emCluster ® Computing
Running A Single Simulation on Multiple Servers via Frequency Splitting
Most Sonnet simulations require more than one frequency to be simulated. On a single computer, this is done sequentially. With EM cluster, multiple frequencies can be simulated in parallel on multiple servers all at the same time.
The entire frequency sweep is intelligently split into as many single frequency jobs as required. These jobs are individually assigned by emCluster to be processed in parallel on the resources that are available on the cluster. This significantly reduces the overall wait time and efficiently speeds the design process.
There are two emCluster Computing solutions available from Sonnet Software:
- emCluster using Sonnet Networking, (SonnetCluster): This solution employs a cluster job control system devised by Sonnet. It is useful for situations where the cluster computing hardware is dedicated to Sonnet analyses, or where where is no pre-existing cluster control/scheduling software. It is simple to set up and completely self-contained within the Sonnet analysis environment.
- Sonnet emCluster via command line: Frequency splitting and data recombination functions are available via command line and can be programmed with various scheduling daemons. This usually requires some custom scripting to match your environment, please contact support@sonnetsoftware.com for more info.
Using Adaptive Band Synthesis (ABS) with emCluster
The Adaptive Band Synthesis (ABS) technique provides a fine resolution response for a frequency band requiring only a small number of analysis points. Sonnet performs a full analysis at a few points (discrete) and uses the resulting internal, or cache, data to synthesize a fine resolution band. This is often the most efficient process in Sonnet by which you can obtain full response data over a band. By using emCluster to perform the analyses at the discrete data points in parallel, you can further increase the efficiency of an ABS sweep. There are two ways of accomplishing an ABS sweep when using emCluster. You may submit an ABS sweep and allow emCluster to determine at which discrete data points to run a full analysis (automatic algorithm) or you may use the Frequency Sweep Combinations to define linear sweeps or single discrete frequency points at which you wish to run an analysis before attempting the ABS sweep (user-defined).
Features and Benefits
- Frequencies for which results already exist are automatically excluded from the analysis. This reduces the analysis time by minimizing any unnecessary EM analysis.
- Designed for workgroup use with the "fair share" usage model, emCluster will assign resources to all users on a fair basis. This avoids many difficulties with the first come, first serve usage model.
- emCluster can intelligently choose a server host computer based on analysis size of a given project, licensing considerations, loading, time of day, etc. Smaller jobs may be sent to a computing host reserved just for small jobs to avoid waiting behind a larger job which requires substantially more processing time. emCluster can also schedule very big jobs for night or weekend runs or restrict them to specific server hosts. This assures a fast response time for high priority jobs.
- LSF Cluster is very flexible with regards to the platform. Servers and Clients can be any one of a Windows, Linux or Solaris platform.
- Sonnet Networking Cluster is available for Windows and Linux.
- Load Balancing by emCluster maximizes resources to ensure minimal idle time of valuable IT resources
