Setting up visualizer with ssh using pvw via a docker container

A while ago I set up a visualizer server on AMS using the ami you’d prepared and did some customisation with your help. This was great, but due to cost I was switching it on/off as needed. I’m now looking for a more permanent solution and have bought a machine to use as a server.

I’m looking to use a container to set this up. I’m comfortable with either docker or singularity, but let’s focus on docker as it seems to be more straightforward initially.

After finally getting nvidia to work with docker, I run the following command to get the pvw container: sudo docker run -p 0.0.0.0:9000:80 --runtime=nvidia -d kitware/paraviewweb:pvw-egl-demo-v5.6.0 "ws://localhost:9000/"

Thanks to your great work, a single command and it’s up and running. I’m able to open it in my browser, I also have a domain name pointing at my IP and by adding :9000 it works on my local browser in addition to using ‘localhost’.

When I try to connect from another computer outside the network, I reach the demo landing page and this shows up correctly.

But when I click through to visualizer I get the following error:

This site can’t be reached
***.co.uk took too long to respond.
Try:

Checking the connection
Checking the proxy and the firewall
Running Windows Network Diagnostics
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

If I click glance instead of visualizer it works (but takes a while to load). So I’m assuming (maybe wrongly) that everything is working ok with pvw but maybe I need to increase the timeout limit. Do you agree, if so where do I change this?

(I need to use visualizer rather than glance, because the datasets are going to be large, so I want to use the server side approach).

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[llionevans]

Yup, that was it. I was obviously trying to troubleshoot myself and forgot to change it back when it hadn’t worked.

Amazing, thank you so much. I absolutely wouldn’t have been able to do that by myself.

I think all the major parts are now in place. I need to do some tidying up and make some modifications (e.g. turn off saving screenshots to the server). Then I’ll post a quick overview of the steps I took to get to this point in case it might be helpful to others (and as a reminder to my future self) then close this ‘issue’.

If you’re interested here’s the result. You’ve already seen it a few years ago, but I wasn’t able to update it thanks to having lost the ssh key (just after getting it up and running) and am only now getting the chance to rebuild. This is just three example datasets, two of which are prototype a fusion energy heat exchanger component. The samples have been manufactured, then CT scanned and the data converted into a micro-scale accurate FEA simulation. The idea is to simulate ‘as manufactured’ to pick up deviations that wouldn’t be predicted in the ‘as designed’ model. One of the models has more than 20M tet elements, and it’s impressive how responsive it still is remotely over a browser. I guess I’ll then need to get some more recent data uploaded.

Truly, thank you sooo much. This has been on my ‘to do’ list for a very long time.

[llionevans]

I think the docs had all the info I needed, but as someone relatively new to setting up a web server, ssl, containers and pvw (basically all of it) there was just a lot of terminology that I was unfamiliar with. So lots to learn during the process which I don’t think I’d have been able to do without some hand holding, others might fare better.