Paraview on Farber

Below is the list of ParaView version available on Farber as of August 2020. The current default version is 4.1.0

[mkyle@farber ~]$ vpkg_versions paraview
Available versions in package (* = default version):

[/opt/shared/valet/2.0.1/etc/paraview.vpkg_json]
paraview ParaView - Open Source Scientific Visualization
  4.1    alias to paraview/4.1.0
* 4.1.0  Version 4.1.0 packaged binary distribution
  5.4.0  Version 5.4.0 packaged binary distribution
  5.8.0  Local build with Qt5, Open MPI, various extensions

To use ParaView with a GUI on Farber a couple of steps have to be taken to load the software into your environment, set up the SSH tunnel for VNC to use, and connect to ParaView with VNC.

Working with ParaView in this method is useful because it creates a more resilient work environment. With this setup if you loose connect to the network you will not loss you work. You simple just need to reconnect to Farber and setup the tunnel again and when you connect with VNC you will find your work just where you left it before your loose of connection. It is also important that you proper close out on ParaView when you are done using it so that it releases the shared resources it consumes.

The below steps will set up load the ParaView software into your environment.

[traine@farber ~]$ vpkg_require paraview/5.8.0
Adding dependency `openmpi/3.1.6:fca,hcoll,mxm` to your environment
Adding dependency `intel-python/2019.5.098:python3` to your environment
Adding dependency `gcc/9.1.0` to your environment
Adding dependency `tcltk/8.6.10` to your environment
Adding package `paraview/5.8.0` to your environment
(/opt/shared/paraview/5.8.0) [traine@farber ~]

Then set run the vnc scripts which will setup ParaView's GUI to run with VNC.

(/opt/shared/paraview/5.8.0) [traine@farber ~]paraview-vnc

New 'login000:1 (traine)' desktop is login000:1

Starting applications specified in /opt/shared/paraview/5.8.0/bin/paraview-xstartup
Log file is /home/1201/.vnc/login000:1.log

You will require a password to access your desktops.

Password:
Verify:

New 'login000:1 (traine)' desktop is login000:1

Starting applications specified in /opt/shared/paraview/5.8.0/bin/paraview-xstartup
Log file is /home/1201/.vnc/login000:1.log

The base port for VNC is 5900, add your display number :1 (that can be found in the above code segment) and we get 5901.

After running the paraview-vnc the GUI you will need to set up tunnel. The steps on how to do this will are shown below for the PuTTY SSH client and Linux/Mac Terminals.

Open PuTTY In addition to your standard connection PuTTY settings you will need to set up the tunnel settings. The image below shows you how this in done in PuTTY. The tunnel setting are found under the Category Connection –> SSH –> Tunnels

After you add this setting to your session you can save them or just open the session. You will have to leave this session open and open a VNC Client software to start the ParaView GUI on your system.

Open a new terminal session on your local machine. Set up a SSH Tunnel using the below ssh command. The base port for VNC is 5900, add your display number :1 and we get 5901.

$ ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 mkyle@farber.hpc.udel.edu

............................................................

    Farber cluster (farber.hpc.udel.edu)

    This computer system is maintained by University of
    Delaware IT.  Links to documentation and other online
    resources can be found at:

      http://farber.hpc.udel.edu/

    For support, please contact consult@udel.edu

............................................................

[mkyle@farber ~]$

Now ParaView is running on port 5901 on Farber. A SSH tunnel is connected on your local machines port 5901 and it is mirroring port 5901 on Farber. The last step is to set up your VNC client to connect to ParaView on port 5901. These are general steps that should apply to any operating system.

• Open a VNC viewer software.
• Add a new connection to localhost:5901

Once the VNC connection is create you can use it to open the ParaView GUI. When connecting you will be asked for a password. This password is the one you set the first time you ran paraview-vnc. Once that password is entered ParaView should open and you can beign working.