Documentation
Reservation
Login to the Website
The reservation system can be reached through the following website:
After being successfully logged in, a welcome screen, as is shown in the following Figure is displayed. If you have worked with the previous installation on VISION, then the majority of the options should look very familiar to you:
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Start task now Lets you immediately start an interactive session, if resources (eg. nodes) are available.
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Perform reservation only Allows you to reserve a node for a specific date and length.
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Delete reservation Allows you to delete a previous reservation that is not necessary anymore.
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Start task from existing reservation Allows you to start an interactive session from a previously made reservation.
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Show calendar Displays the calendar and shows available time slots, as well as reserved nodes.
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Download TurboVNC Software Redirects you to a website to download the required VNC viewer for the interactive sessions.
Starting a Session (Reservation)
The majority of users will probably start with the system "right away", without any prior reservation. If resources are available (check the calendar), you can use the Start task now button to start an interactive session on HALO. After selecting this option, a webpage as in Figure 3 appears:
Here you can select either a VIS node (for graphics), or a CUDA node (for GPU computing) and for use of the software SIMVIS. All nodes are VIS nodes and can be used for visualization with AvizoGreen. The graphics hardware in some of the systems is additionally CUDA enabled, and can also be employed for graphics/GPU computing. If you need this option, select a CUDA node, the required libraries are installed on all systems under /opt/cuda/. CUDA nodes can -- of course -- also be used for visualization. Since fall 2010, we also offer the use of the program SIMVIS for the visualization of climate data. As SIMVIS has a higher demand on graphics hardware, it is only available on CUDA nodes, therefore, please also select a CUDA node, if you would like to work with SIMVIS.
After this selection, please also specify how long you need the system, and what screen resolution you require. After pressing Start in the reservation dialog (Figure 3), the following screen appears. Please press Continue:
After selecting Continue, a screen as in the following screen appears:
Connecting to HALO via TurboVNC
This shows you all information that is required to start a session using TurboVNC. Use your locally installed vncviewer client and connect to the system, as in this example:
vncviewer halo03.dkrz.de:1
Depending on your system and the VNC client installed, you can use a dialog, or command codes to adjust the compression quality, such as:
vncviewer -encodings "tight zlib" -compresslevel 9 halo03.dkrz.de:1
After this, you have to enter your one-time session password, as in this case: 9L+G0St. If everything worked as expected, you are provided with a Virtual X Session on HALO with the screen resolution specified. VirtualGL is used for running any OpenGL application. You can test this by typing vglrun glxgears into a terminal window, and as a result should see a 3D gear set in motion. A startup script allows you to run AvizoGreen directly without the need of using vglrun. Just type avizo631 for running AvizoGreen version 6.3.1.
More details on how to connect to halo using TurboVNC/VGL on Linux and Windows systems, as well as on how to connect using an ssh tunnel, can be found here.
Ending a Session
If you are done with everything and want to close the connection to halo:
- just log out of the system
- close the vncviewer, if necessary, and
- select End task to delete your reservation.
Extending a Session
Hint: If later find out that you require a node longer than anticipated, please check the calendar, and -- if available -- extent your reservation time slot using Perform reservation only:
