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In this video, we will be introducing the requirements and procedures for setting up a SZL Server.
The SZL Server setup has been simplified and the performance enhanced in Tecplot 360 2017 Release 2.
SZL Server runs only on 64-bit Linux machines. Starting with the release of Tecplot 360 2017 R1, the shell-script installer is located in the “szlserver” folder of the Tecplot 360 installation. It can also be downloaded from our website.
To begin the installation of SZL Server on the desired machine, run the install shell script and specify the installation directory. Next, you will need to add the bin subdirectory of the SZL Server installation to your PATH environment variable. We do this by adding a line with the following syntax, pointing to the correct subdirectory, to our .profile file.
export PATH=~/szl/szl_server/bin:$PATH
This allows SZL Server to be called from the command line, which is needed to launch it after establishing a connection. SZL server does not run continuously, but is launched by Tecplot 360 to serve only a single data load.
To launch SZL Server from a client machine, open Tecplot 360 and select File > Load Remote Data. The default connection method, SSH Tunneling, requires SSH port forwarding to be enabled and an SSH key file for the client. All SSH authentication options are supported except Kerberos.
The benefit of the SSH Tunneled connection is that it is encrypted for security and can be used when running in batch mode.
Direct connection is unencrypted, but can also be used when running in batch mode and with speeds up to 11 times faster than SSH.
Manual connection provides added flexibility when connecting, but is not particularly useful for batch mode.
2-factor authentication may also be used for added security; however, this requires user interaction, making unattended batch mode operations not possible.
Performing multiple remote data loads by the client will result in multiple instances of the server on the server machine, and once the client disconnects, either by closing Tecplot 360 or by creating a new layout, any server connected to that client terminates.
The SZL Server installation is included with Tecplot 360 software, and as a separate install script on the SZL Server page of our website. SZL Server itself does not require a license, but access to it from Tecplot 360 requires a TecPLUS service subscription.
Please email Tecplot Support if you have any questions.
Thanks for watching!