howto:remote_viz
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howto:remote_viz [2020/07/06 11:43] ccrosby [Starting and Stopping the VNC server on chpcviz1] |
howto:remote_viz [2020/11/11 15:03] (current) ccrosby [Getting a Virtual Desktop on a compute node] |
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| ====== Visualisation servers ====== | ====== Visualisation servers ====== | ||
| The visualization servers are intended for single-process pre- and post-processing only, as well as GUI monitoring of running jobs. These servers are NOT intended for parallel processing or running compute tasks. **The system administrators will terminate processes that do not fit the above description without warning.** However, it is now possible to get a [[http://wiki.chpc.ac.za/howto:remote_viz#getting_a_virtual_desktop_on_a_compute_node|Virtual Desktop on a compute node]], where you can use the full capabilities of the compute node without restriction. | The visualization servers are intended for single-process pre- and post-processing only, as well as GUI monitoring of running jobs. These servers are NOT intended for parallel processing or running compute tasks. **The system administrators will terminate processes that do not fit the above description without warning.** However, it is now possible to get a [[http://wiki.chpc.ac.za/howto:remote_viz#getting_a_virtual_desktop_on_a_compute_node|Virtual Desktop on a compute node]], where you can use the full capabilities of the compute node without restriction. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ====== How to Videos ====== | ||
| + | - Basic ssh login : [[https://youtu.be/XEPZLtDf1Bw|ssh login to Lengau]] | ||
| + | - Setting up ssh keys : [[https://youtu.be/AfXtM7t4MGs|ssh keys]] | ||
| + | - Getting a VNC session on a visualization node : [[https://youtu.be/t3-Vc7zjxfQ|VizNode VNC session]] | ||
| + | - Getting a VNC session on a compute node : [[https://youtu.be/EDpB-pB08Vo|Compute Node VNC session]] | ||
| + | |||
| ====== Remote Visualization ====== | ====== Remote Visualization ====== | ||
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| The vncserver will continue running even after logging out. If you are no longer going to use it, please kill the server as follows: | The vncserver will continue running even after logging out. If you are no longer going to use it, please kill the server as follows: | ||
| - | /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncserver -kill :3 | + | /apps/chpc/compmech/TurboVNC-2.2.3/bin/vncserver -kill :3 |
| where :3 should be changed to whichever display the server has been running on. | where :3 should be changed to whichever display the server has been running on. | ||
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| ===== Shut down the TurboVNC session when done ===== | ===== Shut down the TurboVNC session when done ===== | ||
| - | /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncserver -kill :3 | + | /apps/chpc/compmech/TurboVNC-2.2.3/bin/vncserver -kill :3 |
| will shut down the VNC server for display 3, freeing up resources for other users. | will shut down the VNC server for display 3, freeing up resources for other users. | ||
| Line 139: | Line 146: | ||
| === Launch the VNC server === | === Launch the VNC server === | ||
| - | Make sure that you have a suitable $HOME/.vnc/xstartup.turbovnc file: | + | Make sure that you have a suitable $HOME/.vnc/xstartup.turbovnc file. The TurboVNC installation has been customized to generate a suitable version of this file be default when it is run for the first time, but if you have difficulties, ensure that it looks like this: |
| <code> | <code> | ||
| Line 153: | Line 160: | ||
| Now launch the VNC server: | Now launch the VNC server: | ||
| <code> | <code> | ||
| - | /apps/chpc/compmech/TurboVNC-2.1.2/bin/vncserver :1 -depth 24 -geometry 1800x1000 | + | /apps/chpc/compmech/TurboVNC-2.2.3/bin/vncserver :1 -depth 24 -geometry 1800x1000 |
| </code> | </code> | ||
| Use a resolution that fits your display. Make note of the compute node hostname. | Use a resolution that fits your display. Make note of the compute node hostname. | ||
| Line 171: | Line 178: | ||
| #PBS -m abe | #PBS -m abe | ||
| #PBS -M justsomeuser@gmail.com | #PBS -M justsomeuser@gmail.com | ||
| - | /apps/chpc/compmech/TurboVNC-2.1.2/bin/vncserver :1 -depth 24 -geometry 1600x900 | + | ### This following line will write the hostname of your compute node to the file hostname.txt |
| + | hostname > hostname.txt | ||
| + | /apps/chpc/compmech/TurboVNC-2.2.5/bin/vncserver :1 -depth 24 -geometry 1600x900 | ||
| sleep 2h | sleep 2h | ||
| - | /apps/chpc/compmech/TurboVNC-2.1.2/bin/vncserver -kill :1 | + | /apps/chpc/compmech/TurboVNC-2.2.5/bin/vncserver -kill :1 |
| </file> | </file> | ||
| - | Obviously customise this script to suit your own circumstances. The above script will provide 4 cores for two hours. DO NOT use more than 4 cores in the VNC session. If you intend using a full compute node, use the smp queue and request 24 cores. If you need more than 2 hours, specify the walltime as well as the sleep time accordingly. Get the compute node hostname by querying PBS: ''qstat -awu username'' will give you the jobnumbers of all your jobs (please substitute "username" with your OWN username). ''qstat -n1 jobnumber'' will give you the hostname of the compute node(s) that you are using for that job. | + | Obviously customise this script to suit your own circumstances. The above script will provide 4 cores for two hours. DO NOT use more than 4 cores in the VNC session. If you intend using a full compute node, use the smp queue and request 24 cores. If you need more than 2 hours, specify the walltime as well as the sleep time accordingly. Get the compute node hostname either by looking in the file hostname.txt or by by querying PBS: ''qstat -awu username'' will give you the jobnumbers of all your jobs (please substitute "username" with your OWN username). ''qstat -n1 jobnumber'' will give you the hostname of the compute node(s) that you are using for that job. |
| Line 190: | Line 199: | ||
| === Connect your VNC client === | === Connect your VNC client === | ||
| - | Now, as before, fire up your VNC client, preferably TurboVNC, and connect to port 5901 (or 1 in VNC shorthand) on localhost. Once connected, you will be confronted with a blank black screen. Click your right mouse button to pop up a small menu, and select xterm, which will give you a small terminal. You can resize the window by holding down the alt key and the right mouse button, and dragging the mouse. Refer to the [[http://fluxbox.org|Fluxbox homepage]] if you need help with other operations. | + | Now, as before, fire up your VNC client, preferably TurboVNC, and connect to port 5901 (or 1 in VNC shorthand) on localhost. Once connected, you will be confronted with a blank grey screen. Click your right mouse button to pop up a small menu, and select xterm, which will give you a small terminal. You can resize the window by holding down the alt key and the right mouse button, and dragging the mouse. Refer to the [[http://fluxbox.org|Fluxbox homepage]] if you need help with other operations. |
| === Running Interactive Software === | === Running Interactive Software === | ||
| Up to this point, the process has been basically identical to using a visualization node. However, **the compute nodes do not support VirtualGL**, as they do not have dedicated graphics cards. All is not lost however: | Up to this point, the process has been basically identical to using a visualization node. However, **the compute nodes do not support VirtualGL**, as they do not have dedicated graphics cards. All is not lost however: | ||
| - Software GUIs with menus, etc. will generally just work. | - Software GUIs with menus, etc. will generally just work. | ||
| - | - Software linking dynamically to OpenGL libraries will probably work well with the chpc/compmech/mesa/19.1.2_swr module. The currently installed Mesa-19.1.2 supports software rendering using either LLVMpipe or Intel's swr. By default the module activates the LLVMpipe method, but this is easily changed: ''export GALLIUM_DRIVER=swr'' or ''export GALLIUM_DRIVER=llvmpipe''. The advantage of the LLVMpipe implementation is that it supports a more recent version of OpenGL. | + | - Software linking dynamically to OpenGL libraries will probably work well with the chpc/compmech/mesa/20.2.2_swr or chpc/compmech/mesa/19.1.2_swr modules. The currently installed Mesa-20.2.2 supports software rendering using either LLVMpipe or Intel's swr. By default the module activates the LLVMpipe method, but this is easily changed: ''export GALLIUM_DRIVER=swr'' or ''export GALLIUM_DRIVER=llvmpipe''. |
| - | - Older programs, such as Paraview-4.3 ''/apps/chpc/compmech/CFD/ParaView-4.3.1-Linux-64bit/bin/paraview'' work very well with the Mesa-19.1.2 implementation. More recent ParaView versions are built with --mesa-swr and --mesa-llvm support. Although these work well with X-forwarding, they don't work in the VNC environment. We are not sure why, but we are working on it. | + | - Older programs, such as Paraview-4.3 ''/apps/chpc/compmech/CFD/ParaView-4.3.1-Linux-64bit/bin/paraview'' work very well with the Mesa-20.2.2 implementation. More recent ParaView versions are built with --mesa-swr and --mesa-llvm support. Although these work well with X-forwarding, they don't work in the VNC environment. We are not sure why, but we are working on it. |
| - Some software vendors provide binaries that are statically linked to a Mesa library. These will generally work, but may be a bit slow. | - Some software vendors provide binaries that are statically linked to a Mesa library. These will generally work, but may be a bit slow. | ||
| - STARCCM+ has its own version of Mesa-SWR. Use the command line options ''-mesa -rr -rrthreads N'' , where N is the number of cores that should be used for graphics rendering. In this implementation, you can use up to 16 threads. | - STARCCM+ has its own version of Mesa-SWR. Use the command line options ''-mesa -rr -rrthreads N'' , where N is the number of cores that should be used for graphics rendering. In this implementation, you can use up to 16 threads. | ||
| - | === Notes on OpenSWR === | + | === Notes on Mesa Software Rendering === |
| - | Historically, Mesa software rendering has been a way of getting OpenGL-enabled software to work, albeit very slowly, on hardware without dedicated graphics-processing capabilities. However, the [[http://www.openswr.org|OpenSWR]] framework makes full use of the sse and avx capabilities of modern CPUs to produce good rendering performance. Recent versions of the alternative [[https://www.mesa3d.org/llvmpipe.html|LLVMpipe]] implementation have similar performance, and the ''apps/chpc/compmech/mesa/19.1.2_swr'' module defaults to LLVMpipe, because it supports more recent OpenGL features. | + | Historically, Mesa software rendering has been a way of getting OpenGL-enabled software to work, albeit very slowly, on hardware without dedicated graphics-processing capabilities. However, the [[http://www.openswr.org|OpenSWR]] framework makes full use of the sse and avx capabilities of modern CPUs to produce good rendering performance. Recent versions of the alternative [[https://www.mesa3d.org/llvmpipe.html|LLVMpipe]] implementation have similar performance, and the ''apps/chpc/compmech/mesa/20.2.2_swr'' module defaults to LLVMpipe. |
/var/www/wiki/data/attic/howto/remote_viz.1594028592.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/07/06 11:43 by ccrosby
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