Learning Forum

[michael.vanhorn]

I've had a user ask

"How many parallel solver processes can we use with the current ANSYS license?"

I think he means that he needs to know how many threads he configure Ansys to use when running a simulation. I got an answer from Ansys support that there are "4 cores per solver", which doesn't really mean anything, unless it means that each solver (Ansys, FLUENT, etc.) can only use 4 cores. Perhaps it was really meant that you can request 4 cores per solver license (that is, if you ask for 16 threads, you'll use for solver licenses), but that's not what it says.

Can someone clarify how I can determine the number of threads a user can use when running Ansys?

[ANSYS_MMadore]

Each solver can only use 4 cores or processes or threads, without the need for additional HPC licensing. If you try asking for more than 4 you'll encounter license errors as there are no additional HPC licenses owned under your account. You may refer to this posted document which details some changes to the Academic licensing at 2021R1. https://download.ansys.com/-/media/customerportal/getting-started/2021-r1-licensing-updates-academic.pdf?la=en&hash=33F5DD9B4043D045079306084FBC811D87233A9C

[michael.vanhorn]

My license file has 450 instances of anshpc. Does that mean we have "additional HPC licenses"? In which case, does that mean any given solver can use 4+up to 450 threads?

[ANSYS_MMadore]

If you do have 450 instances of anshpc in the license, then any solver can access 4+ any number of available anshpc for additional threads. Those 450 are a pool accessible by all solvers, so it is depleted by each user accessing more than 4 threads.

[michael.vanhorn]

Okay, I think I understand now.
Thank you!