Distributed Computing Add-Ons

 

The Distributed tools are available as an add-on to the base Simulator package. Contact PowerWorld Corporation for more details. The use of Distributed tools in Simulator requires the use of the SimAuto add-on as well.

Some tools in Simulator have been enabled to use Simulator's Distributed Computing capabilities. In order to use Distributed Computing a list of computers is provided to Simulator which are available for distributed computing. This list is managed in one place in Simulator and applies to all tools in Simulator that can be enabled for distributed computing. Tools which can use Distributed Computing are as follows:

Along with this list of computers, appropriate login authentication must be provided for each remote computer to ensure that the Windows operating system security allows the remote processes to be started and results to be passed back to Simulator. These passwords are then encrypted and decrypted by Simulator using a Master Password as described below. For more technical details about password security please contact PowerWorld.

Buttons commonly available for distributed computing are described as follows.

Insert Computer

Inserts a new computer into the list of computers available for distributed computing.

Verify Computers Available

Checks each computer in the list of distributed computing machines for availability, and sets the Enabled, Available, and Cores fields accordingly.

Enter Master Password

Allows the user to enter the password used to decrypt all of the distributed machine login credentials. If the master password has not been defined, then the user is asked to provide a new master password.

Forget Master Password

Tells Simulator to forget the already entered master password. The user will not be able to perform a distributed analysis until the master password has been re-entered.

Change Master Password

Tells Simulator to re-encrypt all credentials using a new master password.

Reset all authentication

Clears all authentication information including the master password and all distributed machine login credentials.

To add login authentication information for a particular Distributed Computer, go to the Records Menu or the right-click local menu under Distributed Computer records and choose the following options.

Add or change authentication info...

Adds or changes login credentials for all currently selected distributed machines. If a master password has not been defined, the user will be prompted to provide a new master password. If the master password has been defined but not entered, the user will be prompted to enter the current master password.

Note: Adding authentication for the local machine is not needed and should not be provided. If authentication information is added for the local machine it will result in an "Access is denied" error from Windows.

Remove authentication info

Removes login credentials for all currently selected distributed machines.

 

The columns with the Distributed Computer List are as follows

Computer Name

Name of the computer on the local network. If you wish to use cores on the local machine, you can enter the name "localhost".

Auth Info Stored?

Column will say YES if login authentication information is stored with this computer.

Processes

Specifies the number of processes which will be started on this when performing distributed computer. For computers with multiple cores and/or multiple processors it may be advantageous to execute multiple processes.

Enabled

Set this to NO to disable the use of this computer when using distributed computing. Set to YES to use the computer.

Available

When the Verify Computers Available button is clicked, Simulator will determine this field automatically. It shows whether the remote computer is available for use in distributed computing.

Cores

Shows the number cores available on the computer.

# Errors

Shows the number of errors encountered when trying to use the computer for distributed computing.

Max # Errors

Enter a number for the maximum number of errors which can be encountered with a computer before the distributed computing will stop attempting to use the computer for computation. By default this value is set to 1 because it is assumed that a failure will

Domain, Password, Username

Shows the domain, username, and password of the login information in an encrypted form. These values can be saved and loaded from an AUX file in encrypted form but you must not attempt to edit them directly. They must be encrypted and decrypted through the Master Password at all times, thus to make changes to these you must use the Add or change authentication info and Remove authentication info local menu buttons only. If authentication fails then Simulator will not use the computer for distributed computing.