# Reading XMF/H5, paraview+pvserver, MPI
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-xmf-h5-paraview-pvserver-mpi/15534
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [October 10, 2024, 7:31pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-xmf-h5-paraview-pvserver-mpi/15534 "2024-10-10T19:31:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ghasemi](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ghasemi)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2024, 7:31pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-xmf-h5-paraview-pvserver-mpi/15534/1 "2024-10-10T19:31:50Z")
Dear all,
I use ParaView in client+server mode (paraview+pvserver). Some XMF/H5 files work without any problem disregarding the number of MPI processes with which I execute pvserver. However, some work only when I execute pvserver only with only one MPI process. After opening the XMF and clicking on “Apply”, it halts and no further response. One of the XMF files with which I encounter this problem is indeed from the test cases from the ParaView website:
ParaViewTestingDataFiles-v5.13.1/ParaView-v5.13.1/Testing/Data/poisson\_3dall\_2.xmf
Multiple recent versions of ParaView (5.11.2, 5.12.1,5.13.0, and 5.13.1) have been tested.
I will be thankful if you share your experience with XMF files and MPI parallel execution of pvserver.
The standalone execution of paraview work fine.
Best regards
Alireza
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2024, 9:33am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-xmf-h5-paraview-pvserver-mpi/15534/2 "2024-10-11T09:33:53Z")
Hi @ghasemi
Please share your data.
Best,
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### Author:  [@ghasemi](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ghasemi)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2024, 11:17am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-xmf-h5-paraview-pvserver-mpi/15534/3 "2024-10-11T11:17:03Z")
Hi Mathieu
[poisson\_3dall\_2.xmf](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/2VI9rP1M5IXCdyWaO6JJwcf7qS6.xmf) (7.8 KB)
[poisson\_3d0.h5](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/yMd0GbaFjNjwPLw6nOpXJoEA52w.h5) (65.5 KB)
[poisson\_3d1.h5](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/snJ68EscPvXLAVlcmH4XyK6DO7P.h5) (69.0 KB)
I uploaded them. Indeed, they are from ParaView Download page, files in ParaViewTestingDataFiles-v5.13.1.zip:
Actually, I do not know whether every XMF file is supposed to work well with MPI+pvserver. Is it?
The issue is not only on one machine, I have tried it on multiple machines, in some case, both pvserver and paraview instances are on the same machine and in some cases on different machines. It did not work on any of the machines (combinations) and any of the paraview versions I mentioned in my first post.
The pvserver+paraview in my case is probably fine, because I can execute some XMF files randomly found on web with no problem. Also, the example from
Menu → Sources → Alphabetical → Hierarchical Fractal
works well. I see it on “top” command in Linux and also I see the speedup when running on more cores (MPI processes).
Best
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2024, 11:27am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-xmf-h5-paraview-pvserver-mpi/15534/4 "2024-10-11T11:27:13Z")
I confirm that this file is making ParaView hang when running distributed and using the XdmfReader
This is a bug and should be fixed, feel free to open an issue: [https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/issues/](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/issues/)
The Xdmf3ReaderS seems to be able to open the file though:
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### Author:  [@ghasemi](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ghasemi)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2024, 11:44am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-xmf-h5-paraview-pvserver-mpi/15534/5 "2024-10-11T11:44:21Z")
Thank you for testing it. I will open an issue on gitlab page.
In my case, it is a bit different. It sounds that it loads for you and then you can apply filters.
But in my case, nothing happens after the first Load/Apply.
In most cases, I just used the binaries from the ParaView Download pages. However, one time I built it using spack but it did not help and the issue persisted.
Do you compile/built it from source? If yes, using spack?
Could you please share the command (configure) line with which you build paraview?
In one of the threads on discourse, with title “Xdmf and Paralellized file reading and processing”
it is suggested to build with
Module\_vtkIOParallelXdmf3:BOOL=ON
Are the binaries on ParaView Download page built with it?