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.
| Software | Why is it needed? |
|---|---|
| sssd | Required to join our Active Directory |
| OpenLDAP | Tools to query our Active Directory |
| AutoFS | Automounter, required to mount home, perm and other shared file systems under /ec/vol |
| dconf-editor | Graphical editor for gsettings and dconf (Gnome) |
| chronyd | NTP client |
| Google Chrome | Widely supported browser |
| Microsoft Teams | ECMWF chat and collaboration tool |
| ecflow_ui | Managing suites. Requires qt5-qtsvg |
| dconf-editor | Easily manage Gnome user settings |
| gnome-tweaks | Useful Gnome extension |
| gnome-shell-extension-dash-to-dock | Useful Gnome extension |
| rclone | Access to OneDrive, Sharepoint, and many other popular cloud storage systems |
| LibreOffice | Ability to open and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents |
| PDF viewers | evince (default document viewer in Gnome) and xpdf |
| Java | OpenJDK and IcedTea plugin |
| Java 11 | Java VM only. Required for HPSS and, potentially, prepifs |
| Gimp | Edition of screenshots and other image files for presentations, etc |
| KeePassXC | Centralised password management for users |
| xwd (part of xorg-x11-apps) | Powerful command-line tool for screenshots. ImageMagick also installed |
| nmon | More powerful than top to monitor the usage of resources in the CentOS 8 VM. It's installed in our workstation image |
| xfreerdp | Enable remote desktop connections to Windows servers |
| joe | Lightweight editor currently in our workstation image |
| geany | Lightweight IDE currently in our workstation image |
| emacs | Preferred editor |
| socat | To enable proxied ssh connections |
| ksh | KSH93. Preferred shell for rd and some other users. Most operational scripts are ksh. It will be available in the Atos HPC as well |
| vmrc | VMware remote console to interact with VMs in vSphere |
| WireShark | Currently in the workstation, makes sensse to have it in Centos as well |
| JQ | Command-line JSON parser |
| gitk | Usually part of the standard Git install |
| xterm | Suggested for HPC team |
| ctags | Suggested for HPC team |
| ack | Suggested for HPC team |
| code (VS code editor) | Preferred IDE |
| forticlient | Fortinet VPN client to be able to connect to the datacentre in Bologna |
| Sublime | Text editor including command-line editing tool (subl) |
| ImageMagick | Image manipulation libraries |
| FFmpeg | For handling multimedia files and streams |
| PostgreSQL clients: psql, pg_dump, pg_restore, pgadmin4 | To connect to and manage PostgreSQL databases |
| terminator | Another choice of multi-tabbed terminal emulator |
| seahorse | Must-have to be able to manage gnome keyrings |
| meld | Visual diff and merge tool very useful to developers |
| nedit | Another choice of editor |
| ecinteractive | Internal tool to run interactive jobs in the HPC |
| ansible | Requested by DHS and Service Reliability teams |
| Python | 3.6 and 3.8.8 - 3.9 also installed later on, due to dependencies with Ansible |
| podman | Docker was requested but requires root / sudo, which would be a security risk, so we provide rootless podman as an alternative. Although it's installed for convenience, bear in mind that VDI is a non-persistent environment, and container development should happen in other platforms |
| krusader | Powerful double-pane file manager that used to be installed in our old Leap42 workstations |
| gnuplot | Very useful command-line tool for plotting scientific data, also included in our old Leap42 workstations |
| MySQL clients | Version 8 of the MySQL standard client, plus MySQL Workbench and mysql-shell (mysqlsh) |
| tkdiff | Popular diff tool |
| aspell and British English dictionaries | Spell checker |
| pn | Internal application developed by Enterprise Services and User Services to replace our vintage "pn" command, which searches and retrieves user information from AD / LDAP |
| VLC | Media player compatible with a wide range of video and audio codecs and formats |
| Lyx, Latex | Required by scientists |
| tig | Useful add-on for git (browser and pager for git repos) |
| Kakoune | kak is a vi alternative for users that are more comfortable with it |
The Silver Searcher | ag is a very fast code searching tool similar to ack |
X.Org X11 Protocol headers | xorg-x11-proto-devel package |
| Grace | 2D data plotting tool |
| Putty | Widely used ssh client and connection manager |
| Microsoft Edge | Chromium-based browser that allows signing in with our corporate Microsoft accounts, as opposed to Google Chrome, that only supports syncing with Google accounts |
wmctrl | Scripting tool requested by our operators |
xdotool | Scripting tool requested by our operators |
p4merge | Merge tool from Perforce |
gvim | Classic vi, improved with a graphical user interface |
ssh-key-setup | Internal script developed by User Services and installed in /usr/local/bin to allow the automation of a SSH user setup |
oncall_es | Internal script that shows who is on-call at a certain date and time |
kile | QT-based user-friendly Latex editor. Depends on Okular and dvipng, so these packages were also installed |
kate | QT-based text editor |
dia | Classic diagram editor |
Kubernetes tools | kubectl, kubectx and kubens |
Golang | Go programming language |
qemu-img | Command-line tool to manipulate disk images |
gv | Ghostscript viewer |
step-cli | Command-line tool to transfer data to CINECA |
FileZilla | Powerful graphical FTP client |
git-crypt | Transparent file encryption in GIT |
rar and unrar | Common file compressor |
Software requested but not installed
The reason is usually there is and alternative or that the request software is better run in another platform, like for example data processing tools or ECMWF software packages, that should be run in the HPC platform. See System overview - Linux Virtual Desktop VDI
| Software package | Alternative or reason to reject |
|---|---|
| Thunderbird | IMAP is not generally supported. The only supported email clients are Outlook and Outlook Web |
| iftop | Not needed for normal users, and its most useful features would require root access anyway |
| NetCDF | Data processing should happen on the HPC platform |
| Metview | Data processing should happen on the HPC platform |