Intel MPI Configuration for Remote Simulations

This article describes information on configuring the Intel MPI for remote simulations on Windows. This article also describes workarounds for older versions of Intel MPI, some of which may apply to Linux and Windows.

General information regarding configuring resources to run simulations is found in Knowledge Base article on concurrent simulations and distributed simulations.

Set up information and additional configuration required for using Intel MPI on Linux is found in this Knowledge Base article.

Note: On Windows, when Intel MPI is terminated, it does terminate the simulation and solver process, except for FDTD. If this behavior is required, please use another MPI.

Installing Hydra service (Windows only)

On Windows, Intel MPI is installed with the product. However, before running remote jobs, you must ensure that the Hydra service is installed and running on all of the computers by following these steps.

1. Navigate to the location where Intel MPI was installed, the default location is the following:Ansys Automated installer:

   C:\Program Files\Ansys Inc\[[verpath]]\Lumerical\intel_mpi\bin\

   Standalone installer:

   C:\Program Files\Lumerical\[[verpath]]\intel_mpi\bin\

2. Run the following command

   hydra_service -status

3. If the service is not running on any of the computers, install and run the service using the following command.

   hydra_service -install

Hydra service installation is now complete, and you can proceed with other setups needed for remote simulation.

Workarounds on older versions (pre 2025 R2)

If you are using a version of the software prior to the 2025 R2 release for remote jobs and encounter the following error, the following optional items may help you in working around the error.

 

For older versions of the Intel MPI, it may be necessary to first register your user credentials prior to running a remote job. To use Intel MPI for a remote job on Windows, follow these steps to register user credentials. This function is only supported in Intel MPI versions 2021.8 or earlier.

1. Install Intel MPI in the local computer.
2. Open a Windows command prompt.
3. Change directory to the location of Intel MPI for your version of Lumerical,

   cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\IntelSWToolsMPI\compilers_and_libraries_2020.4.321\windows\mpi\intel64\bin"

4. Register "User credentials" with Intel MPI on your local computer using the command below. These credentials are encrypted and stored in the system registry. The 'Username' and 'Password' should be the same as the ones you used to login to Windows.

   mpiexec -register

User credential registration is now complete. You can validate it using the following command. An indication of success is returned in the command line window if the registration was correctly completed.

mpiexec -validate

Specifying a writable location

The following instructions shows how a writable location for the environment can be set for Windows and Linux, which sometimes causes the error above.

Windows

• Open Resources. 
• Select "Remote: Intel MPI" as the Job launching preset.
• Specify a "writable location" on the remote resource for the 'APPDATA' variable in the Resource advanced options for Intel MPI.
• Save your settings and run the simulation remotely.

# Example
-env APPDATA "C:\"

Linux

• Open Resources. 
• Select the installed MPI as the Job launching preset.
• Specify a "writable location" on the remote machine for the 'HOME' variable in the Resource advanced options for the MPI.
• Save your settings and run the simulation remotely.

-env HOME "/<writable_path>" 

See also

Running simulations with MPI on Linux

Configuring resources for parallel jobs across several computers on Windows

Distributed computing  

Concurrent Parametric Computing