Running project with paraview on remote server without graphics

In Situ Support
1

Hello. I’m trying to run project, using paraview catalyst on remote machine without X-server. I’ve build catalyst from sources, but when program calls python-script in function create_render_view(), I get an error:

(  29.111s) [pvbatch.1       ]                       :0     FATL| Signal: SIGABRT
(  14.956s) [pvbatch.0       ]vtkXOpenGLRenderWindow.:464    ERR| vtkXOpenGLRenderWindow (0x3049040): bad X server connection. DISPLAY=

What should I do? Is there any possibility to run program without using X-server? I tried to download ParaView Server for Headless Machines, but when i do cmake, I get an error:

CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:80 (find_package):
  Could not find a package configuration file provided by "catalyst" with any
  of the following names:

    catalystConfig.cmake
    catalyst-config.cmake
2

When you build ParaView you’ll have to use one of the headless options: OSMesa (if you don’t have an nvidia card) or EGL (if you do).
OSMesa uses software rendering so it is going to be slower.

See the following link to see what options you need for this.

https://kitware.github.io/paraview-docs/latest/cxx/Offscreen.html

3

I’ve installed OSmesa, but when i build paraview after ccmake … i can’t see options VTK_USE_X, VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA
If i do
cmake .. -DVTK_USE_X=OFF -DVTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA=ON -DOSMESA_INCLUDE_DIR=/include/ -DOSMESA_LIBRARY=/lib64
I have an error:

Linking C shared library ../../../../lib64/libvtkglew-pv5.10.so
/lib64: file not recognized:This is a directory
collect2: error: ld execution ended with return code 1
make[2]: *** [VTK/ThirdParty/glew/vtkglew/CMakeFiles/glew.dir/build.make:98: lib64/libvtkglew-pv5.10.so.5.10] Error 1
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:17869: VTK/ThirdParty/glew/vtkglew/CMakeFiles/glew.dir/all] Ошибка 2
make: *** [Makefile:146: all] Errror 2
4

Do you use cmake-gui to configure? Make sure you click the Advanced checkbox and then Search for USE_X or HAS_OSMESA.

5

Or you can use ccmake instead and type t instead to switch to the Advanced properties.

Type / to search (like in vi) and then USE_X will take you to that property instead of filtering like in cmake-gui.

I like cmake-gui better for this reason but you can use ccmake when you don’t have graphics.

6

Thanks. That helped. Could you tell me where I can find the documentation for the new catalyst, I found only guide to catalyst with paraview 4.3.1, i’m using 5.10

7

If you use an older Catalyst instrumentation - the part that is done in the simulation - that documentation is still valid.
I assume you refer to the documentation linked here
https://www.paraview.org/in-situ/

If you plan to implement a new instrumentation you should consider using the new Catalyst as detailed in
https://www.kitware.com/catalyst-improvements-in-paraview-5-9/

The new version has some important advantages as detailed in the linked post but the old version is still supported.

Dan

8

Thanks a lot!