Installation of BeoPEST and FePEST on a Run Server

Parallelization of a PEST model run decreases model runtimes and is often necessary to run highly parameterized models in reasonable times.

The software package BeoPEST (Schreuder, Principia Mathematica) is a special version of PEST that allows to efficiently execute many PEST clients over a network. It is used in conjunction with FePEST to distribute the workload among different machines.

FePEST is started from a client computer, which delegates the run jobs to one or more server computers.

After installing and starting FePEST on these servers, the procedure is very convenient: After the PEST run is started on the client, FePEST automatically manages the transfer of the model files and the start of the BeoPEST server instances.

Preparation of the Client

The FePEST optimization is invoked by the user from the client computer. The client computer hosts the PEST optimization and distributes the run jobs to the servers.

No additional installations are required on the client computer, unless it is used as a server itself.

Note that a permanent network connection between client and all servers is required throughout the optimization run.

Preparation of the Server

Software Installation

Install the following programs on the server:

• FEFLOW (in. FePEST)

• PEST

• BeoPEST

• PLPROC

All files are automatically installed by using the PEST Utilities installation package available in the MIKE Powered by DHI website. Alternatively, the native files are found on the PEST homepage.

Licensing

A license server must be present that can be reached over the network by the client and all servers.

Open FEFLOW on the server and choose "License.." from the "Tools" menu. Connect to the license server and select an appropriate license from the list.

 

The client and all servers must connect to the same license server to benefit from the mulitple-instances feature of the FEFLOW corporate license. Otherwise, multiple licenses might be used.

Network and Firewall

Make sure that the computers firewall does not block required ports of FePEST or BeoPEST. During the intial runs, closely watch the client and server computers if the firewall requests exception.

Starting the FePEST Server from Graphical Interface

Before starting a PEST optimization from a client computer, log on to the server and start FePEST. Choose "Start Server" from the "Tools" menu.

The FePEST Server now runs in server mode and is ready to receive run jobs from FePEST Clients.

Starting the FePEST Server from Console Window

FePEST Server can be started in command line mode in both Windows and Linux environments. This option is especially useful to initiate FePEST Server from user-defined code or from a bash file or in cases a graphical output is not available.