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Using ParaView with remote server on the clusters#

Install ParaView on your machine. The server (our machine) and client (your machine) should have the same version number. Otherwise the connection will not work. You will find the different versions of ParaView here: The versions installed on our machines are:

  • izar: 5.10.1
  • jed: 5.12.0
  • kuma: 5.12.0

There are two options for using ParaView with a remote server on the clusters:

Running Paraview in Client Server Mode via definition file#

  1. Download the definition file for the cluster you are targeting

  2. In ParaView, prepare the connection by clicking on Connect button or going in the File > Connect... menu. This will open a dialog box where you can load the scitas_<cluster>.pvsc file via the Load Servers button.

  3. Choose the proper server and click Connect

  4. This will open a dialog box where you can select some options for the job that will be submitted to the cluster.

    Connnect Dialog

Step by step description of the script if you want to do it by hand#

You will need two terminals: one on your machine and one connected on the front node of a <cluster>. In addition you need to run the exact same version of ParaView on your local machine, than the one available the chosen <cluster>.

Terminal 1: Start the ParaView Server#

  • Open a terminal and connect to the cluster via SSH.
  • Start the ParaView server by running the following commands in order:

On Jed: 

$ salloc --nodes=1 --ntasks-per-node=1 -c 1 --time=01:00:00

On kuma 

$ salloc --nodes=1 --ntasks-per-node=1 -c 1 --partition h100 --gpus 1 --time=01:00:00


$ module load gcc openmpi paraview
$ srun pvserver --force-offscreen-rendering --server-port=<port>

<port> should be a number between 1025 and 65535, the default value is 11111 but it can be changed in case another user already use it. If you get an error saying the port is already in use or something similar try using a different value for <port>.

After running the commands, you will see the following output: 

Waiting for client...
Connection URL: cs://<node name>:<port>
Accepting connection(s): <node name>:<port>

Take note of the <node name>, as you will need it to configure the SSH connection in Terminal 2.

Terminal 2: Set Up SSH Port Forwarding#

Open a second terminal and connect to the cluster using SSH with port forwarding enabled. Replace <node name> with the hostname obtained from the previous step, <username> with your username and <cluster> with the name of the cluster targeted: 

$ ssh -L <port>:<node name>:<port> <username>@<cluster>.hpc.epfl.ch

Connect the ParaView Client#

On the ParaView instance on your local computer. Go to File > Connect…. Add a new server and configure the connection settings as follows:

name: SCITAS cluster
server type: client/server
host: localhost
port: <port>