Windows Test Bundle for FDS Parallel Processing using Intel MPI

We are looking for volunteers to test a bundle of FDS that uses the Intel MPI libraries for Windows. The installation procedure is the same as that of the current release of FDS. The test bundle can be downloaded from:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_wB1pJL2bFQcURod1UyZTJUaEE&usp=sharing#list

A few things. First, we have only tested this version on a Windows domain network; that is, a network where user accounts are centrally managed. It is OK if this network has a firewall; the installation script will set up the necessary exceptions to allow FDS to run in parallel across the network even with the firewall in place. Second, the test installation will install FDS 6.1.1, but the old MPICH executable (fds_mpi.exe) will be overwritten. So anyone who has MPICH working and wants to continue using MPICH until we officially release should avoid the test installation because it will not only overwrite the executable, it will also install the Intel variant of mpiexec. Finally, there is no need to install the MPI package yourself. Everything you need to run should be in the test package. At least, this is what we want to test.

Volunteers should post to the FDS discussion group whether they have succeeded or failed to run a simple test case. Do not spend too much time fussing with this -- if the installation procedure is not simple then we have to rethink it. We have found that the old MPICH procedure was fairly difficult, and we think we have a much simpler process now.