InstallationGuide

Installation of MESHFREE

Short URL to this page: https://meshfree.pages.fraunhofer.de/docu/install

0. Get Help if necessary

If you get stuck somewhere along this guide, please contact our Support team.

1. System Requirements

We recommend the usage of a Linux-based system (real or virtual machine). Our executables are currently compiled on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (rhel7). They have been successfully tested on the following operating systems:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7,
OracleLinux 8.

In the following steps, we assume a Linux bash shell.

2. Download

Download an appropriate MESHFREE executable and the relevant dependencies. See Download page for details.

3. Run MESHFREE Standalone

Save the executable somewhere that is accessible for all your users and make sure it permissions are set correctly, e.g.

chmod ugo+rx /path/to/meshfree.x

Check that MESHFREE starts as expected

/path/to/meshfree.x --version

You should get some boxes with information about the version you are working with.

4. Prepare License

Please check what type of license you have, see also LicenseVariants.

4.1 Educational License

The Educational License requires no license file and no license server. You can skip to the next section.

4.2 Local License File

If you have been provided with a local license file, that is a file with ending lcs, make sure to save it somewhere that all MESHFREE users who are supposed to use this have access and that it is readable.

chmod ugo+r /path/to/local/license/file.lcs

and set the the environment variable MESHFREE_LICENSE_FILE

export MESHFREE_LICENSE_FILE=/path/to/local/license/file.lcs

You can check the validity of the license with MESHFREE via

/path/to/meshfree.x --check-license

4.3 License Manager FITlm

If you have been provided with a server license file, that is a file with ending lcd, then you need to install and set up the license manager FITlm. Please follow the instructions in the FITlm user manual (compare Download page). Once the license server is running, set the environment variable MESHFREE_LICENSE_SERVER according to the server and port, for example

export MESHFREE_LICENSE_SERVER=server.example.com:12345

You can check the validity of the license with MESHFREE via

/path/to/meshfree.x --check-license

4.4 Optional: Add application licenses to job scheduler

If you have a limited number of floating licenses for MESHFREE and you are using a job scheduler on your cluster, it is possible to set this limit in your scheduler as a license ressource. That way, you can schedule additional jobs beyond the floating limit and these jobs will wait until a license becomes available. The limit needs to be set by your system administrator.

PBS: See section "4.3.5 Requesting Application Licenses" in the PBS User's Guide and section "5.14.6 Supplying Application Licenses" in the PBS Administrator's Guide.
Slurm: See section "Local Licenses" in Slurm Licenses Guide.

5. Install Intel MPI

If you already have an Intel MPI installed, or loaded as a module, you can first check the version with

mpirun --version

If that is the same as that used to compile the MESHFRE executable, you can skip to the next section. Otherwise, install the provided Intel oneAPI MPI (here for example for version 2021.6.0, used for compilation as of November 2022).

5.1 Install with GUI

If you have a graphical interface to your system, it is easiest to just run the provided GUI installer, either just for yourself

/path/to/l_mpi_oneapi_p_2021.6.0.602_offline.sh

or for all users on this machine

sudo /path/to/l_mpi_oneapi_p_2021.6.0.602_offline.sh

and follow the steps in the GUI. See also the Intel oneAPI Installation Guide Install with GUI.

5.2 Install with Command Line

It is also possible to install without a graphical interface, directly from the command line. Please see the Intel oneAPI Installation Guide Install with Command Line.

The shortest version is a non-interactive (silent) installation while accepting the End User License Agreement either just for yourself

/path/to/l_mpi_oneapi_p_2021.6.0.602_offline.sh -a --silent --eula accept

or for all users on this machine

sudo /path/to/l_mpi_oneapi_p_2021.6.0.602_offline.sh -a --silent --eula accept

5.3 Install with Package Manager

You can also install (the latest) Intel MPI version via the package manager of your choice, following the information in the Intel oneAPI Installation Guide Install Using Package Managers.

5.4 Check mpirun

Before use, you may need to update the path to the MPI installation

export PATH=~/intel/oneapi/mpi/2021.6.0/bin/:$PATH

and possibly also to the libraries

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/intel/oneapi/mpi/2021.6.0/lib:~/intel/oneapi/mpi/2021.6.0/lib/release:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Now you can check that MPI is running as expected with

mpirun --version

mpirun -n 4 hostname

mpirun -n 2 /path/to/meshfree.x --version

6. Optional: Prepare Run Script

We provide a little script meshfree_template.sh. This is meant as a template for you to adapt to your system. At least you will need to adapt the given environment variables.