Singularity VNC Container

This singularity vnc containers are originally from Consol Docker container , and change it so that it can be used in multi-tenant HPC and AI environment.

The container image is installed with the following components:

• Desktop environment Xfce4
• VNC-Server
• noVNC - HTML5 VNC client
• Browsers:
  • Mozilla Firefox

Usage

• Git clone this project

• Build container

  cd singularityvnc
  singularity build centosvnc.sif  centos-xfce-vnc.def
  

  If you want to build the vnc container which can support gpu

  cd singularityvnc
  singularity build centosvncgpu.sif  centos-xfce-vnc-gpu.def
  

  And when you use the gpu container, you should add --nv.

  singularity exec --nv centosvncgpu.sif /opt/vnc_startup.sh VNC_PORT:5901 VNC_PW:Passw0rd
  

• Singularity shell to check the help

  singularity shell centosvnc.sif 
  Singularity centosvnc.sif:~> cd /opt
  Singularity centosvnc.sif:/opt> ./vnc_startup.sh -h
  
  USAGE: ./vnc_startup.sh VNC_PORT:5901 VNC_PW:Passw0rd NO_VNC_PORT:6901
  
  VNC_PORT is must have.
  VNC_PW is needed when you first time to run a vnc or you want to overwrite the previous settting.
  NO_VNC_PORT should be provided when you need use novnc.
  
  

• Launch VNC

  Singularity centosvnc.sif:/opt> ./vnc_startup.sh VNC_PORT:5901 VNC_PW:Passw0rd
  VNC_PORT:5901
  VNC_PW:***
  NO_VNC_PORT
  the vnc scripts files are already existing
  
  ------------------ change VNC password  ------------------
  
  ---------  purging existing VNC password settings  ---------
  
  ------------------ start VNC server ------------------------
  remove old vnc locks to be a reattachable container
  start vncserver with param: VNC_COL_DEPTH=24, VNC_RESOLUTION=1280x1024
  ...
  start window manager
  ...
  
  VNCSERVER started on DISPLAY= :1
          => connect via VNC viewer with 10.240.208.106:5901
  

• Access through vncviewer

  

  Note: If you want to access the vnc through web browser, when you run ./vnc_startup.sh, you should provide the NO_VNC_PORT:6901.

Usage with Scheduler

This will show how to use the container with HPC/AI scheduler, the below will take the scheduler slurm as example.

• Create one slurm job file, such as job.slurm

  The below example assuming the current use is zcf, the home directory of user zcf is /home/zcf/.

  For CPU VNC:

  #!/bin/bash
  #SBATCH --job-name='test'
  #SBATCH --partition=compute
  #SBATCH --nodes=1
  #SBATCH --mincpus=8
  
  singularity exec /home/zcf/centosvnc.sif /opt/vnc_startup.sh VNC_PORT:5901 VNC_PW:Passw0rd
  

  For GPU VNC:

  #!/bin/bash
  #SBATCH --job-name='test'
  #SBATCH --partition=compute
  #SBATCH --nodes=1
  #SBATCH --mincpus=8
  #SBATCH --gres=gpu:1
  
  singularity exec --nv /home/zcf/centosvncgpu.sif /opt/vnc_startup.sh VNC_PORT:5901 VNC_PW:Passw0rd
  

• Submit job:

  sbatch job.slurm
  

  After submitting job, the job output will show which server the vnc is running on, then you can access that node with the vnc_port set in the job file.

  If you want to use the pycharm in the vnc, you need download the pycharm package from pycharm website, and put the pycharm package under user's home directory /home/zcf, in the vnc, you will be able to see the pycharm package and use it.