The distributed compute works through a controller node and compute nodes. The compute node needs to be set up in a slightly different way than the controller nodes. This configuration set defines the compute node configurations.

The Distributed Compute package can be downloaded HERE.  You will want to download Overlay-WAT1.1.7z. This is the same package that is used for the controller node. If you have already downloaded this file, you can skip this step.

Program Setup

The distributed compute package downloaded only provides supplemental files that are needed for distributed compute. You will still need to set up your Controller and Compute Nodes with HEC-WAT and perform additional steps to set up.

If you have already setup up your controller node, you can copy your C:\Programs file and all of it's contents straight to your compute node to the same location. If you take this approach, you need to make sure that you update your HEC-WAT.config file so that vmparam -Djava.rmi.server.hostname=127.0.0.1 is active again otherwise the DC will fail. If you take this approach, you can skip Steps 1-6 below.


  1. Under your C Drive, create a folder called Programs (if it does not already exist).
  2. Within Programs, unzip your HEC-WAT package.
    Location where HEC-WAT Package should be unzipped

  3. Unzip Overlay-WAT1.1.7z. Copy the contents within (HEC-WAT and DC folders) and paste them in C:\Programs.
    Contents of Overlay-WAT1.1.7z

  4. Navigate to C:\Programs\HEC-WAT\HEC-WAT and open the following config editors in a text editor
    1. HEC-WAT-controller.config
    2. HEC-WAT.config
  5. Copy the contents from HEC-WAT-controller.config and paste them at the bottom of the HEC-WAT.config file.
  6. Save and close the config file. 
  7. HEC-RAS is not an executable and needs to be installed. HEC-WAT 1.1 uses HEC-RAS 6.5. The setup package can be downloaded from HERE.
  8. Once all software is has been installed, launch HEC-WAT on the compute node and acknowledge all Terms and Conditions pop-up windows that appear. Failing to do so before running a distributed compute could cause the compute to hang.
  9. Navigate to C:\Programs\HEC-WAT\HEC-WAT\ignite and right-click computenode.bat and select Send to - Desktop (create shortcut). When you run a distributed compute, computenode.bat is the one that is launched on the compute nodes that allows the controller to recognize them.
  10. Navigate to C:\Users\HEC\AppData\Local\Temp, right-click on out.log and select Send to - Desktop (create shortcut).

    If you do not see out.log, launch the computenode.bat from the desktop shortcut and then check back.