[Void]

Good evening everyone. First day using OpenFOAM and I'm afraid I already have some silly questions.

We want to start exploring OpenFOAM in my company and for that reason the IT people set up a virtual machine using CenTOS 7.x and a dockers installation. From this point we, non-IT experts, will manage the system. In the future, if everything goes fine we expect to scale the system.

So, first basic doubts:

1. Is it possible that multiple regular users make use of the same docker through SSH? Anything special required? So far I've read that you can mount any folder of the host machine into the docker, but I'm not sure if the docker itself will recognize the host users, or if we have to create new ones inside it. To me, it looks like a virtual machine.
2. After a lot of pain and struggling, I manage to compile OpenFOAM natively (haven't tried it yet) but the more I think about it, the more I prefer the docker option for portability, stability and ease of use. Of course this option has the big advantage that every normal user can run OpenFOAM without any special configuration.
3. For future expansion, which option (docker/native) offers more control or easier control over different simulations performed at the same time? (CPU/RAM limits per user/simulation, queues...)

Regards and thanks for your time.

[matejfor]

Hi,

1) it is possible. You need, however to isolate the users somehow. There are several methods how to approach this. System nice way is to use http://singularity.lbl.gov , darker easier way is to follow this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/9397...multiple-users where you need to change the script with witch you are accessing the container.

2) I would personally opt for a compilation. If you feel you are facing troubles, you could use Spack. you only need to install it and call a command which will download and install OpenFOAM and all the necessary libs. Just follow the instructions from here:https://www.openfoam.com/releases/op...hp#build-spack

happy foaming
Matej

[Void]

Thank you very much for the detailed answer, Matej.


OpenFoam+Paraview manually compiled now and working fine but definitely I'll try Spack as soon as possible. It sounds really promising.

Regards