1. What is Parametric Study Program?
   
   A parametric study program is a computer program which user needs to run it many times with different input parameters. The input parameters could be from different design options, working conditions or scenarios, and so on. The program can be user's own developed codes, or open source codes.
   

2. Can I run my parametric study program on TCG@NUS?
   
   Yes, as end users you can make use of TCG@NUS to process your parametric study program.
   

3. How can I run my program on TCG@NUS?
   
   To run the program on TCG@NUS grid computing platform, you need to follow the following rules/requirements when develop the program.
   

   1. The program must consist of only one program or one executable file

   2. The program must run in batch mode independently with no interactive manipulation (such as input from keyboard) during the running.

   3. The program can accept command line arguments.

   4. The input parameter(s) can be supplied via command line arguments or from input file(s).

   5. The program can accept maximal 6 of input files, named from input1.dat to input6.dat.

   6. All the output/result data generated should store in files. Similarly, maximal of 6 output files are allowed, named from output1.dat to output6.dat.

   This figure is an example showing the relationship among the program, the input file(s) and the output file(s):
   
   

   Flow chart of a typical parametric study program
   
   When the user developed the program as described above, he/she can submit the executable files to the administrator for security signing, approval and eventually enable the program on the TCG application server. A full set of sample input files may be provided as well for the validation. Please contact us at ccesvuhelp@nus.edu.sg regarding how to get your application enabled on the TCG.
   
   After the program was enabled on the TCG application server, user will be informed with the exact application name which will be used in the mass job submission.
   

4. How to submit my parametric study program jobs on TCG@NUS? And how about results retrieval?
   
   To submit a parametric study program job, user needs to prepare an input package. The package basically is a zip file containing one or more input data sets. Each input data set forms the basis of a workunit of the job. Each input data set can have one to six input files, where the number of files must be consistent for all data sets.
   
   The input files inside the input package must follow the filename convention below:

   inputm.dat.nnnnnn

   where,

   m is a value of 1 to 6, indicating one of the six input files in an input data set,
   nnnnnn is a 6-digit sequence number starting from 000001 without any gaps, denoting the sequence number of an input data set.

   For example, the input package can have the files of:

   

   Then you can zip those files to, say, input.zip.
   
   Finally, you can submit the job using a pre-developed meta-driver application interface. Here is a sample command:

   

   Once the job submission is successfully, it will give what is the jobid, for example 1234. User can use this command to check the job status:

   meta-list

   When the job is completed, results can be retrieved using this sample command (assume the jobid is 1234):

   meta-retrieve 1234

   And the output result files will be stored in a sub-folder metad-username-jobid.
   
   At any time, user can simply enter the command "meta-submit", "meta-list", or "meta-retrieve" to prompt for the information on how to use the command.

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Last Modified on 25th June 2008. Copyright - All Rights Reserved.