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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: 5.10.1 - 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

Running Paraview in Client Server Mode via Slurm#

To set up ParaView with a remote server on the cluster [cluster], follow these steps. You'll need to open two terminals on your local computer. Keep both terminals running for the entire duration of your ParaView session.

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: 
    $ salloc --nodes=1 --ntasks-per-node=1 -c 1 --gres=gpu:1 -p h100 --time=01:00:00
$ module load gcc openmpi paraview
$ srun pvserver --force-offscreen-rendering
    After running the commands, you will see the following output: 
    Waiting for client...
Connection URL: cs://[node name]:11111
Accepting connection(s): [node name]:11111
    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 (kuma for instance): 

$ ssh -L 11111:[node name]:11111 [username]@[cluster].hpc.epfl.ch
Connect ParaView on Your Local Machine

Open ParaView on your local computer. Go to File > Connect…. Add a new server and configure the connection settings as follows: (Provide the exact configuration details or a screenshot here if needed.)

name: kuma cluster
server type: client/server
host: localhost
port: 11111