Remote Visualisation

Remote Visualisation service

Remote Visualisation has become a fundamental requirement for users who need to:

• visualize the data produced on our HPC systems (scientific visualization);
• analyze and inspect data directly on the systems;
  
• debug and profile parallel codes running onto HPC clusters.

All the aforementioned categories can take advantage from launching the applications on the server side. For instance, analyzing large amount of data in situ avoids the transfer of GBs or TBs of data. Debugging and profiling tools have to be interfaced to the compute nodes which execute the parallel code; they can benefit from tools enabling a graphic connection to the compute nodes. Scientific visualization can exploit the hardware (GPUs, memory and CPUs) available on the server side, enabling the user to remotely access their data and display them in an efficient way on their local client.

The service is currently available on our HPC systems, being accessible through:

• the Remote Connection Manager (RCM) client, a python cross platform application developed by CINECA's staff based on the open-source package TurboVNC/VirtualGL that simplifies and automates the steps needed for setting up a VNC (Virtual Network Computing) connection to the visualization nodes and managing it. It can be used by any valid user of CINECA clusters.

Users can also take advantage of our expertise in interactive 3D graphics and scientific visualization which ranges from physics, chemistry, astronomy, fluid dynamics, meteorology, medicine to cultural heritage.

List of available visualization software package:

• Abaqus v. 2017
• Ansys v. 195
• Paraview v. 5.5.1; 5.6.0
• Pointwise v. 17.0
• Tecplot v. 2018R2
• vmd

List of debugging & profiling tools:

• Totalview
• Intel Vtune Profiler