VisIt Remote Rendering on Virginia Tech Clusters This document provides instructions for setting up remote rendering and computation of VisIt on VT ARC resources. We have used Blueridge for this documentation but you can also use it on NewRiver.

Requirements ● User account on VT ARC systems (BlueRidge and NewRiver) ● VisIt software version 2.9.1 –

https://wci.llnl.gov/simulation/computer-codes/visit/executables

Instructions On Configuring Visit For Remote Rendering The following steps need to be done once on your local system. Step 1: The following XML file containing the host profile fields need to be copied in the following path. Linux/Ubuntu

• Go to this path in your installation directory - /usr/local/visit/2.9.1/linux-x86_64/resources/hosts

MAC OS

• Go to Applications -> right click on visit and click “Show Package Contents” -> Contents -> Resources -> 2.9.1 -> darwin-x86_64 -> resources -> hosts

You can cd directly to this location using a terminal as well ==> cd /Applications/VisIt.app/Contents/Resources/2.9.1/darwin-x86_64/resources/hosts

Windows

• C:\Program Files\LLNL\VisIt 2.10.0\resources\hosts Step 2: Create a new directory named “vt” - “sudo mkdir vt” Place the below XML file with the name “host_vt_blueridge.xml”. Please be sure to replace the text in bold with your valid allocation. <?xml version="1.0"?> <Object name="MachineProfile"> <Field name="host" type="string">blueridge1.arc.vt.edu</Field> <Field name="hostAliases" type="string"></Field> <Field name="hostNickname" type="string">BR1</Field>

<Field name="directory" type="string">/opt/apps/gcc4_7/openmpi1_6/visit/2.9.1</Field> <Field name="clientHostDetermination" type="string">ParsedFromSSHCLIENT</Field> <Field name="tunnelSSH" type="bool">true</Field> <Object name="LaunchProfile"> <Field name="profileName" type="string">Parallel Interactive</Field> <Field name="timeout" type="int">480</Field> <Field name="numProcessors" type="int">1</Field> <Field name="numNodesSet" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="numNodes" type="int">1</Field> <Field name="partitionSet" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="partition" type="string">vis_q</Field> <Field name="bankSet" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="bank" type="string">The name of your allocation goes here</Field> <Field name="timeLimitSet" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="timeLimit" type="string">00:10:00</Field> <Field name="launchMethodSet" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="launchMethod" type="string">qsub/mpirun</Field> <Field name="forceStatic" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="forceDynamic" type="bool">false</Field> <Field name="arguments" type="stringVector"> </Field> <Field name="parallel" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="launchArgsSet" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="launchArgs" type="string">"-W group_list=blueridge"</Field> <Field name="sublaunchArgsSet" type="bool">false</Field> <Field name="sublaunchArgs" type="string"></Field> <Field name="sublaunchPreCmdSet" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="sublaunchPreCmd" type="string">module load gcc/4.7.2 openmpi</Field> <Field name="sublaunchPostCmdSet" type="bool">false</Field> <Field name="sublaunchPostCmd" type="string"></Field> <Field name="machinefileSet" type="bool">false</Field> <Field name="machinefile" type="string"></Field> <Field name="visitSetsUpEnv" type="bool">false</Field> <Field name="canDoHWAccel" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="GPUsPerNode" type="int">1</Field> <Field name="XArguments" type="string">-X</Field> <Field name="launchXServers" type="bool">true</Field> <Field name="XDisplay" type="string">:%l</Field> <Field name="numThreads" type="int">1</Field> <Field name="constrainNodeProcs" type="bool">false</Field> <Field name="allowableNodes" type="intVector">1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024 1536 </Field> <Field name="allowableProcs" type="intVector">16 32 64 128 256 512 1024 2048 4096 8192 16384 24576 </Field> </Object>

</Object> Step 3: Edit networks.dat file Linux/Ubuntu Under /usr/local/visit/2.9.1/linux-x86_64/resources/hosts you will find a file named “networks.dat”. Open that file and add the line that is highlighted below. MAC cd /Applications/VisIt.app/Contents/Resources/2.9.1/darwin-x86_64/resources/hosts Windows C:\Program Files\LLNL\VisIt 2.10.0\resources\hosts\networks.dat Add the highlighted line into the file Argonne National Laboatory (ANL) network:anl Arizona State University network:asu Atomic Weapons Establishment network:awe Clemson University network:clemson Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) closed network:llnl_closed Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) open network:llnl Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) open (RZ only) network:llnl_rz Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) closed network:lanl_closed Lousiana State University network:lsu National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) network:ncar National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) network:ncsa National Energy Scientific Research Computing Center (NERSC) network:nersc National Institute for Computational Sciences (NICS) newtwork:nics Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) network:ornl Princeton University network:princeton Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) closed network:sandia_closed Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) open network:sandia Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) network:slac Swiss Federal Institue of Technology Zurich network:eth_zurich Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS) network:cscs Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) network:tacc University of Michigan Center for Advanced Computing network:umich University of Utah Center for High Performance Computing network:utah Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University:vt >> Add this line in the file

Step 4: The host profile that you have copied into your system has to be installed for the first time. Linux Open Vislt and Go to Options -> Host profiles and Configuration setup….-> Select Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from the list -> install

MAC Open Vislt and Go to Options -> Host profiles and Configuration setup….-> Select Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from the list -> install

Windows Open Vislt and Go to Options -> Host profiles and Configuration setup….-> Select Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from the list -> install

Restart VisIt after the installation, so that the configuration can be saved.

Step 5: The following are the steps that need to be done each time VISIT is run. Go to Options -> Host profiles. Edit the Username

Then choose Launch Profiles, and click on the tab “Parallel”. Fill in the Bank/Account field. <This is only if you have not replaced the bold text in the XML with your allocation name>

Additionally, you can change the wall time for your submission by editing “Time Limit” Field, the queue name, number of processors, allocation name. Click on Apply and close. Launch a session to Blueridge using the terminal Execute the below commands:

• module load gcc openmpi python visit • module save (don’t need to do this unless you want to default these modules)

In Visit, click on File, Open and choose host as BR1. You may be prompted for a username and password Soon after this step, connection will be established and you can start your computation on the cluster. THAT’S IT! Contact: Sangeetha Srinivasa - bsangee@vt.edu Faiz Abidi - fabidi89@vt.edu