[Paraview] server configuration with two factor authentication?

Mon Mar 23 10:33:42 EDT 2015

Okay, makes sense. I wanted to make sure I understood every step. BW has a more lenient policy on connections from the compute nodes because the VisIt maintainer put in the hard work of getting them to change it.

From: David E DeMarle [mailto:dave.demarle at kitware.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2015 11:15 AM
To: burlen
Cc: paraview at paraview.org; Vanmoer, Mark W
Subject: Re: [Paraview] server configuration with two factor authentication?

I use a tiny executable called SocketRelay for the same purpose. We borrowed it from VisIt.
On Mar 20, 2015 5:42 PM, "Burlen Loring" <burlen.loring at gmail.com<mailto:burlen.loring at gmail.com>> wrote:
there are 2 places I used netcat.

1) ssh policy on login node only allows us to connect to ssh tunnels from localhost. using ncat there fools ssh into thinking we are connecting on localhost. I think it's dumb that we have to do this, but our sys admins refuse to make the change. The ssh option is called GatewayPorts.

2) there is a different network protocol used on the compute nodes of our cray, the mom node understands that protocol and acts like a bridge to the login node. we create the tunnel from mom to login with netcat.

there are other ways to forward the connections beside netcat, but it's easy to build, install, and use, and it's fast.
On 03/20/2015 02:26 PM, Vanmoer, Mark W wrote:
Hi Burlen,

Are you using ncat to setup those connections because of a policy (like no outside network connections allowed) or for a technical reason?

Mark
From: Burlen Loring [mailto:burlen.loring at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 4:48 PM
To: Vanmoer, Mark W; David E DeMarle
Cc: paraview at paraview.org<mailto:paraview at paraview.org>
Subject: Re: [Paraview] server configuration with two factor authentication?

Hi Mark,

Yes to both. The way this could work on a simple cluster is: from the user's system which is assumed to be remote, the pvsc creates an ssh tunnel inside the xterm and calls the launch script on the compute system login node. the launch script submits the batch job. pvserver, when run in the batch script, connects back to the ssh tunnel on the login node. "client host" is the login node host name. "server port" is specified by the user in the pvsc.

There's a slight complication with some Cray systems that means we need to involve a special node called the "mom" node in the tunnel.

This will be clear if you see a complete example, for instance the following 3 scripts are used with NERSC's Cray Edison: pvsc<https://github.com/burlen/pvserver-configs/blob/master/pvsc/edison-unix.pvsc>, launch script<https://github.com/burlen/pvserver-configs/blob/master/servers/edison/4.3.1/start_pvserver.sh>, batch script<https://github.com/burlen/pvserver-configs/blob/master/servers/edison/4.3.1/start_pvserver.qsub>.

Burlen
On 03/19/2015 02:24 PM, Vanmoer, Mark W wrote:
This great, thanks for sharing, guys. Using xterm would have never occurred to me.

Are you setting the pvserver –client-host somehow? My old pvsc from Forge sent over the client’s hostname to the script. I tried that on Blue Waters and it works, but do I not need to actually do that? Also, are either of you setting –server-port in the launch script?

From: David E DeMarle [mailto:dave.demarle at kitware.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 1:28 PM
To: Burlen Loring
Cc: Vanmoer, Mark W; paraview at paraview.org<mailto:paraview at paraview.org>
Subject: Re: [Paraview] server configuration with two factor authentication?

I liked this bit too as the windows version 'xterm -e ssh &'.

<Command exec="cmd.exe" delay="10">
<Arguments>
<Argument value="/C"/>
<Argument value="start"/>
<Argument value="cmd.exe"/>
<Argument value="/C"/>
<Argument value="$SSH_EXEquot;/>

Since windows isn't my first language, that took more hunting than I'ld like to admit. :)

David E DeMarle
Kitware, Inc.
R&D Engineer
21 Corporate Drive
Clifton Park, NY 12065-8662
Phone: 518-881-4909<tel:518-881-4909>

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 2:18 PM, Burlen Loring <burlen.loring at gmail.com<mailto:burlen.loring at gmail.com>> wrote:

""C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\plink.exe""

so that's the secret to paths with spaces! nice, thanks for sharing that!
On 03/19/2015 09:22 AM, David E DeMarle wrote:
Howdy Mark,

Adding to what Burlen said.

You can grab pvsc examples for ORNL, ANL and NERSC via
paraview->File->Connect… Fetch servers.
//File->Conenct…FetchServers->Edit Sources replace with pvsc http://www.paraview.org/files/pvscWindows Kitware Inc. on windows.
Mac requires XQuartz, windows requires putty.

Let me know when you get it working, with your permission I'ld love to add NCSA (and everywhere else) there so that users get it by default.

David E DeMarle
Kitware, Inc.
R&D Engineer
21 Corporate Drive
Clifton Park, NY 12065-8662
Phone: 518-881-4909<tel:518-881-4909>

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 11:56 AM, Burlen Loring <burlen.loring at gmail.com<mailto:burlen.loring at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi Mark,

This works without anything special if you launch in an xterm. We did this at NICS which requires both ssh authentication and rsa secure id token. Here is an example<https://github.com/burlen/pvserver-configs/blob/master/pvsc/edison-unix.pvsc>

Burlen

On 03/19/2015 06:50 AM, Vanmoer, Mark W wrote:
Hi, is there a way to set up the server XML so that it works with two factor authentication, as in a token generator? This is for the Blue Waters machine at NCSA. What I mean is, something like how VisIt acts, which when doing the connection will prompt for the password and token.

In the past, on machines without two factor auth, I’ve used

http://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView:Server_Configuration#Case_Eleven:_Launch_pvserver_on_a_cluster_using_PBS_-_use_reverse_connection_to_client

but that requires having ssh keys set up.

Thanks,
Mark

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