The Linux Virtual Desktop is your dedicated Red Hat Enterprise Linux system running in ECMWF's data centre. It can be used as a graphical desktop to manage compute tasks on the HPC.
Below you will find some basic information on the different parts of the system. Please click on the headers or links to get all the details for the given topic.
How to connect - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
Migrating from older ECMWF platforms - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
To understand the design of the new Linux Virtual Desktop system please check System overview - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI and Software stack - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI for a more detailed explanation of how to work with the Linux Virtual Desktop.
Tasks that used to run in the desktop-class Linux machines or other Reading based platforms should typically be migrated to the Atos HPCF. In some cases, if not possible or practical, other options may be explored depending on the use cases, such as the using resources on the internal ECMWF managed cloud or the European Weather Cloud.
System overview - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
You can see how the Linux Virtual Desktop fits within the End-user Compute and Interactive Access strategy for Bologna
Shells - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
The Red Hat Linux VDI system will use either Bash or Ksh as login shells, depending on what you have configured in your UNIX account. Please be aware that Csh, according to our policy, is not supported at all in Linux VDI.
Changing your login shell
If you wish to change your login shell, please raise an issue with the request using our ECMWF Support Portal
Filesystems - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
The filesystems available are HOME and PERM.
File System | Suitable for ... | Technology | Features | Quota |
|---|
File transfers - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
Sharing information between the Linux VDI and Atos HPC
Just use the shared $HOME or $PERM filesystems. See HPC2020: Filesystems for more information on the filesystem layout of the platform.
Sharing information between the Linux VDI and your end-user-device (eg Windows or Mac laptop)
Software stack - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
Software requested and installed in Linux VDI
The basic installation based on "Custom OS" (base environment in the left panel) with the following additional software (right panel): "Guest agents" + "Standard" + "System Tools". Then, under request by a number of parties, the following software has been manually added to the image.
Batch system - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
Slurm is the batch system available in the HPC. Users wanting to submit jobs should log into the HPC system and submit jobs from there. Slurm is not installed in the Linux Virtual Desktops (see Software stack - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI)
Any shell script can be submitted as a job with no changes, but you might want to see Writing SLURM jobs to customise it.
Missing features and known issues - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
If you find any problem or any feature missing that you think should be present, and it is not listed here, please let us know by reporting as a "Problem on computing" through the ECMWF Support Portal mentioning "Linux VDI" in the summary. However, please be aware of the overall design of the new end user platforms (System overview - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI)
Frequently asked questions - FAQ - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
- Firefox cannot access the internet, Atlassian or other externally-accessible systems - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
- How can I access legacy filesystems - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
- How can I choose between the modern or classic UI of Gnome - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
- Firefox cannot access the internet, Atlassian or other externally-accessible systems - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
The default configuration of the Proxy Settings for Firefox is "No Proxy" as the Bologna network will let you access the internet without a proxy server. However, if you have synchronised your Firefox profile (the "$HOME/.mozilla" directory from a Reading-based system, it could happen that it retains the previous proxy settings, which were necessary for Reading.
- How can I access legacy filesystems - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
- "Classic" pre-Bologna home is mounted under /oldhome
- "Classic" pre-Bologna perm is mounted under /oldperm
- Original CentOS-only scientific home is mounted under /oldc8home
- How can I choose between the modern or classic UI of Gnome - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
Gnome Standard is the default UI. To change it, click the gear-like icon during your first login and choose "classic" instead of "standard":
Gnome Standard or "Gnome Shell"
See for more information https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeShell/Tour
- How can I disable notification pop-ups about windows in the background such as "Microsoft Teams is ready" - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
To disable notifications run:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.notifications show-banners false
- How can I enable or disable the zoom feature - FAQ - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
Screen zooming may be enabled by accident, so fonts and icons become huge and the virtual screen doesn't fit in the display, which forces users to scroll in every direction all the time and makes it very hard to work.
If this happens, and you go to Display Settings, all you can see is up to four virtual monitors plugged in, usually 43" ones, but you can't get rid of this annoying effect.
- How can I exit vmWare Horizon full screen mode - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
On a Windows-based host
If your laptop or desktop computer is using Windows as the operating system, independently of what you are running in VDI
In this case just move your mouse to the very top of the screen. You should soon get a menu with several options, including "Exit Fullscreen"
- How can I export the graphical output of X applications from other machines to my virtual workstation - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
For ssh connections this procedure is not required, as X-forwarding for ssh is enabled by default in /etc/ssh_config, so you don't even have to add a "-X" command-line parameter
- For any other cases, authorise incoming X connections to your workstation first:
$ xhost +
- For any other cases, authorise incoming X connections to your workstation first:
- How can I open remote gnome apps in local machines - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
- Most gnome apps may cause issues or not even run when executed remotely
Simple X-forwarding is NOT enough. Instead, use dbus-launch like this:
ssh remote_machine dbus-launch gnome-terminal
- How can I restart or shutdown my virtual desktop - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
The VDI desktop system can be restarted within the "contextual menu" in the VmWare Horizon Client. This may be required, for example, if the desktop became unresponsive. The "Restart" option will produce a "soft" reset, switching off the operating system and the "Reset" will produce a "hard" reset, equivalent to using the "off" button of a computer, and might lead to corruption of profiles, etc. The first one should be tried first, the second one only as an alternative if the "soft" reset didn't have any effect after waiting a few seconds.
- How can we troubleshoot a Windows server or desktop with remote desktop services enabled? Can we use rdesktop? - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
- Better than rdesktop, we have installed xfreerdp
- Usage: xfreerdp /u:<USER_ID>@ad.ecmwf.int /port:3389 /w:1920 /h:1172 /v:<SERVER>.ecmwf.int
- Other geometries may be used depending on the resolution of the client. If no geometry is specified, a standard, small resolution window will be used
- How long can I expect my VDI session to persist before it is automatically closed - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
Once you login into your VDI system two things can happen
- You have a pre-existing session running in the VDI server, in this case you will connect to it, and will appear as you left it last time
- You don't have a session, in which case a new one will be created for you.
- How to configure and mount OneDrive - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
Users will need this information when configuring access to OneDrive from a Linux Centos 8 VDI session.
Step-by-step guide
Configure
- How to map the Mac keyboard in Linux VDI - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
There have been reports of the default keyboard layout mapping being incorrect when using a Mac to access our Linux VDI.
During investigation, some people reported different outcomes using the same hardware and software, which means that coming up with a general fix that works for everyone is by no means a trivial matter, so we approached it in an incremental way, trying to define a minimum number of steps that can be taken until the problem is sorted out.
- The initial setup of the Red Hat Linux VDI - Options to choose - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
Since your user id is unlikely to be shown here (unless you are Iain 
), you will need select the "Not Listed" option
The "Not Listed" option will offer you the chance of typing the user id. You need to write your UNIX one, eg usv 
The password should be the same one that you will use with the UNIX account everywhere else. - Typing your password with different keyboard layouts - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI FAQ
If after you have correctly logged into the VDI system (the first three steps described in How to connect - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI) you still have any problem logging into the Linux Desktop itself, please do check if the problem could be that your keyboard layout does not match the default UK/English one configured in the Linux Desktop and hence any special characters (or even letters) of your password are being "typed" incorrectly. Do remember that your password characters do not appear on the screen as you type, so it can be difficult to recognise if that is the case. If you do want to ensure what you are typing you can always use the "user name" field for that (click "Not Listed") as all characters typed are indeed displayed there.
Scheduled Updates - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
This applies from 7th October 2021.
On the first Thursday of each month, security and feature updates are applied to the CentOS Linux VDI systems.
This takes place sometime after 19:30 UK local time (and only after the Windows VDI updates have finished).