User Guide

2018 Hardware & Operating

System Recommendations

cmgl.ca
18.CMG.08
Recommended Configuration for 2-Socket Workstation ............................................................................................3
Recommended Configuration for 2-Socket Server .....................................................................................................4
Recommended Configuration for 4-Socket Server .....................................................................................................5

Minimum Hardware or Laptop ....................................................................................................................................6

Recommended Hardware ..........................................................................................................................................6
Recommended Hardware for Simulation of Models Greater than 250,000 Grid Blocks .............................................6
Recommended Hardware for Model Visualization .....................................................................................................7
Technical Assistance .................................................................................................................................................7

Hardware & Operating System Recommendations

October 2018
CMG only supports 64-bit operating systems and hardware; customers using 32-bit systems should use
the 2012 release or older.

CMG no longer tests, ships or supports software releases on the Windows† XP operating system.
Customers using Windows XP are recommended to use the 2014 release or older.

For optimal performance, releases prior to 2018.10 recommended that hyper-threading be disabled. This
is no longer required, with the following considerations:

1. For optimal performance, a thread affinity setting should be set. (For example,
KMP_AFFINTY=compact,0 or KMP_AFFINTY=compact,1). Our testing has shown that not
employing this setting during simulation runs – via environment variable, or via job scheduler
configuration – can lead to significant performance degradation.
2. Extensive testing, using Intel processors, has shown that better performance is achieved when
hyper-threads are not used. This is now the default simulator behavior which means that the
number of threads (requested for the simulation) cannot exceed the number of physical cores,
unless the command line option ‘-htuse’ is used. GEM also allows use of keyword *HTUSE *ON
in the data file.
3. Furthermore, when the number of physical + hyper-thread cores in a machine is greater than 64,
the use of Linux_x64 executable is strongly recommended; the affinity setting is not effective (at
more than 64 cores) on numerous Windows OS variants.
4. The ‘-htuse’ command line/keyword has no effect on machines where hyper-threading is off. It
also has no effect on machines with operating systems that do not respond to thread-binding by
setting KMP_AFFINITY.

Hyper-threading effects could depend on processor type, hardware configuration and number of jobs
scheduled per node. Please consult your IT department and/or CMG support for further guidance.

Hardware & Operating System Recommendations

October 2018
 Number of 2 Sockets 2 Sockets: workstations
Sockets

Processor Dual 20-Core Xeon† Gold 6148 2.4Ghz, 20-cores per Socket
27.5M Cache, 10.4GT/s, Turbo Boost
(40 cores* total)

Memory 96GB – 384GB RDIMM ECC DDR4 192 GB

Memory, 2666MHz
All six memory channels populated for
maximum memory performance

Graphics Card NVIDIA† Quadro P4000 8GB – NVIDIA† Quadro P4000 8GB
NVIDIA Quadro P5000 16GB

Disk Drive 256 SSD drive or 250 GB SATA drive 256 GB SSD Drive for OS and 2TB
for OS (C:), 500 GB – 1 TB SATA drive SATA drive for Data
for Data (D:)

Operating Windows 7 Professional x64 or Windows 10 Professional (64-bit) **

System Windows 10 Professional x64 **

* May require Parallel tokens from CMG to use all the cores in the system.
** Known performance issue on Windows 10, contact CMG for more info. May require updated simulator
version from CMG.

Hardware & Operating System Recommendations

October 2018
 Number of 2 Sockets 2 Sockets: servers for CMG Software as
Sockets a Service (SaaS), CMG data center and
compute clusters

Processor Dual 20-Core Xeon† Gold 6148 2.4Ghz, 20-cores per Socket
27.5M Cache, 10.4GT/s, Turbo Boost
(40 cores* total)

Memory 96GB - 384GB RDIMM ECC DDR4 192GB - 768GB

Memory, 2666MHz
All six memory channels populated for
maximum memory performance

Graphics Card Not Applicable; Servers not to be used

for Visualization
Most Servers have a built in Video Card
on Motherboard and are not
configurable

Disk Drive Discuss speed and capacity

requirements with vendor

Operating Windows Server 2016 Standard Windows Server 2016 Standard

System
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 (64-bit)*** Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 (64-bit) ***

* May require Parallel tokens from CMG to use all the cores in the system.
*** Linux benchmarking tests show it to outperform Windows Server platforms for overall simulation run
times

Hardware & Operating System Recommendations

October 2018
 Number of 4 Sockets 4 Sockets: For large models, shortest
Sockets runtimes; CMG Software as a Service
(SaaS) etc.

Processor Quad 18-Core Xeon† Gold 6154 3.0Ghz, 18-cores per socket
24.75M Cache, 10.4GT/s, Turbo Boost
(72 cores* total)

Memory 384GB – 3TB RDIMM ECC DDR4 1.5TB

Memory, 2666MHz
All six memory channels populated for
maximum memory performance

Graphics Card Not Applicable; Servers not to be used

for Visualization
Most Servers have a built in Video Card
on Motherboard and are not
configurable

Disk Drive Discuss speed and capacity

requirements with vendor

Operating Windows Server 2016 Standard Windows Server 2016 Standard

System
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 (64-bit)*** Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 (64-bit)***

* May require Parallel tokens from CMG to use all the cores in the system.
*** Linux benchmarking tests show it to outperform Windows Server platforms for overall simulation run
times

Hardware & Operating System Recommendations

October 2018
 (a) Small/Medium Black Oil less than 250,000 blocks and/or WinProp™
 Intel Xeon- or equivalent AMD†-based PC, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7† 64-bit versions,
OpenGL†-capable video card.

 See previous section for the recommended configuration for a 2-socket workstation

(a) IMEX™: up to 500,000 blocks

GEM™: up to 250,000 blocks
STARS™: up to 250,000 blocks
 One or two quad core Intel Xeons or better
 16 GB RAM or more

(b) IMEX: 500,000 to 2,000,000 blocks

GEM: 250,000 to 2,000,000 blocks
STARS: 250,000 to 2,000,000 blocks
 One or two eight core Intel Xeons or better
 32 GB RAM or more

(c) IMEX: 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 blocks

GEM: 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 blocks
STARS: 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 blocks
 2 twenty-core Intel Xeon Gold 6148 or similar
 96 GB RAM or more

(d) IMEX: More than 5,000,000 blocks

GEM: More than 5,000,000 blocks
STARS: More than 5,000,000 blocks
 4 eighteen-core Intel Xeon Gold 6154 or similar
 192 GB RAM or more

Notes:
For (b), (c) and (d) below, double the RAM is recommended for larger numbers of components.

Recommendations for the number of cores to be used also depend on

 Grid aspect ratio
 Direction of highest transmissibility
 Horizontal wells
 Modelling Fractured Reservoirs

Hardware & Operating System Recommendations

October 2018
Smooth visualization of reservoir simulation results requires a video card that can handle large amounts
of data quickly, and has the rendering capabilities to support all display features. While high-end gaming
video cards may be able to do this, CMG recommends the use of an up-to-date, professional-level video
card with up-to-date drivers. The hardware and software integration of professional cards is better than
that of consumer cards and generally, drivers are updated more frequently. For this reason, CMG has
been buying cards from the NVIDIA Quadro line for its developers and support staff. Other vendors may
offer similar quality cards.
The Quadro line has lower-, middle-, and upper-tier cards. Besides processor speed, the main difference
between these cards is the amount of video memory on the card. The amount of video memory is directly
correlated to the size of the model that can be displayed. CMG is using “middle-tier” cards to display and
interact with models up to several tens of millions of cells.
Factors that influence the model size that can be displayed and manipulated are:
• Total number of grid cells
• Number of active grid cells
• Grid aspect ratio
• Number of fault surfaces
• Current zoom level
In addition to the above, if stereo viewing is a requirement, you will need additional equipment, such as
stereo glasses.
NOTE: OpenGL version 3.3 or higher is recommended for full support of visualization features

If you require technical assistance, or have specific questions about the hardware and operating system
recommendations which are not discussed here, please contact CMG at:
Email: support@cmgl.ca
Phone: +1.403.531.1300

In case of a Server/Client system (such as HPC cluster server where workstations submit jobs to the
cluster), CMG recommends a 1 Gigabit/sec connection on the workstations, and 10 Gigabit/sec on the
server. This is important because the network speed affects the data transfer speed back and forth
between the cluster and the workstation.

™ Trademark of Computer Modelling Group Ltd. Copyright © 2018 Computer Modelling Group Ltd.
† Other company, product, and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.

Hardware & Operating System Recommendations

October 2018