Installing CONVERGE on Linux

The CONVERGE_CFD Bundle Linux packages include scripts and modulefiles that make it easy to install, run, and upgrade the CONVERGE solver, as detailed in the instructions below. In particular, note that you must run the CONVERGE_CFD Bundle script every time you install CONVERGE 5.0.0 or upgrade to a new minor version (e.g., from 5.0.0 to 5.1.0). The installation package for CONVERGE 5.0.0 bundles the CONVERGE Studio installation in the same installer.

If you do not have root access privileges, you can install CONVERGE for a single user. If you are logged in as root, you can install CONVERGE for all users.

The first time you install and run CONVERGE 5.x.x, complete the following steps:

1.Download the CONVERGE_CFD Bundle 5.x.x installation package.

2.Run the CONVERGE_CFD Bundle package and specify the installation location. Also specify the CONVERGE CFD software products and MPI types. To install the package without using the prompts, i.e., a silent installation, see the Advanced Installation Details section.

3.Obtain a valid license.lic file.

4.Start the Reprise License Manager (RLM) license server.

▪A license server is necessary only if you will use a floating license. If you use a node-locked license, a license server is unnecessary.

5.Set up the CONVERGE environment either by loading a module or running a script.

6.Run the appropriate CONVERGE executable from your Case Directory.

Every time you upgrade to a new minor version (e.g., from CONVERGE 5.0.0 to CONVERGE 5.1.0) or patched version (e.g., from CONVERGE 5.0.0 to CONVERGE 5.0.1), complete the following steps:

1.Download the CONVERGE_CFD Bundle 5.x.x installation package.

2.For patch-level installation packages (e.g., 5.0.1), delete the previous patch installation to save space on disk (recommended). New patch-level versions supersede previous patch-level versions for all general use.

3.Run the CONVERGE_CFD Bundle package and specify the same installation location. Convergent Science recommends using the same installation location as your earlier minor or patched version(s) of CONVERGE. Directories for the new minor version are installed parallel to the directories for the earlier version(s).

4.Set up the CONVERGE environment either by loading a module or running a script.

5.Run the appropriate CONVERGE executable from your Case Directory.

Installing the CONVERGE CFD Bundle

You can download the CONVERGE_CFD Bundle 5.x.x installation package from the Convergent Science Hub (https://hub.convergecfd.com/downloads). Note that you must log into this website. The installation package is in a self-extracting shell file named CONVERGE_CFD_Bundle_5.0.0_linux64.sh.

Run the downloaded script to install the CONVERGE CFD software products using an interactive installation process. The installer will prompt you for the installation root. By default, CONVERGE is installed in the /opt/Convergent_Science/ directory. To install in a different directory, specify that directory when prompted. You will then be prompted to select the components that you will install. The available products for installation are: CONVERGE*, CONVERGE Studio*, Examples, Tecplot for CONVERGE, and ParaView* (Linux only; mesa included). By default, all of the products will be selected. Selected products will have an "X" next to the product name. You can select or deselect products by pressing the product's menu id on your keyboard. You must select at least one product to install. After you have finished your selection you may press "Enter" to move to the next prompt.

If you selected CONVERGE or ParaView, the next prompt will ask you to select which MPI types you want the products to use. You must select at least one MPI type from the available options. The MPI types the products may use are: HPC-X, Intel MPI, MPICH, and Open MPI.

You are not required to use one of the MPI packages that are included in the CONVERGE CFD software installation package. You can use your own MPI implementation instead, as long as you are using a supported version of HPC-X, Intel MPI, MPICH, or Open MPI. Open MPI is the only MPI type available for ARM64 systems.

The installer will prompt you to verify your selection before starting the installation.

As a reference, the installer will display the silent installation command that matches the current CONVERGE CFD software product selection. The command shown can be used to install the same product selection in future installs without going through the interactive selection process.

Advanced Installation Details

You can use command options to run a "silent installation" by including all the information on the products you wish to download in the install command script. A silent installation allows you to skip the interactive prompts and begin the installation immediately. As previously mentioned, the silent installation command script will be displayed by the installer during the installation process. Running the script without any arguments will launch the selection menus. Running the installer with only an installation directory path will initiate a silent installation with all products selected by default. The products will be installed into the specified directory path. You can add additional arguments after the path to select specific products to install using the silent installation. The command, [./CONVERGE_CFD_BUNDLE_5.0.0_linux_x64.sh /opt] will install the CONVERGE CFD software products in the default directory and with the default product selection. The available command options are shown in the table below.

Table 1: The command options that may be used for a silent installation.

Command options	Description
/opt	This is the installation directory. The default installation directory is /opt. You can install the products into a different directory by entering the desired directory name in place of /opt. You must put the path before any other command options.
--menu	This option will launch the selection menus. This option will override any other options listed. Issuing only the install command without any options will also launch the selection menus.
--silent	This option will start the silent installation of CONVERGE CFD products to the default directory. The only time this option is needed is when no directory or product options are given, which will install all products in the package to the default directory. Issuing the install command with the install directory will silently install all products to the given install directory. You do not need to provide the '--silent' option if you provide the install directory.
--converge	This option will install the CONVERGE solver in the specified directory.
--studio	This option will install CONVERGE Studio in the specified directory.
--examples	This option will install the example cases files in the specified directory.
--paraview	The option will install ParaView and ParaView mesa in the specified directory.
--tecplot	This option will install Tecplot for CONVERGE in the specified directory.
--mpi <mpi types>	This option will specify which MPI types you want the installed products to use. The compatible MPI types are HPC-X, Intel MPI, MPICH, and Open MPI. These can be specified in a comma delimited list following the initial '--mpi' option. For example: --mpi hpcx,mpich,ompi The following options can be used to specify the MPI types the products will use: hpcx: Installed products will use HPC-X type. intel: Installed products will use Intel MPI type. mpich: Installed products will use MPICH type. ompi: Installed products will use Open MPI type.

The CONVERGE_CFD Bundle creates a file called .manifest during the installation process in the Convergent_Science directory. The .manifest file contains information on the installation.

When the default temporary directory does not have sufficient space to unpack the package, use the --target <dir> makeself option to specify where the files will be extracted to. For example, [<package_bundle.sh> --target <tmpdir> -- <install_root>] will unpack the package to <tmpdir> before installing the package to the <install_root> directory.

The makeself (makeself.io) utility was used to generate the self-extracting Linux installation package. The package can be passed options to customize the makeself behavior. You must explicitly use the "--" special command-line construct before any of the makeself options. Subsequent options after the "--" will be interpreted by the package installer.

Makeself options include controlling where files are extracted, whether to prompt the user for confirmation, how to handle ownership of files, and whether to execute the embedded installer scripts after extraction. These include, options like --keep to ensure extracted files are not deleted, --target <dir> which specifies the extraction directory, and --check which validates archive integrity. For a full list of available arguments and detailed descriptions, please visit the makeself.io webpage.