Supported MPI Implementations

Regardless of whether you use a local multi-core workstation, remote machines, or a remote cluster to run your parallel server, all approaches require an implementation of the Message Passing Interface (MPI).

The default MPI for Windows is Microsoft MPI and for Linux it is Open MPI. Both are supplied with Simcenter STAR-CCM+. In addition, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ ships with Intel MPI for both Windows and Linux.

You can select an alternative implementation of MPI using the -mpi argument on the command line. For example:

-mpi intel

selects the Intel MPI distribution on Windows or Linux. Command line options for supported distributions are given in the tables below.

For information about issues affecting MPI implementations, refer to the "Known Issues" section of the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Release Notes.

Windows

MPI Version Supplied with Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Command line option
Intel MPI 2021.7.1 Yes intel
Microsoft MPI (default) 10.1.1 Yes ms

Linux

Linux x86_64

MPI Version Supplied with Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Command line option
Open MPI (default*) 4.0.3 Yes openmpi, openmpi40
Open MPI (default*) 4.1.5 Yes openmpi, openmpi41
Intel MPI 2021.7.1 Yes intel
HPE MPI MPT 2.17 and newer No hpe
Cray MPI 7 No crayxt
Cray MPI 8.1.14 No crayex

Linux ARM64

MPI Version Supplied with Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Command line option
Open MPI 4.1.5 Yes openmpi, openmpi41
Fujitsu Open MPI 4.0.1fj4.0.0 No fujitsu

* The default version of Open MPI depends on the hardware capabilities. See Using Open MPI for more information.

Additional notes on these distributions are as follows:

  • All supported MPI distributions support a range of interconnects and typically use the fastest network channel that they detect without any user specification.
  • Open MPI is an actively developed and widely used open source MPI distribution. It is the recommended MPI distribution to use with Simcenter STAR-CCM+ on Linux. For more information, see Using Open MPI.
  • Intel MPI is a commercial product that is expected to work best on Intel servers. For more information, see Using Intel MPI.
  • HPE MPI was previously known as SGI MPI.
  • Cray MPI is required when running on Cray clusters.
  • Using Microsoft MPI with Simcenter STAR-CCM+ is only supported for simulations on local workstations and on Windows Server 2012 R2 with HPC Pack 2012 R2. Newer Windows Server and HPC Pack versions are also expected to work.
  • On Windows Server 2012 R2 with HPC Pack 2012 R2 or later, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ uses the system-wide installed Microsoft MPI. The version of the installed Microsoft MPI must match the supported version.
  • Fujitsu Open MPI is required when running on Fujitsu ARM64 clusters with Tofu network interconnects.