Recently, a problem was discovered that Abaqus and CFX cannot perform calculations on Windows shared folders mounted on Linux. Linux is deployed on a virtual machine. Although there will be no error when starting the calculation program on the local path of the virtual machine, it will cause the virtual disk to occupy more space and have a certain impact on the read and write efficiency.

1. SMB version problem

1.1 SMBv3

When using cifs to mount a shared folder before, I did not pay close attention to the version of the SMB protocol¹. The following command line does not specify the protocol version:

mount -t cifs //172.25.64.1/Share /home/dell/Share -o uid=xxx,gid=xxx,username=xxx

Use the mount command to check that the default connection protocol is version 3.1:

When running the Abaqus program in the mount directory of the 3.1 version protocol, the calculation fails and the following error is reported:

mpirun: Warning one or more remote shell commands exited with non-zero status, which may indicate a remote access problem.
driverExceptions.AbaqusExecutionError: ('SIMULIA Job Layout Engine', 255, 'abaqus_test')
!!!
!!! SIM wrap utility command error:
!!!   System Error open: Invalid parameters
!!!
driverExceptions.AbaqusExecutionError: ('SIM Wrap-up', 1, 'abaqus_test')

When running the CFX solver in the mount directory of the 3.1 version protocol, the calculation fails and the following error is reported:

An error has occurred in cfx5solve:

Error copying MMS input file mms for reading: Input/output error

1.2 SMBv2

Add the keyword vers=2.0 to the mount command line to explicitly specify the protocol version as 2.0:

mount -t cifs //172.25.64.1/Share /home/dell/Share -o vers=2.0,uid=xxx,gid=xxx,username=xxx

Use the mount command to check and confirm that the protocol version is 2.0:

Running the Abaqus program in the mount directory of the 2.0 version protocol can complete the calculation, but there is an error:

mpirun: Warning one or more remote shell commands exited with non-zero status, which may indicate a remote access problem.
driverExceptions.AbaqusExecutionError: ('SIMULIA Job Layout Engine', 255, 'abaqus_test')

Running the CFX solver in the mount directory of the 2.0 version protocol still fails to calculate, and the error message is the same as the SMBv3 version.

1.3 SMBv1

Specify the protocol version as 1.0:

mount -t cifs //172.25.64.1/Share /home/dell/Share -o vers=1.0,uid=xxx,gid=xxx,username=xxx

mount confirms:

Running the Abaqus program in the mount directory of the 1.0 version protocol, like the SMBv2 version, can complete the calculation but there is an error message.

Running the CFX solver in the mount directory of the 1.0 version protocol, the calculation cannot be completed, and the error message is as follows:

An error has occurred in cfx5solve:

Error copying MMS input file mms for reading: Operation not supported

2. SMB symbolic link problem

2.1 CFX environment variables

According to the official Ansys instructions ², CFX errors are mostly symbolic link problems. Add the following environment variables to the slurm calculation script:

export CFX5_DISABLE_SYMLINKS=1

Tested in SMBv1~SMBv3 protocol versions, after adding this environment variable, CFX can complete the calculation, and the problem is solved.

2.2 Enable symbolic link function in SMBv3

Add the symbolic link option mfsymlinks³ to the mount command:

mount -t cifs //172.25.64.1/Share /home/dell/Share -o mfsymlinks,uid=xxx,gid=xxx,username=xxx

The measured effect is the same as adding CFX environment variables in [2.1] (#21-cfx environment variables), which can solve the problem that CFX cannot calculate. However, Abaqus still reports an error and cannot complete the calculation. It seems that the problem of Abaqus is not related to symbolic links.

3. Summary

If you need to run Abaqus and CFX solvers on a Windows shared folder mounted by Linux, it is recommended to use the following command to explicitly specify the SMBv2 version and enable the symbolic link function:

mount -t cifs //172.25.64.1/Share /home/dell/Share -o vers=2.0,mfsymlinks,uid=xxx,gid=xxx,username=xxx

The above command line can ensure the normal calculation of CFX and Abaqus.