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OpenFOAM 1.7.x on Windows 64-bit with Native MPI

Submitted by symscape on August 31, 2010 - 08:46

For the latest version of our Windows patch for OpenFOAM visit "OpenFOAM 2.2.x on Windows".

We have updated our Windows patch for the latest OpenFOAM® release (v1.7.x). As with the previous patch version this also supports 64-bit compilation using the MinGW-w64 cross-compiler and parallel computation using the native Windows MPI implementation provided by the free Microsoft HPC SDK and also available on Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 for clusters.

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Patch Build Process

To build OpenFOAM for Windows with a cross-compiler requires expert knowledge of Windows and Linux utilities and compilers.

The following steps are required to produce a native Windows version of OpenFOAM 1.7.x 64-bit with [optional] native Windows MPI:

  1. Install MinGW-w64 cross-compiler and zlib on Linux
  2. Install zlib files into following locations:
    • <mingw-w64>/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/zconf.h
    • <mingw-w64>/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/zlib.h
    • <mingw-w64>/bin/zlib1.dll
    • <mingw-w64>/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/libz.a
    • <mingw-w64>/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/libzdll.a
  3. May need to add #include_next <float.h> to the end of
    <mingw-w64>/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/<gcc-version>/include/float.h and remove it from
    <mingw-w64>/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/float.h to include the right float.h
  4. [optional] Create libmsmpi.a from Microsoft HPC SDK
  5. Install the OpenFOAM 1.7.x source distribution on Linux - git commit: 14b79332ee4a1827656951db39fe81cc5ba52d78, Date: Tue Nov 16 20:41:48 2010.
  6. Patch (using the Linux patch command) the OpenFOAM 1.7.x source distribution with our MinGW Windows modifications [last updated May 3, 2011 to v7]
  7. At various stages during this process you will need to set OpenFOAM MinGW-w64 environment variables and source etc/bashrc. As an example:
    export FOAM_INST_DIR="$HOME/projects/of/of1.7"
    export WM_OSTYPE=MSwindows
    export WM_COMPILER=mingw-w64
    export WM_ARCH_OPTION=64
    export WM_CC='x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc'
    export WM_CXX='x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++'
    export compilerInstall=system
    export WM_MPLIB='NONE' or [optional] export WM_MPLIB='MSMPI'
    [optional] export MPI_ARCH_PATH="$HOME/projects/msmpi/install"
    source "$FOAM_INST_DIR/OpenFOAM-1.7.x/etc/bashrc"
  8. [optional] Install the ThirdParty-1.7.x source and build scotch according to:
    • cp <OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/mingw-extra/scotch/src/Make.inc/* <ThirdParty-1.7.x>/scotch_5.1/src/Make.inc/.
    • cp <OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/mingw-extra/scotch/src/libscotch/* <ThirdParty-1.7.x>/scotch_5.1/src/libscotch/.
    • source the OpenFOAM native linux environment variables
    • Build scotch for Linux in the usual way
    • source the OpenFOAM MinGW-w64 environment variables
    • cd <ThirdParty-1.7.x>/scotch_5.1/src
    • rm Makefile.inc
    • ln -s Make.inc/Makefile.inc.mingw-w64 Makefile.inc
    • cd libscotch
    • make
    • mkdir -p $FOAM_LIBBIN
    • cp libscotch.* $FOAM_LIBBIN
  9. To build OpenFOAM:
    • source the OpenFOAM native linux environment variables
    • cd <OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/wmake/src; make
    • ln -s <OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/wmake/bin/linux64Gcc <OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/wmake/bin/linux64mingw-w64
    • source the OpenFOAM MinGW-w64 environment variables
    • cd <OpenFOAM-1.7.x>;./Allwmake
  10. Transfer the OpenFOAM etc directory (<OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/etc), executables (<OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/applications/bin/linux64mingw-w64*/*.exe), and libraries (<OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/lib/linux64mingw-w64*/*.dll and <OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/lib/linux64mingw-w64*/*/*.dll) to the Windows computer
  11. Transfer the MinGW-w64 libraries:
    • <mingw-w64>/bin/zlib1.dll
    • <mingw-w64>/bin/libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll
    • <mingw-w64>/bin/libstdc++-6.dll

    to the Windows computer

  12. On the Windows computer ensure the following environment variables are set:
    • The WM_PROJECT_DIR and USERNAME variables are set.
    • The PATH variable is set to include the OpenFOAM executable and library locations (including <OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/lib/linux64mingw-w64*/dummy or [optional] <OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/lib/linux64mingw-w64*/msmpi).
  13. Launch a Windows command prompt to run OpenFOAM solvers and utilities, such as simpleFoam.exe.

Windows HPC Server 2008

job submit example on Windows HPC Server 2008 for simpleFoam:

job submit /jobname:simpleFoam-jobName /name:simpleFoam-taskName /numprocessors:16 /stdout:\\CRAY01\<of-case>\stdout.txt /stderr:\\CRAY01\<of-case>\stderr.txt mpiexec -env WM_PROJECT_DIR \\CRAY01\<OpenFOAM-1.7.x> -env MPI_BUFFER_SIZE 20000000 -env USERNAME openfoam -env PATH \\CRAY01\<OpenFOAM-1.7.x>\lib\linux64mingw-w64*;\\CRAY01\<OpenFOAM-1.7.x>\lib\linux64mingw-w64*\msmpi \\CRAY01\<OpenFOAM-1.7.x>\applications\bin\linux64mingw-w64*\simpleFoam -parallel -case \\CRAY01\<of-case>\pitzDaily

Note you need to share both the case (\\CRAY01\<of-case> - arbitrary name of your choosing) and application directories (\\CRAY01\<OpenFOAM-1.7.x>) so all nodes on the cluster can access them.

Constraints

With this method of building OpenFOAM for Windows the job control scripts in <OpenFOAM-1.7.x>/bin (such as foamSolverSweeps) are unavailable. Also the libccmio library is not built.

Notes

  • OpenFOAM is a registered trademark of OpenCFD and is unaffiliated with Symscape
  • The OpenFOAM Windows patch provided here is licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL)

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