Station Administration Properties Reference

You can edit the properties listed below in the Station Administration app.

This page discusses:

General Tab

Property Label Equivalent Property in SMAExeStation.properties Description
Temp Directory fiper.station.tempdir

The directory in which the 3DOrchestrate Station writes temporary files and log files during job execution.

If you want to change this setting from the default location, be sure to select a directory that has the following characteristics:

  • Is not a temporary file system. This disk space must never be reclaimed automatically. This rules out any directories that are cleared during a restart or during an automatic disk space cleanup.
  • Preferably on a local disk on the station computer. If there is insufficient local storage space, a NAS device can be used; however, this is not recommended.

Important: Change this setting if you will use the 3DOrchestrate Station run-as security feature. Use a directory that can be accessed by all users; for example, C:\temp\ on Windows or /var/tmp/ on Linux.

Install Directory Location of the station software installation.
Config Directory Directory containing configuration files for this station (<station_install_dir>/config/).
Custom Affinities fiper.station.affinity Specify application affinity keywords for the station computer. The value must be one or more affinity keywords, separated by spaces. Example: Abaqus. End users can enter affinity keywords in the client app GUI. See About Station Affinities for details.
Allowed Users fiper.station.allowedusers Specify a (space-separated) list of 3DEXPERIENCE platform user names that are allowed to execute their jobs on this station. Example: joesmith betsyjones. If the list is empty, all users are allowed to use the station.
Concurrency fiper.station.concurrency Because the Java technology used in the 3DOrchestrate Station prevents monitoring real usage of CPU, RAM, and I/O, this setting can be used to cap the maximum number of execution threads allowed on the station. A station can run only a limited number of work items concurrently. Once that limit is reached, further work items received must be queued until an active one terminates. Limiting concurrency prevents the station application from overloading the computer it is running on. By default, the concurrency is two times the number of processors on the computer.

Logging Tab

Property Label Equivalent Property in SMAExeStation.properties Description
Log Level fiper.station.loglevel Debug, Info, Message, Error, or SystemError.
Number of Backups fiper.logging.numBackups Maximum number of log files that will be generated.
Max Size (KB) fiper.logging.maxSizeKB Maximum size that log files will be allowed to grow.
saveLogOnError fiper.station.saveLogOnError

This property determines whether to save the station LSF log file when an error occurs, if you are using the LSF distributed resource management (DRM) mode. This property can be set to true or false (the default).

If this property is set to true, the station LSF log information is saved in the following file in the temporary directory when an error occurs:

{fiper.station.tempdir}/station_{LSF-job-ID}.log

Advanced Tab

Property Label Equivalent Property in SMAExeStation.properties Description
More Properties * Use this field to enter any other station properties desired.
Staging Directory fiper.station.fcs.stagingdir Directory for large file management in the Process Composer client app; used for 3DSpace FCS checkins and checkouts. See Configuring Large File Management in the Process Composer (Web) Administration Guide.
Domain fiper.security.station.domain Specify the Windows security domain for authentication of user credentials (username/password) when the station has run-as security enabled. By default, the Windows domain configured in the 3DOrchestrate Distribution Server is used. This property is ignored on Linux stations.
Fastflow Result Interval fiper.station.fastflowSendResultsInterval This setting determines how frequently (in seconds) the results of Process Composer fast-flow execution should be sent to the 3DOrchestrate Distribution Server. The default is 10 seconds. If you set this to zero, results will be sent to the server at times based on the size of the results data.
Run-As fiper.station.runas

Enable or disable the run-as security feature on this station. By default, the station follows the run-as configuration of the 3DOrchestrate Distribution Server to which it is connected (as determined by the fiper.security.runas.enabled property in the SMAExeServer.properties file). You can use this property to force the station to run with run-as security disabled even if the 3DOrchestrate Distribution Server has run-as enabled.

This property can have the following values:

  • Disabled – Turns off the run-as feature for the station. It is valid only if the run-as feature is active on the 3DOrchestrate Distribution Server.

  • Enabled – Turns on the run-as feature for the station. It is valid only if the run-as feature is active on the 3DOrchestrate Distribution Server.

Substation Start Time fiper.station.substation.starttime Determines when processes will fail if the launch of a run-as substation process is delayed.
Substation Launch Timeout fiper.substation.launchtimeout Determines when processes will fail if the launch of a run-as substation process hangs indefinitely.
Substation Keep Alive fiper.substation.keepalive.interval.ms Determines how long (in milliseconds) the substation process is kept running after it starts.
(FCS) Engine Directory fiper.station.fcs.enginedir Full path to the 3DSpace File Collaboration Server (FCS) engine.
(FCS) Staging Directory fiper.station.fcs.serverstagingdir

This setting defines how the 3DSpace MCS accesses the path defined in the Staging Directory (fiper.station.fcs.stagingdir) property. If the MCS can access the fiper.station.fcs.stagingdir path directly, there is no need for this setting. Otherwise, define the exact path for how the MCS will access the fiper.station.fcs.stagingdir path. For example:

fiper.station.fcs.stagingdir=\\file-server\path\vm8-29sim\home\STAGING
fiper.station.fcs.serverstagingdir=/path/vm8-29sim/home/STAGING
Cache PLM Files fiper.station.cacheplmfiles

This property is set to true by default. This causes the station to cache files that have been downloaded from the 3DSpace FCS (File Collaboration Server). If the same file is requested later, the station will use the copy from its local cache if the file has not changed. This saves time by avoiding repetitive downloads from the FCS. The caching operation works with or without run-as security.

If you encounter problems with downloaded files, set this property to false to disable the caching.

Skip Locking TempDir fiper.system.templib.skiplock

Set to true to suppress the usual file locking of the station's temporary directory (fiper.station.tempdir). This is required when the station's temporary directory is on an NFS file system on Linux and you see the following error when trying to start the station: "Unable to verify station temp directory lock file."

Station Certificate fiper.station.certificate SSL/HTTPS certificate in PKCS12 format. The station services and Results Analytics app require this certificate.
Lease Renewal Interval (min) fiper.station.leaseinterval Stations are required to periodically report their status to the 3DOrchestrate Distribution Server. This notification process lets the 3DOrchestrate Distribution Server know that the station is still functioning properly, which helps eliminate delays. This property allows you to specify how many minutes elapse before the station reports its status to the 3DOrchestrate Distribution Server. The default setting is 10 minutes. It is highly recommended that you not change this value.
Only Run Predefined OS Commands fiper.station.oscommand.predefinedonly This property restricts the station to be allowed to run only the "predefined application" type of command in Process Composer's OS Command adapter. The default value is false, allowing an OS Command adapter to execute any single-line operating system commands or multiline (shell) scripts. Set this property to true to restrict the station to executing only predefined applications.
Max Quiescent Time (sec) fiper.station.maxquiescetime By default a station will defer shutdown commands until all work on the station has completed. The station will wait indefinitely for work to complete, or for a second shutdown (force) command. This property may be used to set the maximum time (in seconds) that the station will wait for work to complete after a shutdown command. If work is still active at that time, it is abandoned and marked as "failed" may cause jobs to then fail. The default value is -1, which causes the station to wait indefinitely. For the most reliable environment it is recommended that this setting be left at its default value.
Job Log Repository smaexe.cos.station.ftp.joblog.repository Path to a local directory in which to store job log files.
Shareable License Path fiper.station.defaultshareablelicconfig.file Path where the shareable license file is stored.
Shareable License Number of Retries fiper.station.defaultshareablelicconfig.retry Number of times the station will attempt to verify the shareable license in the shareable license path. The default value is 3.
Shareable License Retry Interval (ms) fiper.station.defaultshareablelicconfig.retryinterval The amount of time the station will wait between tries to verify the shareable license. The default value is 300000 ms.

Compute Services Tab

Property Label Equivalent Property in SMAExeStation.properties Description
MPI Run Path fiper.station.mpirunPath

Message Passing Interface (MPI) software libraries are required for the station to execute any co-simulation jobs. The MPI libraries are automatically installed along with the Abaqus solvers from the SIMULIA_ComputeServices media. If this station does not have the mpirun command in the default system path, however, you must use this property to specify the full path to the executable. On Linux, for example, this might be

fiper.station.mpirunPath=/opt/abaqus/External/mpi/hpmpi-2.3/bin/mpirun
Large File Working Directory fiper.station.sim.largeFileWorkingDir Set this property to point to the working directory of the 3DSpace File Collaboration Server (FCS) when large file transfer mode is desired for station execution of the Abaqus solvers or the physics results visualization engine. This can be a Linux network path or Windows UNC path, depending on the operating system of this machine.
Port Range fiper.station.sim.portrange Set this property to open TCP/IP ports for communication between the Physics Simulation executables running on different machines. You can specify a port number range such as 56000-57000, a comma-separated list of individual ports numbers such as 56010,56012,56050, or a combination of both. If this property is not set, the simulation executables will use any available open ports.
Stage File Script fiper.station.sim.stageFileScript You can write a custom file transfer script (named in this property) to use with a customized DRM system. This lets you specify how you want to transfer simulation input and output data when it is impossible to have a file system identified by the fiper.file.fs.simshared property that is accessible by both your download/upload host and the compute host.
Client Services fiper.station.sim.clientservices Set this property on a Windows station that has the Physics Simulation native client apps and Process Composer native client app installed (from the NativeApps_3DEXP media). Set this property to the root installation directory, for example C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\win_b64\. This setting is required to allow launching of 3DEXPERIENCE batch utilities that connect to the 3DSpace server, for example when the process includes a Physics Simulation adapter.
Compute Services fiper.station.sim.computeservices Set this property to locate the base installation directory of the Abaqus solver executables for remote execution; for example: <install_dir>\win_b64\ or <install_dir>/linux_a64/.

Results Services Tab

Property Label Equivalent Property in SMAExeStation.properties Description
Parameter Match fiper.station.advise.variant.parametermatch

Set this property to the absolute path and file name of your SMAVariantParameterMatch.txt file for the Results Analytics app. If this property is not set, the file is read from the following directory in the station software installation:

<station_install_dir>/3DOrchestrate/<os>/reffiles/SMAResIntServant/SMAVariantParameterMatch.txt

The SMAVariantParameterMatch.txt file contains regular expression rules. Parameters extracted from the variants in Results Analytics are matched against the rules in this file and the filtered parameters are then used. If the file is empty or not found, all the extracted parameters are used.

Exposed Name fiper.station.exposedname Set this property to an identifier that the reverse proxy server will map to this station. For each station with an exposed name, there must be a matching rule in the reverse proxy configuration.
Exposed Port fiper.station.exposedports

Set this property to specify TCP/IP ports to be used for the file monitoring station service and Results Analytics app (servant). You can specify the exposed ports in two ways:

  • A port number range such as 56000-57000.
  • A range of ports with a string identifier to map identifier to port in the reverse proxy configuration. For example: 8080-8085:red. Here the reverse proxy should map ID's red0-red5 to ports 8080-8085.

Exposed IP Address fiper.station.sim.exposedipaddress Set this property when you have the Physics Results engine installed on this station on a computer that has multiple NICs (Network Interface Controllers). For example, if this computer has two IP addresses and only one is visible to the 3DEXPERIENCE client app computers, you must set this property to disambiguate which IP address (fully qualified domain name) the clients should connect to. If this property is not set, the client app uses the first IP address in the list when the machine is queried.

You can include wildcards (*) in the exposed IP address as well. For example, you can specify that the exposed IP address is of the pattern 172.30.*.* to avoid having to set an exact IP address.

Results Services fiper.station.sim.resultsservices Set this property to locate the base installation directory of the Physics Results servant executable; for example: <install_dir>\win_b64\ or <install_dir>/linux_a64/.