Hi all,

this is a small tutorial to have the smallest cluster of 2 machines up and running with fluent.
The following setup is only a demo setup to show how 2 windows machines can be
connected; more into details this tutorial will show you how to connect 2 machines running
windows 7 64 bit to run jobs on distributed memory, without a switch, but directly
connecting the 2 machines.

My demo setup is:

MACHINE 1 (this machine will be the host + 16 nodes)

Homemade workstation
Windows 7 64 bit Professional
2x intel xeon e5-2687w
64 gb ecc ram ddr3 at 1600 Mhz
250 gb ssd
2 TB hard drive for data storage
Wifi adapter Edimax Ralink EW-7318usg

MACHINE 2 (this machine will be 2 nodes)

Macbook pro late 2008 (laptop)
Bootcamp installed with windows 7 64 bit Ultimate
1x 2,5 Ghz intel core 2 duo
4 gb non ecc ram ddr2 at 667 Mhz
40 gb hard drive
Internal wifi N adapter

Since this is only a demo setup and since I haven't a cross cable to connect the machines
through the gigabit ethernet, I was going to connect the 2 machines by wifi at 54 mbps
(very slow); in a real setup, the 2 machines should be connected at least with a cross cable
cat. 5E (Gbit ethernet), or better with infiniband.

First of all I need to create a lan to connect the 2 machines.

Edimax provides an access point software, so machine 1 will be the access point.
Machine 2 is the wifi client which will connect to machine 1.

Let's assign static ips and subnet masks to the machines.

On machine 1 (which will be the gateway):

Control panel->network and internet->network and sharing server->change adapter
settings (on the left)
Right click on the network adapter (in my case the Edimax Ralink EW-7318usg) and click
properties: highlight "internet protocol version 4 (tcp/ipv4)" and click properties
Check "use the following ip address" and "use the following DNS server addresses"
Ip address: 192.168.1.1 (I chose the standard home network 192.168.xxx.xxx)
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.1.1

Click ok and exit

On machine 2:
Control panel->network and internet->network and sharing server->change adapter
settings (on the left)
Right click on the network adapter (in my case the internal wifi adapter) and click
properties: highlight "internet protocol version 4 (tcp/ipv4)" and click properties
Check "use the following ip address" and "use the following DNS server addresses"
Ip address: write 192.168.1.2
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.1.1

Click ok and exit

Disable firewalls and UAC on machine 1 and 2 to prevent errors in communication (you can
activate them later once all is working)

Test the ping command

To see if the machines are seeing each other open on each machine the command prompt
(cmd).
On machine 1 type: ping 192.168.1.2
and click enter
On machine 2 type: ping 192.168.1.1
and click enter

4 packets will be sent by machine 1 to machine 2 and to machine 2 to machine 1 and you
must see that all packets reach destination.

VERY IMPORTANT
The 2 machines must have fluent installed in the same directory;
The 2 machines must have intel mpi installed in the same directory;
The 2 machines must have the same username and password to login in windows (so you
must assign the same password to the usernames, you cannot have a blank password).

Test usernames/password

On both machines 1 and 2 share a directory, for example the C:\ directory
Go to Start->Computer
Right click on C:\ then click on properties
Click on sharing tab->advanced sharing
Check Share this folder, click apply and click on permissions
Highlight Everyone in users and groups and assign full control (all checks under "Allow")
Click apply, ok, ok

From machine 1 go to Start->Computer and click on network on the left to see machine 2
Double click on it and access the shared folder C:\ on machine 2
You will be prompted for a username and a password
Type the windows username and password and see if you can access the shared folder

From machine 2, do the same

Usernames and passwords must be the same!

On machine 1 create a new .txt file with notepad and write the hostnames of the network:
the format of the file is:

Code:
ipmachine1
ipmachine1
ipmachine1
ipmachine1
ipmachine2
ipmachine2

This is a 4 cores machine 1 + 2 cores machine 2; under the last line a blank line must be
present.
This is my hostnames.txt file (16 cores on machine 1 and 2 cores on machine 2)

Code:

192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.2
192.168.1.2

Save the hostnames.txt file on machine 1, on your desktop.

Start fluent on machine 1

Choose the working directory on machine 1 (cas and dat files are on machine 1)
Processing options: check parallel and type the number of processes, in my case 18
Click on parallel settings tab: under interconnects set defaults, under MPI types set Intel (do
not leave defaults)
Check Distributed memory on a cluster and check File containing machine names: point to
hostnames.txt on the desktop on machine 1
Click ok to start fluent
Skip the warning and info messages

I'm attaching some pictures: 'alicegate' is the macbook pro (2 cores); 'Workstation' is the
workstation with 16 cores.
The other pictures show: on the macbook pro 100% cpu usage and network addresses; on
the workstation 100% cpu usage and fluent running

I hope it's clear enough for all.