VisIt

Tips on how to get running with Visit

Installing visit on Ubuntu

Get Visit here: https://visit-dav.github.io/visit-website/releases-as-tables/#latest

Download the latest version for which your version of Ubuntu is supported. Note that it often will not work if your version of Ubuntu is too new. The tarball (.tgz) is recommended.

where you must change the path (the red part) to whatever path you

Extract and put in a common location (usually /opt). The executable is in {extracted path}/bin/. You can add it to your shell by putting the following in your ./.bashrc file:

export PATH=${PATH}:/opt/visit3_3_3.linux-x86_64/bin/

where you must change the path to match whatever the unzipped tarball was.

Visit on Nova

The Gist has files and scripts to build VisIt and connect to VisIt with client-server, serial/parallel mode.

Version Support

These scripts and configurations have been tested with VisIt 3.4.2 built with the following environment modules:

Software	Version
gcc	14.2.0-cuda12-vx6uhdf
openmpi	4.1.6-jd5jqt4
libtool	2.4.7-cmddukv
expat	2.6.3-73vqnat
git	2.47.0-hy4cypr

All environment modules loaded

Currently Loaded Modules:
  1) libiconv/1.17-pdnbqbs      21) libedit/3.1-20230828-ziky75n
  2) xz/5.4.6-xbpkfgh           22) libxcrypt/4.4.35-x6xdydt
  3) zlib-ng/2.2.1-4rxbcvx      23) openssh/9.7p1-bcpncex
  4) libxml2/2.10.3-6ujajfv     24) ucx/1.17.0-cp7fonc
  5) cuda/12.4.1-cz3ljd3        25) openmpi/4.1.6-jd5jqt4
  6) gmp/6.3.0-ag5gd7k          26) findutils/4.9.0-53nrqrw
  7) mpfr/4.2.1-coqqwdx         27) libtool/2.4.7-cmddukv
  8) mpc/1.3.1-uzqwyku          28) libmd/1.0.4-dwc5q6s
  9) zstd/1.5.6-qfc7cs2         29) libbsd/0.12.2-vn3dd6q
 10) gcc/14.2.0-cuda12-vx6uhdf  30) expat/2.6.3-73vqnat
 11) rdma-core/48.0-wp5qvyu     31) nghttp2/1.63.0-h7jonug
 12) libfabric/1.21.0-47d4rok   32) curl/8.8.0-vcz5nyl
 13) numactl/2.0.16-xzha46m     33) pcre2/10.44-fxqjqnn
 14) bzip2/1.0.8-jxv7h7d        34) libunistring/1.2-gqiej3l
 15) ncurses/6.5-55fd2mx        35) libidn2/2.3.7-5yea6hh
 16) pigz/2.8-edkwki4           36) berkeley-db/18.1.40-zfcwoxv
 17) tar/1.34-dimfnd7           37) readline/8.2-g32sjp4
 18) gettext/0.22.5-zik5ihu     38) gdbm/1.23-exqbrui
 19) openssl/3.3.1-5v6rl3q      39) perl/5.40.0-l2sxfqz
 20) krb5/1.21.2-xrjw5a4        40) git/2.47.0-hy4cypr

Building

Edit the build-visit.sh script below as follows:

• Add your email address to the --mail-user field.
• Set VISIT_ROOT to the directory VisIt should be installed to.

Run sbatch build-visit.sh to build VisIt. I've run into an issue where the VisIt build will fail occasionally because it can't find the Python include directory. Running the build job again usually resolves this issue.

For more information, refer to VisIt's build instructions and advanced build instructions.

Configuring Shell

When you use VisIt in client-server mode, it first must spin up a metadata server and several other background processes on the server. To do so, VisIt must be able to resolve the OpenMPI library that was used to build VisIt. Since it is currently impossible to run commands immediately after the SSH session is established, we need to run any necessary commands in your remote shell's startup files.

Add the following code to your remote shell's startup file (normally .bashrc). This code may need to be modified for non-Bash shells.

# if the shell is not interactive
if [[ $- != *i* ]]; then
        GROUP_OPT=/work/brunnels/opt

        # load modules required for client-server VisIt
        module purge
        module load gcc/14.2.0 openmpi/4.1.6 libtool/2.4.7 expat/2.6.3 git/2.47.0
        export PATH="$GROUP_OPT:$PATH"
        if [ -d $GROUP_OPT ]; then
            for dir in "$GROUP_OPT"/*/bin; do
                if [ -d "$dir" ]; then
                    export PATH="$dir:$PATH"
                fi
            done

            for dir in "$GROUP_OPT"/*/lib; do
                if [ -d "$dir" ]; then
                    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="dir:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
                fi
            done
        fi
fi

Configuring VisIt

Download the host_isu_nova.xml file from this Git gist. This file is a host profile which VisIt uses to configure the remote server. Put this file in VisIt's host profile directory. For macOS, this directory is ~/.visit/hosts.

You will need to set a couple parameters of the host profile for your own installation. These can be set in the GUI or by directly editing the .xml file.

• userName: set to your username on the remote server
• directory: set to the root VisIt directory (this is $VISIT_ROOT in build-visit.sh)

Once configured, follow the VisIt documentation to connect via a host profile.

If you have problems connecting, you may need to configure passwordless SSH or start VisIt from the command line with the -nopty option.

Visit tips and tricks

Suppressing warnings and error dialogs

Visit's warning/error dialog messages are obnoxious and excessive. To hard-suppress them during a session, open Controls -> Command and execute

SuppressMessages(1)

You can pass 2 instead of 1 to suppress warnings only.

(Even then, some errors will make it though - visit is quite persistent. But it should be a little less intrusive.)