Design Space Explorer skipping base compile when distributing to other machines

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I'm having problems running design space explorer when trying to distribute compiles across machines. The results I get returned are blank. And the "best results" and "base results" sections remain "unknown".   When I run the DSE without distributing compilation it works perfectly. With no other change except ticking "Distribute Compilations to Other Machines" the DSE skips the "Exploring Base" step and analyses the revision instead. This is regardless of whether I have already run the DSE locally or not. The distributed compilation also runs much too fast to be working properly. Without distributing each compile takes ~30 mins. With distribution turned on, even the local compiles take less than ~5 mins.   Does anyone see what I'm missing or has anyone come across this?  Thanks for any help!   P.S. Im using QSlave to distribute compilation and searching for best performance, low (seed sweep).

[Altera_Forum]

Have you opened up the projects to see what the error is? You need to ensure all projects are archived (not just the best). Then you can open up the individual .qar files to see what the errors are. 

Make sure you have enough licences and each machine has access to the licence server. When I was running overnight seed jobs (8hr per build, 3 machines running 5 builds in parrallel at a time ~ 15 parrallel builds) I would be verry annoyed if licences ran out, as each job would finish early and end. It doesnt wait for a licence.  If you run a seed value that is the same as the base compilation, that run will be ignored.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 Thanks for your answer and apologies in the delay in reply. Your advice to look at the errors in the qar files opened up quite a few doors for me to investigate. I should first say that I am using Qsys as the top level of my project. The errors I get are all relating to components not found from the top level qsys .vhd file. i.e.  Error: qsys_top.ResetContol: Component reset_contol 1.3 not found or could not be instantiated  I have compared the qsys.vhd file to a working, locally compiled project and the same files are there. The Qsys.vhd file is in the Synthesis folder in the top level qsys directory, and reset_control.vhd is in a submodule folder of this Synthesis folder. There are three other similar unfound components. All of which are my own custom Qsys components.   I should also mention that in the archived projects none of my original .vhd files are present. They exist in the Qsys folder, but not in their original locations. I'm not sure how this effects things as it is my understanding that Qsys creates copies of these files and it is these files that are used in compilation. But maybe this is why Quartus cant find the components? Any .vhd files generated by a mega wizard are present in the archived projects, only my own files are missing.  I have compiled another project using DSE across the same machines in my network at it works perfectly. So I have ruled out any general problems.   So I'm confident that my problem lies in unfound custom Qsys components.     Thanks again for your help

[Altera_Forum]

When DSE sends the files to another computer, it packages the project up in a .qar file. So any files that get missed somehow will cause an error. 

Are all files included in the project list, and not just picked up via the "libraries" section in the settings? .qip files should mean all files listed in the qip should get swept up too.  It will be working on the host machine as it probably still has access to all the file - but the remote machines wont.

[Altera_Forum]

Thank you, this does seem to be the problem. I hadnt added several files to the project. Adding them solved most of my errors.  

 There is one last file that I'm still struggling to get included in the .qar archives. In my Qsys top level I have a hierarchy with another qsys file included as a component. This is the last file that I cannot get into the .qar.   pcie_qsys.qsys and pcie_qsys_hw.tcl are not available in the archived projects. Adding the .tcl to the original project doesnt help and adding the .qsys causes errors relating to "device family"(Stratix V) out of range. The device family is correctly assigned as Cyclone V in both .qsys files as well as the project file.   Thanks again for any light you can shed

[Altera_Forum]

try executing the .tcl file on the source machine separately first. This probably just sets a load of project settings. Unless specified to execute, they wont be run. 

 You shouldnt need the .qsys file in the project. It has nothing to do with quartus compilation.

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks, 

 I've managed to get rid of all of the errors now based on your advice. So when I run the DSE it finishes with no errors or warnings and does give me base and best results.  However, these are both from the master machine. In the results.csv file I get results for   - base-slow-1100mV-85C  - base-slow-1100mV-0C (Best)  - base-fast-1100mV-85C  - base-fast-1100mV-0C  but results in columns 1, 2, 3 (the points run on my other machines) are all listed as unknown. When I compile these archived projects they give no errors. The only option I have ticked in the options menu of DSE is archive all projects. So maybe I'm missing something there, though I cant think what.   I know this is getting more difficult to diagnose, but any ideas appreciated!

[Altera_Forum]

Dont compile the archived projects - they should return as completed. Have a look at the individual reports from an "unknown" build to see if it really built or not, otherwise what errors occured. "Unknown" usually means the project didnt compile somewhere (or it could be the timing analysis wasnt run - Ive had this before - very annoying).

[Altera_Forum]

Sorry I was compiling them to see the errors about missing files etc. But I understand what you meant now. 

 From the reports it looks like Analysis and Elabortation ran and completed successfully, but it jumped straight to archiving then. Fitting or Timing analysis etc were not run.   Could I be missing a setting somewhere in DSE to cause them not to run?

[Altera_Forum]

were they not run - or did an error occur? It should have an error in the fit report - even if it couldnt get a licence...

[Altera_Forum]

It seems they werent run. In that there is no folder in the compilation report window.

[Altera_Forum]

It seems they werent run at all. In that there are no folders for them in the compilation report window.