Xvfb Plugin

Xvfb, or X virtual framebuffer, is an X11 server that performs all graphical operations in memory without showing any screen output. This plugin configures an Xvfb server on all nodes in the cluster and sets the DISPLAY variable on the nodes accordingly.

Usage

To use this plugin add a plugin section to your starcluster config file:

[plugin xvfb]
setup_class = starcluster.plugins.xvfb.XvfbSetup

Next update the PLUGINS setting of one or more of your cluster templates to include the xvfb plugin:

[cluster mycluster]
plugins = xvfb

The next time you start a cluster the Xvfb plugin will automatically be executed and your DISPLAY setting will be set to :1 on all nodes. If you already have a cluster running that didn’t originally have Xvfb in its plugin list you can manually run the plugin using:

$ starcluster runplugin xvfb mycluster
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>>> Running plugin xvfb
>>> Installing Xvfb on all nodes
3/3 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 100%
>>> Launching Xvfb Server on all nodes
3/3 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 100%

Now anytime you login and launch a graphical application on the nodes the application will be started and rendered within the virtual framebuffer on DISPLAY=:1