Graphical Applications on the Olympus Cluster and ECEN Interactive Machines from Off-Campus

Owned by Donald Birnbaum
Last updated: Apr 07, 2022
5 min read

Why Are We Doing Things Differently?

Xilinx, Cadence, and other graphical interactive programs use X11 to display graphical windows. Displaying graphical windows to a remote machine is called X forwarding.  X forwarding requires a very low latency network to perform well.  With the number of remote users utilizing VPN, and the number of people on poor internet connections, the latency of off-campus connections is just too high for adequate performance. So, if you use the traditional X forwarding mechanism, your experience will likely be suboptimal.

Our solution to this issue is to use the VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) solution provided by the College of Engineering. This will keep the X forwarding traffic on campus, and send the data to you through another program that will compress and optimize it for general internet usage.

Both methods require TAMU VPN access. Please see the instructions located here: Installing and Using Cisco VPN.

There are two different options for accessing the X11 software used in your labs.  If one of the Virtual Desktop servers is slow or not working, please try the other.

Table of Contents

Virtual Desktop 1 - Using College of Engineering Resources

Accessing the College of Engineering VDI

Instructions on setting up and using VDI are located at Engineering Virtual Labs User Guidearchived

You should install the local VMWare Horizon client if possible.  Using the HTML access option may be suboptimal.

Accessing Olympus

After you have logged in to the VMWare Horizon client, you will need to use the CoE General Desktop located at the top of the page.  

CoE General Desktop on ENGR Virtual Labs

MobaXterm and PuTTY + Xming will only be available in the CoE General Desktop

There are two possible methods for accessing graphical applications: MobaXterm and Xming + PuTTY. If you have problems with one, please try the other one. The two methods follow:

Method 1 - Using MobaXterm

Once the desktop has finished logging you in, 

  1. Run the MobaXTerm Application from the start menu -  Once the MobaXTerm window opens you will need to select the settings button at the top of the page.  Next click on the X11 tab and set the X11 display mode to “Multiwindow mode”: X11 server integrated into Windows Desktop” and click OK.  This only needs to be set once.  See below

  2. If prompted to restart the X11 server.  Select yes

  3. In the “find existing session or server name” enter Olympus.ece.tamu.edu (or use apollo.ece.tamu.edu or hera.ece.tamu.edu) in the “find existing session or server name” box.  Please use OLYMPUS, it 6 times the resources of Apollo or Hera.

  4. On the next screen select ssh as the session type and select OK.  You can specify your username on this screen if you wish.  Click OK

  5. You will be prompted to accept the server host key.  Click Yes

  6. Login to Olympus (or Apollo or Hera)

  7. If using Olympus, use the proper load-ecen-### command for your course.  For additional information on using Olympus, see Olympus Cluster Information (Archived)archived.

Method 2 - using Xming + PuTTY

Once the desktop has finished logging you in.

  1. Run the XMing program (you will not see any windows open, this runs in the background)

  2. Open Putty and check the Enable X11 forwarding box under ssh – x11 on the left side of the putty configuration window.

  3. Scroll up, click on the session category and enter the name of the system (in this case Olympus.ece.tamu.edu) you want to attach to.

  4. Login to Olympus and use the proper load-ecen-### command for your course.  For additional information on using Olympus, see Olympus Cluster Information (Archived)archived

Virtual Desktop 2 - Using TAMU VOAL Resources (University)

Accessing VOAL

  1. Go to ​https://voal.tamu.edu/​ (Instructions for how to connect are also linked on voal.tamu.edu)

  2. Click Log In. You will be asked to choose the access method.  You can use either access method.

  3. Once you have logged into VOAL, you will see the homepage of VMware Horizon. Click VOAL. This will take you to a virtual Windows 10 operating system.

Accessing Olympus

Method 1 - using MobaXterm

Once the VOAL Desktop has finished logging you in,

  1. Click the 🔎 icon and search for MobaXterm. See Figure 3. Click MobaXterm Personal Edition.

  2. Click Start local terminal

  3. Type the command:

    1. ssh -Y your_netid@olympus.ece.tamu.edu

    2. You should always use Olympus for your labs, hera.ece.tamu.edu and apollo.ece.tamu.edu have limited resources and are easily overloaded.

  4. You will get a prompt asking for your password, type it and press Enter.

  5. If using Olympus, use the proper load-ecen-### command for your course.  For additional information on using Olympus, see Olympus Cluster Information (Archived)archived

Method 2 - using Putty and XMing

Once the VOAL Desktop has finished logging you in,

  1. Run the XMing program (you will not see any windows open, this runs in the background).

  2. Next Open Putty and check the Enable X11 forwarding box under ssh – x11 on the left side of the putty configuration window.

  3. Scroll up, click on the session category and enter the name of the system (in this case Olympus.ece.tamu.edu) you want to attach to.

  4. Login to Olympus and use the proper load-ecen-### command for your course.  For additional information on using Olympus, see Olympus Cluster Information (Archived)archived.