Start VNC Server - bwForCluster Chemistry - 3D Acceleration

Start a VNC Server on the bwForCluster Chemistry with 3D acceleration

If you want to do graphically intensive tasks such as visualizing systems of molecules you should use the visualization nodes with high performance graphics cards. To start a VNC Server on such a visualization node you must log into one of the nodes via ssh with your usual username and password:

$ ssh <UserID>@justus2-vis.uni-ulm.de

Here you can start the VNC server with the following commands

$ module load vis/tigervnc
$ run_vncserver

If you start a VNC server for the first time you will be asked to set a password which will be required for clients trying to access your VNC desktop. Use a strong password because otherwise someone could take control of your VNC session.

Follow the instructions given to you by the run_vncserver command to connect to the vnc session via an ssh tunnel. You should get a window with a virtual desktop running on a Justus visualization node.

Run GL applications within the VNC session

In order to execute GL applications with 3D acceleration from within the VNC session you have to open a terminal window and run the application through the VirtualGL wrapper command vglrun, e.g.:

$ vglrun glxgears -info