QualNet 5.0 System Requirements

Requirements for running QualNet

Windows

QualNet is supported on the following platforms:

  • Microsoft Windows XP (Home and Professional) with service pack 3 (SP3)
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition x64 Edition
  • Windows Vista (Home Basic and Business) 32-bit and 64-bit editions

Note: Although QualNet has not been fully tested on other platforms, it should also work on other variants of Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The minimum platform requirements to run QualNet on a Windows system are:

Item Requirements
CPU 32-bit (x86 compatible) processor (including Core Duo, Pentium, Xeon, and Athlon)
Or
64-bit (x86-64 compatible) processor (including AMD Opteron, Athlon 64, Intel Core 2 Duo, and Pentium/Xeon EM64T).
Memory 128 MB free for LAN-size simulations without GUI
512 MB free for LAN-size simulations with GUI
2 – 4 GB free for a large network (1000+ nodes)
Disk 600 MB free disk space

In the addition to the above, the following are recommended when running the QualNet GUI on Windows:

  • Discrete graphics card with at least 128 MB memory supporting hardware 3D acceleration
  • Display with 1024 x 768 or better resolution

Linux

QualNet is supported on 32-bit (x86 compatible) and 64-bit (x86-64 compatible) platforms running one of the following Linux distributions:

  • CentOS 5.3
  • openSUSE 10.2
  • openSUSE 11.1
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2
  • Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper)
  • Unbuntu 8.10 (Intrepid)

The minimum platform requirements to run QualNet on a Linux system are:

Item Requirements
CPU 32-bit (x86 compatible) processor (including Core Duo, Pentium, Xeon, and Athlon) with
SSE2 extension support
Or
64-bit (x86-64 compatible) processor (including Opteron, Athlon 64, Intel Core 2 Duo,
and Pentium/Xeon EM64T) with SSE2 extension support
Note: When you install QualNet, the installer will check whether the CPU supports
SSE2 Extension.
Memory 128 MB free for LAN-size simulations without GUI
512 MB free for LAN-size simulations with GUI
2 – 4 GB free for a large network (1000+ nodes)
Disk 600 MB free disk space.
OpenGL OpenGL library libGL.so.1.2 or higher (needed only if QualNet GUI is run on the
machine).

In the addition to the above, the following are recommended when running QualNet GUI on Linux:

  • Discrete graphics card with at least 128 MB memory supporting hardware 3D acceleration. (QualNet GUI may not run on a virtual machine since virtual machines typically do not support 3D acceleration.)
  • Display with 1024 x 768 or better resolution
  • Graphics driver: Contact the manufacturer of the graphic card installed on your system for instructions to install the latest version of the graphics driver.

    Note: Some Linux distributions include prepackaged versions of these drivers. Search for “nvidia” for NVidia cards or “fglrx” for ATI cards using the system package manager.

Mac OS X

QualNet is supported on Mac OS X version 10.5 (Leopard) on Intel processor systems.  The minimum platform requirements to run QualNet on a Mac OS X system are:

Item Requirements
CPU 32-bit (x86 compatible) processor (including Core Duo and Xeon)
Memory 128 MB free for LAN-size simulations without GUI
512 MB free for LAN-size simulations with GUI
2 – 4 GB free for a large network (1000+ nodes)
Disk 600 MB free disk space.

In the addition to the above, the following are recommended when running the QualNet GUI on Mac OS X:

  • Graphics card with at least 128 MB memory supporting hardware 3D acceleration
  • Display with 1024 x 768 or better resolution

Requirements for compiling QualNet

Note: This section is only applicable to users who want to use ALE/ASAPS Propagation library, Military Radios library, Standard Interfaces library or will be modifying QualNet model source code.

Windows

One of the following C++ compilers are required to compile QualNet:

Note: Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition is available as a free download. To use Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition on a 64-bit platform, Windows /.NET 3.5 Platform SDK must also be installed. Windows /.NET 3.5 Platform SDK is also available as a free download.

Linux

The expat development library is needed to compile QualNet on Linux systems.  Install the expat development library from the Linux installation media or download site. Consult your system administrator for help with installing the expat development library.

To recompile QualNet source code or custom addons, a C compiler (gcc) and C++ compiler (g++) are required. Install the version of gcc appropriate for your system.  The version of gcc depends on the glibc version of the Linux distribution. To determine your version of
glibc, do the following:

  • For Debian-based distributions (such as Ubuntu), run the following command:
    dpkg -s libc6
  • For the other Linux distributions, run the following command:
    rpm -q glibc

The following table describes the recommended version of gcc appropriate for a given Linux distribution:

Distribution glibc Version gcc Version
CentOS 5.3 2.5 4.1
openSUSE 10.2 2.5 4.1
openSUSE 11.1 2.9 4.3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 2.5 4.1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 2.4 4.1
Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) 2.3 4.0
Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) 2.8 4.3

Install the right version of gcc from the Linux installation media or download site. Consult your system administrator for help with installing gcc.

Mac OS X

To compile QualNet source code or custom addons, gcc 4.0 and g++ 4.0 are required. They may be obtained by downloading Xcode 2 from Apple’s website site or by installing it from the Mac OS X Installation DVD.

Requirements for running and compiling QualNet on Distributed Platforms

Note: These are additional requirements to the general Linux system requirements.

Linux

Item Requirements
Linux Distribution CentOS 5.3, 64-bit version
or
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3, 64-bit version
or
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2, 64-bit version
Note: Other 64-bit Linux distributions with glibc 2.4 or 2.5 and gcc 4.1 may also work.
OFED OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) 1.4 with Open MPI or MVAPICH
Network Ethernet (with OpenMPI of OFED 1.4)
or
Infiniband interconnect (with OpenMPI or MVAPICH of OFED 1.4)
Library Expat library for the Linux distribution
C Compiler gcc 4.1
C++ compiler g++ (Gnu C++ compiler)

OFED 1.4 has three MPI flavors: MVAPICH, MVAPICH2, and OpenMPI. QualNet supports only MVAPICH and OpenMPI.  Install the version of OFED 1.4 appropriate for your system from http://openfabrics.org.

  • For clusters connected by Ethernet, only OFED 1.4 with OpenMPI can be used.
  • For clusters connected by InfiniBand, OFED 1.4 with either MVAPICH or OpenMPI can be used.