[Paraview] Xdmf/HDF5 access during a long run?

[Eric E. Monson]

Hello,

So far we have just used Xdmf/HDF5 and ParaView to view data from  
small runs on a single machine, where we generate a time series as the  
simulation progresses by appending snapshots of the data to the same  
HDF5 file. As we work towards larger simulations (on a cluster) which  
will run much longer, my collaborators are wondering whether we will  
be able to view any of the data before the whole run is over? This  
could be a snapshot of the current state, or the ability to animate  
the data up to the most recent time step, and it wouldn't have to be  
an auto-update, as in "Animating Live Data" (although they would like  
this ability, too :).

Do any of you have experience checking on your Xdmf/HFD5 data while  
it's being generated? And, if so, are there any special tricks to it?  
(I know I had trouble reading an HDF5 file one time that I hadn't  
closed properly, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are issues  
regarding whether the file is closed between writes, but I don't know  
if there are other issues, too.)

Thanks for the help,
-Eric

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Eric E Monson
Duke Visualization Technology Group