Install Request: MICRESS

[cdkharris]

Application: MICRESS, latest stable version

Link: MICRESS documentation, installation instructions

Cluster: Myriad

Description: MICRESS is a materials science simulation software.

License: Commercial software; license is provided with a server and is described in the RF ticket associated with this request

Special versions or variants: MICRESS has a batch mode which is more suitable than the GUI for use on the cluster; its usage is detailed here

Ticket number: IN:06220991

The installation instructions indicate that MICRESS is not developed for the RHEL operating system. There is a version that runs on Ubuntu linux. It may be possible to run MICRESS on the RHEL operating system anyway. If not, it may be possible to run it in a container.

3-5 researchers would potentially want to use it, so I recommend a central installation.

[cdkharris]

From the MICRESS developers:

Hi Camilla,

We provide only one Linux version which was tested on systems which we listed in our system requirements.

[Directions to download the linux installer]

Run the installer with --help to get to know the options for a more convenient cluster installation, i.e. in principle a text mode instead of GUI. The whole package contains independent tools for pre- and post-processing of simulation data. These are graphical tools which might not run on an HPC cluster (X system required). However, this does not hurt because the simulation core package (MICRESS...exe) is an independent command line tool and can be easily used in cluster jobs. I do not expect problems with RHEL 7 because we compiled on CentOS 7.

The only tricky thing is to add the correct IP ranges to the institute’s license servers. This can be tricky on a cluster because of different subnet of cluster nodes and license server. It should be the IP which are seen by the license server when requesting a license.

Be aware that the license is bound to the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Best regards, Ralph

So it looks like this should be alright.

[heatherkellyucl]

Where we were:

lmutil on Myriad can see the license server (have somewhat redacted output), https://ucl-arc.slack.com/archives/C52E4SZ1R/p1712844705301799?thread_ts=1699894281.132709&cid=C52E4SZ1R

/shared/ucl/apps/Matlab/R2018b/full/etc/glnxa64/lmutil lmstat -a -c <port@server>
lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2017 Flexera Software LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Flexible License Manager status on Thu 4/11/2024 15:10
License server status: <port@server>
    License file(s) on <server>: C:\_Licences\Micress\2024\<license_name>.lic:
 <server>: license server UP (MASTER) v11.16.2
Vendor daemon status:
  ACMICRES: UP v11.16.2
Feature usage info:
Users of MICRESS_TQ:  (Total of 10 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

and previous logs seemed to show licenses being checked out

16:17:42 (ACMICRES) OUT: "MICRESS_TQ" ccaech0@login13.myriad.ucl.ac.uk  
16:17:42 (ACMICRES) IN: "MICRESS_TQ" ccaech0@login13.myriad.ucl.ac.uk

But running Micress itself was stopping at the point where it checks the license server and reporting "Invalid host".

(The example being run was a no TQ one).

I had found this for newer versions of FlexLM, but it may not be relevant here: https://community.flexera.com/t5/FlexNet-Publisher-Forum/FLEXNET-License-check/m-p/281180

check License Administration Guide under -FNP_IP_ENV - where this explains "This client-side environment variable determines how the client's IP address is presented to the server."