[Paraview] Using paraview with pvserver

Tue Mar 5 10:47:44 EST 2013

Thanks Utkarsh for your helpful answer.

The "Process ID Scalars " filter on the sphere shows that the configuration is 
working with this test.
The file I'm trying to read is a simple test file in legacy format:

kareline: head -10 grad.vtk
# vtk DataFile Version 2.4
Fichier test genere par run.exe
BINARY
DATASET STRUCTURED_POINTS
DIMENSIONS 1024 1024 1024
ORIGIN 0 0 0
SPACING 1 1 1
POINT_DATA 1073741824
SCALARS test_values double 1
LOOKUP_TABLE default
and the binary data is folowing  (big endian)

Each point is only
for (i=0; i< nx; i++)
   for (j=0; j< ny; j++)
     for (k=0; k< nz; k++)
        tab[i][j][k]=i+j+k;

My aim is to build a solution to visualize our large CFD datasets.
I can visualize this field if I launch pvserver in sequential mode but it's 
quite slow...
With 4 processes I can't visualize it.

Patrick

Utkarsh Ayachit wrote:
> Patrick.
>
> To test of the parallel version is built and running/rendering
> correctly, try this: simply create a Sphere from the Sources menu
> (+Apply). Next create the "Process ID Scalars" filter from the Filters
> menu. You should see the sphere colored in 4 colors. If that works,
> all's well. Also, go the Settings dialog, on the Render View | Server
> Page, set the Remote Render Threshold to 0. That will ensure the use
> of parallel rendering, always.
>
> The 100% CPU usage is expected. That's a OpenMPI thing. Refer to
> http://www.open-mpi.org/community/lists/users/2009/04/9017.php
>
> What type of datafile are you trying to load?
>
> Utkarsh
>
> On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 9:22 AM, Patrick Begou <Patrick.Begou at hmg.inpg.fr> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've posted this mail on vtk forum (as I had understood that paraview is
>> built on VTK), but it seams it was not the right place and they suggest me
>> to use this one.
>>
>> I am trying to set up a client/server config with paraview 3.98.1.
>> The client is an OpenSuse desktop runing the binary distribution of paraview
>> 3.98.1 for x86_64.
>> The server is an EL6 cluster frontend, with a basic graphics board (runing
>> X11), 12 cores and 20Tb for storage. I've build paraview 3.98.1 from sources
>> for this host with openMPI.
>>
>> 1) runing paraview on the server from the client in a "ssh -XC" connection
>> works
>> 2) runing a sequential pvserver on the server and paraview on the client
>> works
>>
>> but runing pvserver in parallel on the server does'nt.
>> If I launch :
>> mpirun -np 4 /share/apps/paraView-server-3.08.1/bin/pvserver
>> (with or without --use-offscreen-rendering) it crashes after loading the
>> datas, while rendering (I think).
>>
>> On the client the message is:
>> ERROR: In
>> /home/utkarsh/Dashboards/MyTests/NightlyMaster/ParaViewSuperbuild-Release/paraview/src/paraview/VTK/Parallel/Core/vtkSocketCommunicator.cxx,
>> line 812
>> vtkSocketCommunicator (0x177a380): Could not receive tag. 188969
>>
>> On the server, the message is:
>> mpirun noticed that process rank 2 with PID 25736 on node kareline exited on
>> signal 9 (Killed).
>>
>> I also noticed some strange behavior:
>> 1) after selecting the file to read and before  clicking on the apply
>> button, 3 of the 4 pvserver processes use 100% cpu.
>> 2) after clicking the apply button, the 4 pvserver processes uses the same
>> memory amount than the sequential run (8Gb each)
>> So I think something is wrong in building my parallel version.
>>
>> Thanks for your help
>>
>> Patrick
>>
>> Details of my install:
>>
>> I've build paraview 3.98 from sources folowing
>> http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/ParaView_And_Mesa_3D:
>>
>> 1) build of Mesa-7.11.2 with:
>> ./configure --with-driver=osmesa --prefix=/share/apps/paraView-server-3.98.1
>> make
>> make install
>>
>> 2) build paraview with:
>> mkdir ParaView-3.98.1-build
>> cd ParaView-3.98.1-build
>> ccmake28 -D PARAVIEW_BUILD_QT_GUI:BOOL=OFF -D VTK_USE_X:BOOL=OFF -D
>> VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA:BOOL=ON /home/makerpm/PARAVIEW/ParaView-3.98.1-source
>>
>> and set
>>   PARAVIEW_BUILD_QT_GUI = OFF
>>   OPENGL_INCLUDE_DIR = /share/apps/paraView-server-3.98.1/include
>>   OPENGL_gl_LIBRARY =
>>   OPENGL_glu_LIBRARY = /share/apps/paraView-server-3.98.1/lib/libGLU.so
>>   VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA = ON
>>   OSMESA_INCLUDE_DIR = /share/apps/paraView-server-3.98.1/include
>>   OSMESA_LIBRARY = /share/apps/paraView-server-3.98.1/lib/libOSMesa.so
>>   VTK_USE_X = OFF
>>   PARAVIEW_USE_MPI=ON
>>
>> make
>> make install
>>
>> --
>> ===============================================================
>> |  Equipe M.O.S.T.         | http://most.hmg.inpg.fr          |
>> |  Patrick BEGOU           |       ------------               |
>> |  LEGI                    | mailto:Patrick.Begou at hmg.inpg.fr |
>> |  BP 53 X                 | Tel 04 76 82 51 35               |
>> |  38041 GRENOBLE CEDEX    | Fax 04 76 82 52 71               |
>> ===============================================================
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Powered by www.kitware.com
>>
>> Visit other Kitware open-source projects at
>> http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html
>>
>> Please keep messages on-topic and check the ParaView Wiki at:
>> http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView
>>
>> Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe:
>> http://www.paraview.org/mailman/listinfo/paraview

-- 
===============================================================
|  Equipe M.O.S.T.         | http://most.hmg.inpg.fr          |
|  Patrick BEGOU           |       ------------               |
|  LEGI                    | mailto:Patrick.Begou at hmg.inpg.fr |
|  BP 53 X                 | Tel 04 76 82 51 35               |
|  38041 GRENOBLE CEDEX    | Fax 04 76 82 52 71               |
===============================================================