CPLEX

CPLEX is software for optimization, developed by IBM and available for academic users through IBM's Academic Initiative.

Download

To use CPLEX on Compute Canada clusters, you must first register with IBM and then download a personal version of the software. If you are presented with a choice of architectures, choose Linux x86-64.

Installation

The file is an executable archive which will perform the installation after you have answered a few questions. To execute the archive, you need to type the command bash ./cplex_studioXYZ.linux-x86.bin.

To access the software, you can create a personal module. Modules are normally created and placed in a directory hierarchy. In order for your modules to be found, you need to modify the configuration file $HOME/.bashrc so that it points to the root of this hierarchy, by adding the following line:

[name@server ~]$ export MODULEPATH=$HOME/modulefiles:$MODULEPATH

Next, you need to create a directory structure in which to put your new cplex module:

[name@server ~]$ mkdir -p $HOME/modulefiles/mycplex

In this directory, you should create a file (e.g. $HOME/modulefiles/mycplex/12.8.0) with the version number corresponding to the version you downloaded (e.g. 12.8.0) and with the following content:

Fichier : cplex_module.sh

#%Module1.0####
##
## cplex
##
proc ModulesHelp { } {
        global cplexversion

puts stderr "\tIBM ILOG cplex "
        puts stderr "\tThis module provides configuration for cplex, concert, cpoptimizer and opl"
}

module-whatis   "IBM ILOG cplex (cplex, concert, cpoptimizer, opl). This version doesn't ask for a licence file."

# for Tcl script use only
set     cplexversion        XYZ
set     studio_root          <root path of cplex>
set     cplexroot             $studio_root/cplex
set     concertroot           $studio_root/concert
set     oplroot               $studio_root/opl
set     cpoptimizerroot       $studio_root/cpoptimizer


set cplexbin x86-64_linux
set cplexlib $cplexbin/static_pic
set concertbin x86-64_linux
set concertlib $concertbin/static_pic
set oplbin x86-64_linux
set opllib $oplbin/static_pic
set cpoptimizerbin x86-64_linux
set cpoptimizerlib $cpoptimizerbin/static_pic


prepend-path    PATH         $cplexroot/bin/$cplexbin
prepend-path    PATH         $oplroot/bin/$oplbin
prepend-path    PATH         $cpoptimizerroot/bin/$cpoptimizerbin

prepend-path    CPATH        $cplexroot/include
prepend-path    CPATH        $concertroot/include
prepend-path    CPATH        $oplroot/include
prepend-path    CPATH        $cpoptimizerroot/include

prepend-path -d " "   CPATH_EXPANDED        -I$cplexroot/include
prepend-path -d " "  CPATH_EXPANDED        -I$concertroot/include
prepend-path -d " "   CPATH_EXPANDED        -I$oplroot/include
prepend-path -d " "   CPATH_EXPANDED        -I$cpoptimizerroot/include

prepend-path    LIBRARY_PATH $cplexroot/lib/$cplexlib
prepend-path    LIBRARY_PATH $concertroot/lib/$concertlib
prepend-path    LIBRARY_PATH $oplroot/lib/$opllib
prepend-path    LIBRARY_PATH $oplroot/bin/x86-64_linux/
prepend-path    LIBRARY_PATH $cpoptimizerroot/lib/$cpoptimizerlib

prepend-path -d " "   LIBRARY_PATH_EXPANDED -L$cplexroot/lib/$cplexlib
prepend-path -d " "  LIBRARY_PATH_EXPANDED -L$concertroot/lib/$concertlib
prepend-path -d " "   LIBRARY_PATH_EXPANDED -L$oplroot/lib/$opllib
prepend-path -d " "   LIBRARY_PATH_EXPANDED -L$oplroot/bin/x86-64_linux/
prepend-path -d " "   LIBRARY_PATH_EXPANDED  -L$cpoptimizerroot/lib/$cpoptimizerlib

prepend-path    LD_LIBRARY_PATH      $cplexroot/bin/$cplexbin
prepend-path    LD_LIBRARY_PATH      $oplroot/bin/$oplbin

prepend-path     CLASSPATH $cplexroot/lib/cplex.jar
prepend-path     MATLABPATH $cplexroot/matlab
prepend-path     STUDIO_ROOT $studio_root

Adjust the lines which correspond to the variables cplexversion and studio_root so that they have the correct values for your situation, i.e. the version you downloaded and the path you specified when extracting the archive.

Java

If you use Java, you will have some further steps to carry out. Firstly, in your .bashrc file, you can add the line

[name@server ~]$ export CLASSPATH=.

which will allow your code to be found during execution.

Next, you should modify the dynamic library of CPLEX. Look for this library in the directory hierarchy of the installation directory, make a copy of it and then execute the command

[name@server ~]$ setrpaths.sh --path libcplex1280.so

It's possible that during your compilation, you receive an error message because of a lack of memory. In this case, you should request a compute node using an interactive job to do the compilation. For example,

[name@server ~]$ salloc --time=1:0:0 --ntasks=1 --mem-per-cpu=8G

Python

After you have installed CPLEX as documented above, you must first install the module that you created:

[name@server ~]$ module load mycplex/<version>

To install the CPLEX Python modules like docplex, we suggest that you use a virtual environment.

Once the virtual environment has been activated, you should go in the directory $STUDIO_ROOT/python after which you can install the module using the command:

(ENV) [name@server ~] python setup.py install

The installation of these Python modules must be done on the login node because they are not available in our software stack.