# How to build ParaView with multiserver support?
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-build-paraview-with-multiserver-support/17617
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [June 12, 2026, 9:27am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-build-paraview-with-multiserver-support/17617 "2026-06-12T09:27:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/CsatiZoltan)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2026, 9:27am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-build-paraview-with-multiserver-support/17617/1 "2026-06-12T09:27:36Z")
I would like my client to be able to connect to multiple servers. I heard that ParaView has to be built with multiserver option to achieve it. Although I looked at the CMake options with `ccmake` in the ParaView superbuild, I cannot find which option enables the multiserver build. Could you help me finding it?
---
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2026, 9:30am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-build-paraview-with-multiserver-support/17617/2 "2026-06-12T09:30:04Z")
Its just a CLI option, `--multi-servers`
---
### Author:  [@CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/CsatiZoltan)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2026, 12:54pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-build-paraview-with-multiserver-support/17617/3 "2026-06-12T12:54:15Z")
I started `pvserver` on one of the remote machines after logging in with
```auto
ssh -L 11111:localhost:11111 user@machine1
```
I started `pvserver` on the other remote machine after logging in with
```auto
ssh -L 11112:localhost:11111 user@machine2
```
I started the ParaView client with the `--multi-servers` flag and connected to `machine2` with the configuration `cs://localhost:11112`. The connection is established. When I wanted to connect to `machine1` with the config `cs://localhost:11111`, I get the following error on `machine1`:
```auto
channel 3: open failed: connect failed: Connection refused
```
and on the client:
```auto
( 277.360s) [paraview]vtkSocketCommunicator.c:774 ERR| vtkSocketCommunicator (0x1de93480): Could not receive tag. 1010580540
( 277.364s) [paraview]vtkSocketCommunicator.c:528 ERR| vtkSocketCommunicator (0x1de93480): Endian handshake failed.
( 277.364s) [paraview]vtkTCPNetworkAccessMana:313 ERR| vtkTCPNetworkAccessManager (0x16186350):
**********************************************************************
Connection failed during handshake. vtkSocketCommunicator::GetVersion()
returns different values on the two connecting processes
(Current value: 100).
**********************************************************************
```
---
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2026, 12:55pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-build-paraview-with-multiserver-support/17617/4 "2026-06-12T12:55:14Z")
Can you try without SSH tunelling in the mix ?
---
### Author:  [@CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/CsatiZoltan)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2026, 12:57pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-build-paraview-with-multiserver-support/17617/5 "2026-06-12T12:57:55Z")
I can only access the remote machines via SSH, sorry.
---
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2026, 12:59pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-build-paraview-with-multiserver-support/17617/6 "2026-06-12T12:59:33Z")
you can run pvservers locally.
---
### Author:  [@CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/CsatiZoltan)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-build-paraview-with-multiserver-support/17617/7 "2026-06-12T13:08:41Z")
It works when the servers are launched locally.
---
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2026, 1:12pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-build-paraview-with-multiserver-support/17617/8 "2026-06-12T13:12:12Z")
Then its something wrong in the SSH server setup, not related to ParaView.