdi for running abaqus in full graphical mode and graham cluster for submitting compute batch jobs to the queue. Before you can use the license you must open ticket at <support@computecanada.ca> and request access. In your email 1) mention that it is for use on Sharcnet systems and 2) include a copy/paste of the following License Agreement statement with your full name and Compute Canada username entered in the indicated locations. Please note that every user must do this ie) cannot be done one time only for a group (including PIs who have purchased their own dedicated tokens).

License agreement

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Abaqus Sharcnet Academic License User Agreement

This email is to confirm that i "_____________" with username "___________" will
only use “SIMULIA Academic Software” with tokens from the SHARCNET license server
for the following purposes:

1) on SHARCNET hardware where the software is already installed
2) in affiliation with a canadian degree-granting academic institution
3) for education, institutional or instruction purposes and not for any commercial
   or contract related purposes where results are not publishable
4) for experimental, theoretical and/or digital research work, undertaken primarily
   to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable
   facts, up to the point of proof-of-concept in a laboratory    
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

License server file

[gra-login1:~] cat ~/.licenses/abaqus.lic
prepend_path("LM_LICENSE_FILE","27050@license3.sharcnet.ca")

Check license server

To query the sharcnet license server for started jobs, queued jobs, and reservations by purchasing groups run:

ssh graham.computecanada.ca
module load abaqus
abaqus licensing lmstat -c $LM_LICENSE_FILE -a | grep "Users\|start\|queued\|RESERVATIONs"

Core to token mapping

CORES  1   2  3  4   6   8  12  16  24  32  48  64  96 128
TOKENS 5   6  7  8  10  12  14  16  19  21  25  28  34  38

where TOKENS = floor[5 X CORES^0.422]

Remote visualization

A) First install the TigerVNC client on your desktop as described in VNC. Once logged in, startup abaqus simply as follows:

Connect to gra-vdi.computecanada.ca with TigerVNC
module load SnEnv
module load abaqus
abaqus cae

B) If you want to use your own license server (not the SHARCNET license server) do the following:

Connect to gra-vdi.computecanada.ca with TigerVNC
module load SnEnv
module load abaqus
export ABAQUSLM_LICENSE_FILE=port@yourlicenseserverhostname.ca
abaqus cae

where you must first request port@licenseserverhostname be opened in a ticket before jobs can be run in grahams queue.

Western license

The Western site license may only be used by Western researchers with hardware located on Western's campus such as the Dusky legacy cluster. Graham and gra-vdi are excluded since they are located at Waterloo (use the Sharcnet License for these systems as described above). Contact the Western abaqus license server administrator (located in Robarts) to make arrangements before attempting to use the Western abaqus license. Submit a ticket to Compute Canada support to request the admins contact information if necessary. You will need to provide your Compute Canada username and likely make arrangements to purchase tokens. If you are granted access request the port and server values and enter them into your abaqus.lic file as shown in 1) near the top of this wiki which will in turn be used by the Compute Canada module on dusky when it loads.