[Paraview] Distributing PVSC files (ParaView 4.0)

Thu Jan 12 13:57:24 EST 2012

Utkarsh - I've finally gotten around to looking at the PVSC distribution stuff in ParaView 3.14 ... you did a great job on it.   It's well thought out and looks pretty robust.   I need to do more testing with the authenticated server stuff, but so far it looks very good.   Thanks.

________________________________
Rick Angelini
USArmy Research Laboratory
Computational Sciences Division/Computing Architectures Branch
ARL/DSRC (DoD Shared Resource Center)
Phone:  410-278-6266

________________________________________
From: Utkarsh Ayachit [utkarsh.ayachit at kitware.com]
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 1:27 PM
To: paraview at paraview.org
Cc: Angelini, Richard C USA CIV (US)
Subject: Re: [Paraview] Distributing PVSC files (ParaView 4.0)

Folks,

Support for distributing PVSC files has now made into ParaView master.
I've added some user documentation on the ParaView Wiki at
http://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/Distributing_Server_Configuration_Files

Any comments/feedback would be appreciated.

Rick, I have added support for authenticated web servers too, but am
not sure if it works since I didn't manage to setup an authenticated
web server. Let me know if you run into any issues with that aspect.

Thanks
Utkarsh

On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 9:30 AM, Utkarsh Ayachit
<utkarsh.ayachit at kitware.com> wrote:
> Good to know. Looks like we have enough interest to add Python
> support. That is indeed on our TODO list for pvsc improvements. It may
> happen after 4.0, however.
>
> Utkarsh
>
> On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 5:59 PM, Sean Ziegeler
> <sean.ziegeler at nrlssc.navy.mil> wrote:
>> I'm going to throw my support in for the Python scripting suggestion. It
>> would probably help with the open port issue (e.g., watching ssh output for
>> an error), in discovering the location of plink/ssh/etc., and probably a
>> number of other use cases.  Also, the issue of modified versions of ssh is
>> going to be a common problem, so libssh would definitely not work for many
>> use cases.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Sean
>>
>> On 08/23/11 11:16, Burlen Loring wrote:
>>>
>>> Yes, and this has worked OK, at least no one complained, but I think
>>> that it's success has more to do with a small number of users involved
>>> rather than the strength of this approach.
>>>
>>> On 08/23/2011 08:52 AM, Angelini, Richard C USA CIV (US) wrote:
>>>>
>>>> We just pick a random port between 2000 and 65000 ... the chances are
>>>> pretty slim (but not absolutely zero) for stepping on another process,
>>>> right? 8-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________
>>>> Rick Angelini
>>>> USArmy Research Laboratory
>>>> Computation Science&Engineering Branch/
>>>> ARL/DSRC (DoD Shared Resource Center)
>>>> Phone: 410-278-6266
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________________
>>>> From: paraview-bounces at paraview.org [paraview-bounces at paraview.org] on
>>>> behalf of Burlen Loring [bloring at lbl.gov]
>>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 11:44 AM
>>>> To: Utkarsh Ayachit
>>>> Cc: paraview at paraview.org; gtg085x at mail.gatech.edu
>>>> Subject: Re: [Paraview] Distributing PVSC files (ParaView 4.0)
>>>>
>>>> Hi Utkarsh,
>>>>
>>>> It sounds like you need a very flexible solution, or even multiple
>>>> solutions, given the variety of use cases you have to support.
>>>>
>>>> You hit on a great point re python approach
>>>>>
>>>>> allows us to write code to discover informationabout the client/server
>>>>> and take appropriate action(s).
>>>>
>>>> Which brings up another pvsc related issue could PV reliably find an
>>>> open port when constructing the ssh tunnel from PV over to the HPC site.
>>>> I don't think it's currently possible to script this.
>>>>
>>>> Burlen
>>>>
>>>> On 08/23/2011 08:22 AM, Utkarsh Ayachit wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Tim,
>>>>>
>>>>> That's was exactly what I was concerned about when it comes to using
>>>>> libssh. Good to know that there are indeed such use-cases and not
>>>>> merely hypothetical ones.
>>>>>
>>>>> Utkarsh
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 11:18 AM, Tim Gallagher
>>>>> <tim.gallagher at gatech.edu> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I know for our HPC access, they require a custom version of SSH that
>>>>>> has been security enhanced. So if PV used a built-in libssh, we
>>>>>> would be unable to use PV to connect through to them.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't have a better solution, just wanted to point out that
>>>>>> packaging libssh without an option to use a system one would not
>>>>>> work in some cases.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Tim
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>>> From: "Utkarsh Ayachit"<utkarsh.ayachit at kitware.com>
>>>>>> To: "Burlen Loring"<bloring at lbl.gov>
>>>>>> Cc: "ParaView"<paraview at paraview.org>
>>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 9:38:38 AM
>>>>>> Subject: Re: [Paraview] Distributing PVSC files (ParaView 4.0)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Burlen,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Good points. At the risk of stating the obvious let's note that we'll
>>>>>> be able to distribute different pvsc versions for the server for
>>>>>> different OSs and ParaView versions without any issue. Now locating
>>>>>> ssh/xterm/plink etc are indeed real issues.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't like the cmake approach, it requires that we need a separate
>>>>>> step and would require users to install cmake (unless we include cmake
>>>>>> in the binaries). libssh approach sounds interesting. The only concern
>>>>>> is will users to reluctant to use a ssh client we provide rather than
>>>>>> their chosen (and trusted one).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Like John said, the file inputs are already supported in pvsc.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Pat Marion has been pushing for the ability to have Python scripts
>>>>>> instead-of/in-addition-to pvsc-xmls. I think that's another viable
>>>>>> approach since it allows us to write code to discover information
>>>>>> about the client/server and take appropriate action(s).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Utkarsh
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 12:34 PM, Burlen Loring<bloring at lbl.gov> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi Utkarsh,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> this looks great.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> One thing I have encountered and that you may want to think about
>>>>>>> is that a
>>>>>>> single static pvsc is not going to work for all users as pvsc's
>>>>>>> depend on
>>>>>>> external components such as xterm, ssh, and plink. These are in
>>>>>>> different
>>>>>>> places on different user's systems, maybe not present on the user's
>>>>>>> system
>>>>>>> leading to the pvsc not working.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I could see a couple of different avenues to solve this: Probably
>>>>>>> the best
>>>>>>> would be to integrate ssh tunneling into PV via libssh so that these
>>>>>>> dependencies are not needed. An aleternative would be to include a
>>>>>>> configure
>>>>>>> step in your new pvsc import process (like cmake) where
>>>>>>> dependencies are
>>>>>>> located and a system specific pvcs is generated. Something far
>>>>>>> easier and
>>>>>>> less intrusive might be to add a file dialog element to the pvsc
>>>>>>> syntax so
>>>>>>> that the user could easily browse for these files. That's not as
>>>>>>> nice as
>>>>>>> the other approaches because it clutters the UI and the user still
>>>>>>> has to
>>>>>>> hunt down the files, but it at least gives them a method to do so.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Burlen
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 08/19/2011 02:15 PM, Utkarsh Ayachit wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Folks,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> A feature we are thinking of implementing for ParaView 4.0 is to make
>>>>>>>> it easier to distribute pvsc files to connect to various HPC
>>>>>>>> resources. I've sketched out a rough proposal for the same at
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> http://paraview.org/ParaView3/index.php/Distributing_Server_Configuration_Scripts
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Any comments/suggestions are always welcome.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Utkarsh
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> Powered by www.kitware.com
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>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>> _______________________________________________
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