Interfacing with Grass 7.4.0 on the HPC

Grass is a geographic information system (GIS) software suite used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, producing graphics and maps, spatial and temporal modeling, and visualizing. It can handle raster, topological vector, image processing, and graphic data. This document will go over how to run your grass project on the HPC.

While this document will go over some basic features of how to use Grass on the HPC, It's recommended that you also review the manual pages for Grass GIS as it covers additional features of Grass that are outside the scope of this documentation. 

Using Grass in a GUI

Grass can be used in GUI mode or Batch mode on the HPC. Running Grass in GUI allows you to perform tasks in Grass in an easy to use environment. 

Enable X forwarding

To launch Grass in GUI mode, you'll need to enable X forwarding on your terminal. In order to enable X Forwarding, you'll need to download an X Server application. There are many excellent free X server applications that can create a virtual X environment, such as XQuartz for OSX and Xming and MobaXterm for Windows. Linux distributions will have native support, but you may need to install the proper packages and enable and configure the X Window System.

In Windows, once you have configured Xming or MobaXterm, you can Enable X11 forwarding under Connection > SSH > X11.

In macOS X, once you have configured XQuartz, you can enable X forwarding by using the following command:

>ssh -X odinID@login1.coeus.rc.pdx.edu

The -X flag will enable X forwarding in your terminal

Additionally, any Linux distro with support for Xorg can also X forward using the same command. 

Submit an interactive task to SLURM 

You'll need to submit a request to use a compute node. This will allocate a specific node for you to use Grass in. To request access to a node, enter the following commands:

> salloc --time=1:00:00 --partition=interactive --nodes=1

> squeue

(shows which node and jobID your request was assigned.  In this case compute128 and 28628)

> ssh -X compute128

Refer to Running Cluster Interactive Jobs Using salloc for more information about interactive jobs on the HPC.

Loading the module and launch Grass

> odule load grass/7.4.0/gcc-7.2.0/interactive

> grass74

Once launched, you'll be greeted with a welcome screen

To make a new mapset, click new. You will then be presented with a window asking you for your Data Directory, a Project Location, and a Location Title. 

Once you click next, you'll then be able to select how your new mapset can be made. 

After configuring your mapset, you'll now be able to start using Grass GIS.