Installation Guide

This is a step-by-step guide to installing AceCAST and its software dependencies on your system locally.

Platform Requirements

Check for compatible OS and CPU architecture

AceCAST is highly integrated with the NVIDIA HPC SDK and is supported on any platforms supported by the NVIDIA HPC SDK (for more details see NVHPC platform requirements). Currently we only provide AceCAST distribution packages (see Releases) for Linux x86_64 systems but if you are interested in AceCAST for Linux OpenPOWER or Linux ARM, please contact us at support@tempoquest.com. AceCAST is not supported on Windows machines but note that AceCAST can be run within Linux VMs running on Windows or as a container (see Containers).

CPU Architecture:

commandexample output

uname -m

Operating System Info:

commandexample output

cat /etc/*release

Make sure your OS/CPU architecture combination is supported by the NVIDIA HPC SDK (see NVHPC platform requirements).

Check for CUDA-capable GPUS

AceCAST can only be run on CUDA-capable GPUs with a compute capability of 3.5 or above. To check for CUDA-capable GPUs run the following:

Checking for GPUs:

commandexample output

lspci | grep -i nvidia

Once you have determined what type of GPUs you have you can verify they have a valid compute capability here.

Installing the NVIDIA CUDA Driver

Prior to istalling the NVIDIA HPC SDK you will need to make sure the proper CUDA driver (version 11.0 or higher) is installed. To check if the CUDA driver is already installed on your system you can try running the following:

NVIDIA SMI Command:

commandexample output

nvidia-smi

If the command runs without any issues the CUDA drivers are already installed. Make sure the cuda version is at least 11.0 or higher in the nvidia-smi output. If this is not the case then follow the CUDA Installation Guide before moving on. Note that this step requires root access to install.

Installing the NVIDIA HPC SDK

AceCAST requires installation of the NVIDIA HPC SDK version 21.9. You can either follow the NVHPC Installation Guide (make sure to use the archived downloads page at NVHPC 21.9 Downloads) or you can try our quick method below:

NVHPC v21.9 Quick Install:

Quick InstallationUpdating Environment Script

export NVHPC_INSTALL_DIR=$HOME/nvhpc     # feel free to change this path
export NVHPC_INSTALL_TYPE=single
export NVHPC_SILENT=true
wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/hpc-sdk/21.9/nvhpc_2021_219_Linux_x86_64_cuda_multi.tar.gz
tar xpzf nvhpc_2021_219_Linux_x86_64_cuda_multi.tar.gz
nvhpc_2021_219_Linux_x86_64_cuda_multi/install

echo '#!/bin/bash'"
export NVARCH=\`uname -s\`_\`uname -m\`
export NVCOMPILERS=$NVHPC_INSTALL_DIR
export MANPATH=\$MANPATH:\$NVCOMPILERS/\$NVARCH/21.9/compilers/man
export PATH=\$NVCOMPILERS/\$NVARCH/21.9/compilers/bin:\$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\$NVCOMPILERS/\$NVARCH/21.9/compilers/lib:\$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\$NVCOMPILERS/\$NVARCH/21.9/cuda/11.0/lib64:\$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\$NVCOMPILERS/\$NVARCH/21.9/math_libs/11.0/lib64:\$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

export PATH=\$NVCOMPILERS/\$NVARCH/21.9/comm_libs/mpi/bin:\$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\$NVCOMPILERS/\$NVARCH/21.9/comm_libs/mpi/lib:\$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export MANPATH=\$MANPATH:\$NVCOMPILERS/\$NVARCH/21.9/comm_libs/mpi/man
" > $NVHPC_INSTALL_DIR/acecast_env.sh

Note

This step can take a while depending on your internet speeds. The installation itself typically takes 10 minuts or so.

Environment Setup

Notice that a new script is created at $NVHPC_INSTALL_DIR/acecast_env.sh. You will need to source this script to setup your environment prior to running AceCAST. Example:

source $HOME/nvhpc/acecast_env.sh

Installing AceCAST

Download AceCAST Distribution Package

To install AceCAST itself, navigate to the Version 3.2.2 and copy the download url for AceCAST. You can then download and unpack the distribution using the wget and tar commands as follows:

wget https://tqi-public.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/distros/acecast-v3.2.2%2Blinux.x86_64.haswell.tar.gz
tar -xf acecast-v3.2.2+linux.x86_64.haswell.tar.gz

If successful you should see a new directory acecast-v3.2.2. The directory structure should look like the following:

acecast-v3.2.2
├── acecast
│   └── run
│       ├── acecast.exe
│       ├── ideal.exe
│       ├── ndown.exe
│       ├── real.exe
│       └── tc.exe
├── upp
│   └─── exec
│       └── unipost.exe
└── wps
    ├── geogrid.exe
    ├── metgrid.exe
    └─── ungrib.exe

Note

You should see more files/directories than what is shown here. We are only showing a subset here to give users a sense of the package contents.

Notice that we have added UPP and WPS packages for your convenience since they are frequently used within AceCAST/WRF workflows.

Verify Runtime Environment

One quick way to verify that you have installed and set up your environment correctly in the previous steps is to print the shared libraries used by the acecast.exe executable with the ldd command.

commandsuccessful output exampleproblematic output example

ldd acecast-v3.2.2/acecast/run/acecast.exe

Note

The ldd command doesn’t guarantee that AceCAST will run correctly but it can be extremely helpful in identifying a number of common issues that users run into regularly.

Acquire A License

AceCAST is a licensed software package and as such requires a valid license to run. A 30-day trial license can be acquired by registering at the AceCAST Registration Page. After registering you should recieve an email containing your trial license (acecast-trial.lic). We suggest placing this file in the acecast-v3.2.2/acecast/run directory. If your 30-day trial has ended please contact support@tempoquest.com to request an extension and/or a quote.