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SimQ Version 1.3
Installation Instructions for Mac OS X

Table of Contents

Overview

This page describes how to install SimQ version 1.3 (released 2024-08-04) on your macOS system. SimQ includes two main components:

Key points about simd installation and runtime behavior:

Prerequisites

Step 1: Prepare Your Environment

  1. Open a terminal window.
  2. Navigate to the directory where you want to download the SimQ package.
  3. Download the latest SimQ release. You can find the latest version on the plato website. You can click on the link to download the archive from a web browser. If you are remote logged into a macOS machine here are a couple of ways to do it. Note that you can right-click on the link of the release you want, select "Copy Link Address", and paste it into one of the following commands: 
    wget http://216.16.195.147/downloads/simq.1.1-2024-08-04.macos.x86_64.tar.gz

    or

    curl -O http://216.16.195.147/downloads/simq.1.1-2024-08-04.macos.x86_64.tar.gz

Step 2: Unpack the Archive and Run the Installer

  1. Unpack the archive: 
    tar xzvf simq.1.1-2024-08-04.macos.x86_64.tar.gz
  2. Navigate to the unpacked directory: 
    cd simq
  3. Run the installer script with sudo privileges: 
    sudo ./macinstall.sh

The installer script will perform the following tasks:

Upon completion, the script will ask if you want to start the simd daemon. Press y (or just hit enter) to start the daemon, or n to start it later manually.

Configuration File

If this is the first installation, a configuration file named simdconfig.json5 will be created in /usr/local/simq/simd/ with the following structure:

{
    "CPUs": 8,
    "Memory": "16GB",
    "CPUArchitecture": "x86_64",
    "MaxSimulations": 1,
    "SimdSimulationsDir": "/var/lib/simd",
    "DispatcherURL": "http://192.168.5.100:8250/"
}

Configuration values:

You can manually adjust these settings if needed, but the auto-detected values should work for most cases.

Step 3: Managing the simd Daemon

Since `simd` is not managed by `launchctl`, you can control it directly through command line processes:

Command Description
sudo pkill -f simd Stops the simd daemon by killing its process
sudo /usr/local/simq/simd/simd & Starts the simd daemon in the background
ps aux | grep simd Checks if the simd daemon is running
tail -n 30 /usr/local/simq/simd/simd.log View the last 30 lines of simd.log

Setting Up simd to Start on Boot

To ensure the simd daemon starts automatically at boot, you can add it to the root crontab:

  1. Edit the root user's crontab: 
    sudo crontab -e
  2. Add the following line to start simd at boot: 
    @reboot /usr/local/simq/simd/simd &
  3. Save and exit the editor.

Step 4: Using psq

psq (Plato Simulation Queue) is used to add, remove, and manage simulation jobs. Jobs added to the simulation queue will be executed by the first available simd instance in the network.

To use psq:

  1. Add /usr/local/simq/bin to your PATH: 
    echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/simq/bin' >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile

For more detailed information on using psq use the 'help' command at the psq prompt.

Post-Installation Verification

  1. Check if the simd service is running, you should see "active (running)" in the output: 
    systemctl status simd
  2. Verify psq is accessible, this should display the version number of psq: 
    psq -v

Troubleshooting

Uninstallation

To remove SimQ from your system you can run the macuninstall.sh script:

sudo ./macuninstall.sh -v

This will do the following:

Support and Contact Information

If you encounter any issues not covered in this guide or have questions about SimQ:

Changelog

1.0 - Initial release

1.1 - Updates

1.2 - Updates

1.3 - Updates