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Installing and running Large Scale Analysis for OpenStudio

asked 2016-06-29 10:32:46 -0500

updated 2017-08-20 15:01:29 -0500

I wish to perform large scale analysis using OpenStudio but I have difficulties to follow the installation process described here: http://nrel.github.io/OpenStudio-user-documentation/tutorials/large_scale_analysis/

I have a number of questions:

  1. "Starting OpenStudio's Cloud": Do I need to install Ruby and Git before running this code from my OS' command prompt? (i.e. gem install bundler, git clone ..., etc.)
  2. "Export spreadsheet": Tried to "Export Analysis Spreadsheet" from PAT but got a "Export failed" error. (I'm using a simple test building with one room which runs smoothly in PAT)
  3. "Running OpenStudio's cloud": must this command be run from a specific path? (rake run)

It seems that "Large Scale Analysis" is still a rough beta version. But I strongly believe that the community will benefit from these features so I hope the hard-working developers will continue down that path and make "large scale analyses" more accessible and user-friendly :-) Hope to hear from you..

NB: I am running OpenStudio 1.11.0 and have an account at Amazon EC2 web services.

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answered 2016-07-07 13:05:20 -0500

after working with @Torben offline, there were a few things going on.

  1. the spreadsheet was re-released with gems locked down to be consistent with the server. (there is active development going on now to create PAT 2.0 and these got out of working state).

  2. 'bundle update' was done locally to install the gems

  3. the security groups and key pairs in the users account were deleted. There was a Net:SSH:Authentication error going on in the spreadsheet CLI which suggests the security groups being used were not correct and perhaps were the default ones setup on EC2.

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Just want confirm and note that if the user wishes to repeat/redo analysis using the same cluster name, the user has to type rake clean before running bundle exec rake run. Thanks for your help.

Torben's avatar Torben  ( 2016-07-08 03:51:11 -0500 )edit

that functionality exists so you can send multiple jobs to the same cluster. when you submit a job, the spreadsheet looks to see if the "cluster name".json file exists and if it does, it will try and send the jobs there. If the cluster doesnt really exist but the file is there, you will get a timeout error. You can either do a rake clean or just delete that .json file to have a new cluster created

BrianLBall's avatar BrianLBall  ( 2016-07-08 10:13:31 -0500 )edit
6

answered 2016-06-29 11:31:32 -0500

updated 2016-06-29 11:58:49 -0500

  1. Better documentation is on the GitHub development repo:

  2. As far as I know the OAS/cloud part of PAT is not functional (issue) and instead must be run from a terminal by cloning/copying the repo. Once the repo has been cloned/copied use the following folders:

    • measures - these are available for use by the spreadsheet and can be applied to the seed model during runs

    • projects - location for the spreadsheet(s)

    • seeds - seed models for runs

    • weather - location for weather file(s)

  3. The OAS is run from a terminal from the path where the repo is cloned/copied.

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Hi Matthew.

Thanks for your quick reply! I have now tried to follow the instructions on Github. To test it, I typed bundle exec rake run and selected the example "SEB_LHS_2013.xlsx" without changing the Excel spreadsheet. The server instances are initiated but nothing seems to happen when monitoring the instances from AWS EC2 console. And the terminal seemed to stop at ssh -i C:/OpenStudio-analysis-spreadsheet-develop/ec2_server_key.pem ubuntu@ec2-52-242-39-57.comput-1.amazonaws.com. Am I supposed to change something in the spreadsheet, e.g. Cluster Name or OS server version?

Torben's avatar Torben  ( 2016-06-30 07:15:37 -0500 )edit

That means your job was submitted to your AWS instance and you should use the weblink in a browser to see the results as they come in. Also remember to shut down your instances when you are done!

BrianLBall's avatar BrianLBall  ( 2016-07-05 11:57:33 -0500 )edit

@Torben, you should see a message for the Server URL indicating that the OAS has completed sending info to AWS and to terminate the AWS instance when done. It sounds like it's hanging to me if you don't receive this message.

Analysis type is: preflight
Server URL is: http://ec2-54-172-194-86.compute-1.amazonaws.com

Make sure to check the AWS console (N. Virginia Region) and terminate any OpenStudio instances when you are finished!
MatthewSteen's avatar MatthewSteen  ( 2016-07-05 12:34:20 -0500 )edit

@MatthewSteen@BrianLBall, I found out that I had downloaded the developer-edition from Github.

  • Tried vs. 0.4.2 instead. Got error "302 Unable to download AMI IDs". Tried both a AMI account and root account.
  • Then tried to use vs. 0.4.1 since AMIs were set as default in 0.4.2 according to Github. Got same error 302.
  • Then tried vs. developer again. First, I "OpenStudio did not load.. Will continue" and "It appears cluster default already running". Ran "rake clean". Now two instances were started in AWS, but my terminal again stopped at "ssh -i C:/.../ec2_server_key.pem. No data in AWS
Torben's avatar Torben  ( 2016-07-06 04:22:54 -0500 )edit

@MatthewSteen@BrianLBall, can my troubles be cause by one of the following things:

  1. The aws_config.yml is not placed in the <home-dir>. I use C:\Users\<my_username>\aws_config.yml?
  2. Do I need to make some OpenStudio specific setup of AWS or the AMI user?
  3. Do I need to change the "OpenStudio Server Version" in Excel? (Defaults are in 1.110-rc3 in 0.4.2, and 1.14.4 in developer)
  4. Does it depend on the versions of OpenStudio and EnergyPlus installed on my PC? (1.11.0 and 8.5.0)
  5. Other ideas?
Torben's avatar Torben  ( 2016-07-06 04:30:55 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2016-06-29 10:32:46 -0500

Seen: 589 times

Last updated: Jul 07 '16