[Paraview] New user - install Paraview 5.0 on CentOS 6

[Utkarsh Ayachit]

David,

My responses are inline.

> Next step is to test multiCores on local. i read the doc (which speak only
> about PV v4 ...) and see that we have to compile pvserver.

Not necessarily. Only if you want to use it on HPC system with
platform specific MPI implementation. Otherwise you can simply run
pvserver from the ParaView binaries from paraview.org as follows:

$ paraviewdir= <location for paraview 5.0 binaries untarred>
$ cd $paraviewdir
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$paraviewdir/lib/paraview-5.0
$ ./lib/paraview-5.0/mpiexec -np <number of ranks> ./bin/pvserver

> Next step is to test multiCores on local. i read the doc (which speak only
> about PV v4 ...) and see that we have to compile pvserver with a cmake, QT,
> OpenGL, Python and MPI. Here start the problem :)

I'd suggest use the ParaView Superbuild
(https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild) to build
ParaView and all needed components. Get get a basic build, here's the
flags I'd use:

> mkdir buildir
> cd builddir
> ccmake -DENABLE_paraview=ON \
                 -DENABLE_python=ON \
                 -DENABLE_qt4=ON \
                 -DENABLE_mpi=ON \
                 -DUSE_SYSTEM_python=ON \
                 -DUSE_SYSTEM_mpi=ON \
                 -DParaView_FOMR_GIT=OFF \
                  -DPARAVIEW_RENDERING_BACKEND=OpenGL2 \
                  <superbuild source dir>
> make

This will use your system installation of Python (all Python packages
in it)  and MPI, but built appropriate version of Qt.

> - Is there an updated documentation for Paraview V5 (html, wiki and pdf all
> stop at v4.4 or v4.3) ?

5 and 4.* is not much different besides changes to rendering backend.
Thus ParaView Guide etc. are still relevant. We are working on
updating the guide to document new features in 5.0.

> - which version of QT use ?  from sources i can take 4.7, 4.8.3 4.8.x+, 5.x+
> and try to compile.

You 4.8.* is recommended. We use 4.8.4 for our binaries.

> - All those operations needs many manual tasks and manage. is there some
> standard compiled package for a standard Centos6 config ? (currently i used
> only Basic rpm packages form the distribution).

Not to my knowledge.


> - Final goal is to test with pvbatch on a cluster. Do we'll have to do all
> those operations for pvbatch on a cluster ?

If the question is do you have to build paraview, yes. However, you
don;t need to build with Qt support enabled on  the cluster.

> - We have some decent Workstations with Graphic Cards, is there a reason to
> try install pvserver+mpi on a cluster with nodes without Graphic cards ?

Only if you want to use the cluster. You don't have to use ParaView in
a remote configuration. You can always use it as a desktop only tool.