HPC/Applications/lumerical

Introduction

Lumerical has two main components:

• CAD: The GUI. We have licensed 2 concurrent seats.
• FDTD: The compute engine, called either by the GUI or in a PBS job file. We have 2 + 10 concurrent seats.

Manual and Knowledge Base

http://docs.lumerical.com/en/fdtd/knowledge_base.html

Running compute jobs (FDTD)

To run a presumably parallel job, save your input file in CAD as .fsp file. Then copy and customize the following job template, entering your account and file names:

$LUMERICAL_HOME/sample.job

Note: FDTD does not support checkpointing (thanks to Julian S. for checking). Select your #PBS -l walltime parameter generously.

Running the GUI (CAD)

There are three means to access Carbon's Lumerical licenses:

1. Run on Carbon and display on your machine over X11 forwarding
2. Run on Carbon in a VNC virtual desktop and display that desktop on your machine.
3. Run on your desktop directly and use license port forwarding.

X11

Use the CAD X11 app on a Carbon login node.

CAD &

• Requires X11 forwarding under SSH.
• Disadvantage: May run slow or unstable.

VNC

Use CAD on Carbon in a VNC virtual desktop.

• Requires a VNC client on your side.
• Advantage: uses compression and hence can be faster than X11.
• Disadvantage: Limited desktop environment.

Native

Run CAD natively on your desktop, but connect to the Lumerical license server on Carbon.

• Advantage: Native graphics speed.
• Caveat: needs an active network connection to a Carbon login node.

Remote license access

To use #Native access, your desktop copy of Lumerical must be configured to connect to Carbon's license server.

The license mechanism has recently changed.

FlexNet Licensing

This is a mechanism [1] in use for Lumerical version 8.6 onwards. To use your Lumerical desktop version, follow these steps:

When inside CNM or using VPN

1. Verify that you are inside CNM's network by browsing to http://carbon/
2. In the Lumerical License configuration, Choose license type: FlexNet Licensing
3. Set Server to cmgmt3 or cmgmt3.cnm.anl.gov.

When outside CNM

1. Close any connection to Carbon's login nodes.
2. Configure port forwarding for your your SSH client (one-time only).

• Mac and Linux users: Add to ~/.ssh/config:

…
Host clogin
    LocalForward 27011 mgmt03:27011 
    LocalForward 27012 mgmt04:27012
    LocalForward 27013 sched1:27013
    …

• Windows users: See HPC/Network Access/PuTTY Configuration/Accessing Carbon licenses remotely

3. Log in to clogin using ssh (each time): This will activate the forwarded ports configured in the previous step.
4. Install or upgrade Lumerical.: When asked for the license information, choose FlexNet licensing and enter host names and port numbers as shown here:

   

5. Start Lumerical.: To inspect the license setting, choose About Lumerical from the application menu.

The license setting is stored on Mac and Linux platforms in ~/.config/Lumerical/FDTD\ Solutions.ini and should read:

…
[license]
type=flex
flexserver\host=27011@localhost:27012@localhost:27013@localhost

Legacy mechanism - Retired July 2013

This was the license mechanism [2] in use before version 8.6. No license tokens for this mechanism remain active.