[Paraview] Paraviewweb and Amazon EC2 instance: X display, GPU option, parallel visualization, launcher...

Fri Sep 5 16:57:52 EDT 2014

Hi Jing,

   I have copied the paraview list here so that everyone can benefit from
the conversation.

   So don't worry, it's not a silly question.  I don't think it's totally
clear in the documentation, as there are several places where 'host' shows
up as a key.  There's one 'host' in the 'resources' section, and there's
another in the 'configuration' section, and those should be fine left as
localhost in your situation.  The one you probably need to worry about is
the one that is embedded in the 'sessionURL', as this is what clients will
use to connect through to the visualization process.  That hostname (in the
'sessionURL') should be changed to the public DNS of the Amazon instance
(or the IP could work fine too I guess).

   However, you mentioned you have installed Apache, so I guess you're
going to use that as a front end?  Then you want to make sure you create
your Apache VirtualHost and set the sessionURL as you find them in this
guide
<http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/js-doc/index.html#!/guide/ubuntu_14_04>,
because Apache is going to intercept those session urls which contain the
unique key from the launcher and re-write them so they get to the correct
port where the visualization process is listening.

   I'm currently overhauling some of those ParaViewWeb guiedes, so I'll try
to make sure that stuff is clearer.

Cheers,
Scott

On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 2:39 PM, jlih <jlih at masonlive.gmu.edu> wrote:

>  Hi Scott,
>
> Thanks for the additional info. I have complied Paraview with OSMesa
> support and installed Apache.
>
>
>  Now I have one more silly question about the Python launcher. In the
> "config.json", 'localhost' is used as an example for 'host'. If I'm going
> to have a 'real deployment' with Apache, should I revise the host to use
> the IP of the  Amazon instance?
>
>
>  Thanks,
>
> Jing
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* Scott Wittenburg <scott.wittenburg at kitware.com>
> *Sent:* Friday, September 5, 2014 12:36 PM
>
> *To:* jlih
> *Cc:* paraview at paraview.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Paraview] Paraviewweb and Amazon EC2 instance: X display,
> GPU option, parallel visualization, launcher...
>
>  Hi Jing,
>
>     Make sure to turn on OSMesa support too, see here
> <http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/js-doc/index.html#!/guide/os_mesa>
> or here <http://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView_And_Mesa_3D> for details.
>  And the fastest offscreen rendering involves using Gallium llvmpipe.  If
> you're interested in that, the first link has instructions on buidling a
> version of OSMesa that includes Gallium llvmpipe, as well as how to then
> compile ParaView to take advantage of it.
>
>     Hope that helps.
>
>  Cheers,
> Scott
>
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 10:29 AM, jlih <jlih at masonlive.gmu.edu> wrote:
>
>>  Hi Scott,
>>
>> Thanks for your answers and recommendations.
>>
>>
>>  When I complied and installed Paraview on my two instances, I turned
>> the Python option ON but did not turn off VTK-USE-X.  I will go ahead to
>> recompile Paraview again and check the Python launcher.
>>
>>
>>  Thanks again.
>>
>> Jing
>>  ------------------------------
>> *From:* Scott Wittenburg <scott.wittenburg at kitware.com>
>> *Sent:* Friday, September 5, 2014 12:05 PM
>> *To:* jlih
>> *Cc:* paraview at paraview.org
>> *Subject:* Re: [Paraview] Paraviewweb and Amazon EC2 instance: X
>> display, GPU option, parallel visualization, launcher...
>>
>>   Hi Jing,
>>
>>     I'm responding to your questions inline.  Thanks!
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 8:04 AM, jlih <jlih at masonlive.gmu.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>  Dear all,
>>>
>>> I have installed Paraviewweb on an Amazon EC2 GPU instance based on the
>>> installation guide at:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/js-doc/index.html#!/guide/paraviewweb_on_aws_ec2.
>>> The webpages under "apps" can show up correctly. Now I am trying to install
>>> the parallel visualization. Here are a few questions I want to verify:
>>>
>>>
>>>   Since the instructions you referenced describe installing a binary
>> version, I assume that's what you did.  However, those instructions assumed
>> an instance with a graphics card, hence all the instructions specific to
>> NVidia.  If you have chosen an instance without a graphics card, you can't
>> use the binary installation of ParaView, instead you'll need to compile
>> ParaView yourself with support for OSMesa.
>>
>>>  1. When I run pvpython on the GPU instance, I got the error message
>>> saying "bad X display..". I guess this occurs when the instance does not
>>> have a "real graphics" card and "off screen rendering" option should be
>>> used. My question is will this error affect the Paraviewweb application?
>>>
>>>
>>>   ParaViewWeb is just ParaView with Python turned on.  If you get a
>> binary version, this is already done for you.  If you compile it yourself,
>> make sure to enable Python during the configure stage.  At any rate, yes,
>> ParaViewWeb is affected the same as ParaView by not having a graphics card.
>>
>>>  2.  I have installed Paraview (not Paraviewweb) on two other instances
>>> (without GPU) which run MPI without any issues. I would like to use those
>>> two instances as a part of the parallel visualization framework. Should I
>>> install the Paraviewweb on those two instances as well? Or I just need to
>>> change the machine configuration file to include the two instances?
>>>
>>>
>>>   If you installed ParaView on those two instances, and if those
>> installations of ParaView include Python, then you're good to go.  Unless
>> they don't have graphics cards and you installed the binary version, as
>> mentioned above.
>>
>>>  3.  It seems GPU is needed for the instance when I configured the
>>> Paraviewweb on Amazon  EC2. There is a option for NVIDIA.. But  I read this
>>> document:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/js-doc/index.html#!/guide/os_mesa
>>> which says GPU may not be necessary. Is this applicable to Amazon EC2
>>> instances?
>>>
>>>
>>>   Yep, it is.  But again, you have to compile ParaView yourself.  See
>> the guide you referenced above for information on how to do that.  Also
>> there's a ParaView wiki page
>> <http://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView_And_Mesa_3D> with information on
>> that.
>>
>>>  4.  Launcher (
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/js-doc/index.html#!/guide/parallel_app).
>>> I'm not sure if I should modify the * pw.session.public.fields* if I am
>>> going to use the default Parallel example provided by Paraviewweb to start
>>> with.
>>>
>>>
>>>   The ParaViewWeb on EC2 documentation describes setting up the Jetty
>> launcher, which is totally fine.  In that case, you would set up a few
>> key/vals to allow that launcher to start the server side application you're
>> interested, the parallel visualization launcher in your case.  That's all
>> covered in the guide you linked.  Then you would indeed need to make sure
>> you add "file" to those session fields as the documentation states.
>>
>>  On the other hand, you might want to consider using the Python launcher
>> instead of the Jetty launcher.  It comes within ParaView so you don't have
>> another software stack to worry about, and it has all the same capabilities
>> and more.  For those reasons, we currently recommend the Python launcher
>> over the Jetty one.  You can find information about the Python launcher
>> here
>> <http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/js-doc/index.html#!/guide/py_launcher>
>> .
>>
>>>  Sorry about throwing out so many  questions but Paraviewweb is a very
>>> interesting application to explore.
>>>
>>>
>>>   No worries, thanks for your interest!  Hopefully you now have what
>> you need to get started.
>>
>>  Cheers,
>> Scott
>>
>>>  Thanks,
>>>
>>> Jing
>>>
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