#1 2023-02-14 12:57:07

llionevans

Member

Registered: 2018-07-27

Posts: 11

Scripting for Paravis (running headless with off screen rendering)

When running scripts (e.g. on a cluster) there is usually no screen associated with the environment. Therefore, to produce figures/images with an automated script one needs to use 'off screen rendering'.

Paraview (i.e. the kitware version) has the option to use EGL or OSMesa to run in a headless mode. Does anyone know if/how Paravis can be run headlessly?

Thanks for any advice.

Last edited by llionevans (2023-02-14 13:21:56)

mf

Member

Registered: 2019-06-18

Posts: 376

Re: Scripting for Paravis (running headless with off screen rendering)

Hello,

I am using SM2021 (containerised version) on a headless system via ssh -X on a regular basis. Screen rendering is done via VNC. I have to use the --soft option, so no rendering via GPU is working until now (I have a Quadro 400 installed, though).
The installation of VNC is described in thread id=26341, which I cannot access for some reason. This was new for me back then.

Mario.

llionevans

Member

Registered: 2018-07-27

Posts: 11

Re: Scripting for Paravis (running headless with off screen rendering)

Hi Mario,

Thanks for the reply. From what I understand, you are using this interactively. i.e. you connect via VNC and can see the visualisation on your screen?

This won't work for jobs in a batch queue (e.g. slurm). What we need is to have the script run non-interactively. That is, we submit a job to a queue, then the script will run and create the desired figures and save them to file, with no rendering to the screen.

An example where we might use this, is if we run a parameter sweep and want to generate >1000 images without manually loading and opening each set of results.

Maybe I misunderstood what you meant?

Thanks,
Llion

mf

Member

Registered: 2019-06-18

Posts: 376

Re: Scripting for Paravis (running headless with off screen rendering)

Hello,

Yes, but I log on via ssh -X MACHINE.ADDRESS. The screen is generated via VNC (it is not necessary but it is snappier) on the server. It is passed on to ssh and displayed on my local machine.

Well, I know ABOUT Slurm, but I do not use it (not necessary in my case).

So what you want might be entirely different, that is my guess,

Mario.

llionevans

Member

Registered: 2018-07-27

Posts: 11

Re: Scripting for Paravis (running headless with off screen rendering)

Thanks again for the input, but yes I think what we're trying to achieve is different to what you're doing. Maybe someone else has tried it?