Using X11 Forwarding on Clipper

Some applications on Clipper provide the ability to interact with a graphical user interface using X11 Forwarding. X11 Forwarding allows you to run graphical applications on Clipper’s resources while interacting with them through your own local display and input devices.

Some applications on Clipper provide the ability to interact with a graphical user interface using X11 Forwarding. X11 Forwarding allows you to run graphical applications on Clipper’s resources while interacting with them through your own local display and input devices.

Configuring Your Local System

An X server must be installed on the computer which is used to connect to Clipper. Popular options include:

• vcxsrv - Microsoft Windows
• XQuartz - macOS 10.9+

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows versions later than Windows 10 1809 have a built in SSH client capable of X11 Forwarding. Alternatively, PuTTY can be used.

Windows Command Prompt

Start the X server. The DISPLAY environment variable must also be set.

set DISPLAY=localhost:0.0

Connect to Clipper using SSH with X11 Forwarding enabled:

ssh -Y hpcuser1@port.clipper.gvsu.edu

Windows PowerShell

Start the X server. The DISPLAY environment variable must also be set.

$env:DISPLAY="localhost:0.0"

Connect to Clipper using SSH with X11 Forwarding enabled:

ssh -Y hpcuser1@port.clipper.gvsu.edu

PuTTY

Start the X server and configure PuTTY to support X11 Forwarding. From the Connection > SSH > X11 menu, select Enable X11 forwarding and set the X display location to localhost:0.0.

After these settings have been configured, connect to Clipper.

macOS

Start the X server (XQuartz). Connect to Clipper using SSH with X11 Forwarding enabled:

ssh -X hpcuser1@port.clipper.gvsu.edu

Linux

No special configuration is needed to use X11 Forwarding with a graphical Linux client installation. Connect to Clipper using SSH with X11 Forwarding enabled:

ssh -X hpcuser1@port.clipper.gvsu.edu

Launching an Interactive Session with srun

Use the --x11 option to request an X11 Forwarding interactive session with Slurm’s srun command:

srun --x11 --pty /bin/bash

Running a Graphical Application

An example of using the SAS graphical interface is below. We will request an eight hour allocation of a single processor with 8 GB of memory located in the cpu partition.

Request an X11 Forwarding interactive job using srun:

srun --partition=cpu --time=08:00 --ntasks 1 --cpus-per-task 1 --mem=8G --x11 --pty /bin/bash

Load the sas module:

module load sas

Launch sas:

sas

The application will open on your local machine: