New and Cool

1
New and Cool

• The Cactus Team
• Albert Einstein Institute
• cactus_at_cactuscode.org

2
Active Development

• Topics
• Remote Visualization
• Remote Steering
• Remote Offline Visualization
• Simulation Portal
• Collaboratory Tools
• And others ...
• Groups
• German DFN-Verein Gigabit project for exploiting
  high speed networks (TIKSL)
• USA NSF KDI project to develop collaboratory
  tools for astrophysics around Cactus (ASC)
• And others ...

3
Remote Visualization
OpenDX
OpenDX
Amira
Contour plots (download)
LCA Vision
IsoSurfaces and Geodesics
Grid FunctionsStreaming HDF5
Amira
4
Remote Visualization

• Streaming data from Cactus simulation to viz
  client
• Clients OpenDX, Amira, LCA Vision, ...
• Protocols
• Proprietary
• Isosurfaces, geodesics
• HTTP
• Parameters, xgraph data, JPegs
• Streaming HDF5
• HDF5 provides downsampling and hyperslabbing
• all above data, and all possible HDF5 data (e.g.
  2D/3D)
• two different technologies
• Streaming Virtual File Driver (I/O rerouted over
  network stream)
• XML-wrapper (HDF5 calls wrapped and translated
  into XML)

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Remote Visualization (2)

• Clients
• Proprietary
• Amira
• HTTP
• Any browser ( xgraph helper application)
• HDF5
• Any HDF5 aware application
• h5dump
• Amira
• OpenDX
• LCA Vision (soon)
• XML
• Any XML aware application
• Perl/Tk GUI
• Future browsers (need XSL-Stylesheets)

6
OpenDX

• Open source, (free), multiplatform, large active
  development community, easy to program
• Reads HDF5 (Cactus) data from file or remotely
  streamed from Cactus
• Simple GUI, select different hyperslabs from 3D
  data
• Also support for streamed ASCII data from Cactus

7
LCA Vision

• Freely available, developed at NCSA
• Simple to use
• Reads Cactus data created from FlexIO interfaces
• Work on integrating HDF5 (e.g. streaming
  capabilities)

8
Remote Visualization - Issues

• Parallel streaming
• Cactus can do this, but readers not yet available
  on the client side
• Handling of port numbers
• clients currently have no method for finding the
  port number that Cactus is using for streaming
• development of external meta-data server needed
  (ASC/TIKSL)
• Generic protocols
• Data server
• Cactus should pass data to a separate server that
  will handle multiple clients without interfering
  with simulation
• TIKSL provides middleware (streaming HDF5) to
  implement this
• Output parameters for each client

9
Remote Steering
Any Viz Client
HTTP
Remote Viz data
XML
HDF5
Amira
Remote Viz data
10
Remote Steering

• Stream parameters from Cactus simulation to
  remote client, which changes parameters (GUI,
  command line, viz tool), and streams them back to
  Cactus where they change the state of the
  simulation.
• Cactus has a special STEERABLE tag for
  parameters, indicating it makes sense to change
  them during a simulation, and there is support
  for them to be changed.
• Example IO parameters, frequency, fields
• Current protocols
• XML (HDF5) to standalone GUI
• HDF5 to viz tools (Amira)
• HTTP to Web browser (HTML forms)

11
Thorn http

• Thorn which allows simulation to act as a web
  server
• Connect to simulation from any browser
• Monitor run parameters, basic visualization, ...
• Change steerable parameters
• See running example at www.CactusCode.org
• Wireless remote viz, monitoring
  and steering

12
Remote Steering - Issues

• Same kinds of problems as remote visualization
• generic protocols
• handling of port numbers
• broadcasting of active Cactus simulations
• Security
• Logins
• Who can change parameters?
• Lots of issues still to resolve ...

13
Remote Offline Visualization
Viz in Berlin
VisualizationClient
Downsampling, hyperslabs
Only what is needed
Remote Data Server
4TB at NCSA
14
Remote Offline Visualization

• Accessing remote data for local visualization
• Should allow downsampling, hyperslabbing, etc.
• Access via DPSS is working (TIKSL)
• Waiting for DataGrid support for HTTP and FTP to
  remove dependency on the DPSS file systems.

15
Grand Picture
Viz of data from previous simulations in SF café
Remote steering and monitoring from airport
Remote Viz in St Louis
Remote Viz and steering from Berlin
DataGrid/DPSS Downsampling
IsoSurfaces
http
HDF5
T3E Garching
Origin NCSA
Globus
Simulations launched from Cactus Portal
Grid enabled Cactus runs on distributed machines
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More Information

• Web pages
• Cactus
• http//www.CactusCode.org
• DFN
• http//www.zib.de/Visual/projects/TIKSL
• ASC
• http//wugrav.wustl.edu/ASC/mainframe.html
• Contact
• cactus_at_cactuscode.org