NoMachine NX enables advanced scientific research to be performed remotely providing real-time, resilient access to Diamond Light Source's synchrotron beamlines and sophisticated computing environment.

About the Organization

Located in South Oxfordshire, the UK national synchrotron facility, Diamond Light Source generates brilliant beams of light, from infra-red to X-rays, which are used in many applications for structural biology, fundamental physics, chemistry and cultural heritage. Construction on this new scientific facility began in 2003 and the doors were opened for operation on schedule in January 2007.

A joint venture, the company is funded by the UK government through Science and Technologies Facilities Council and the Wellcome Trust. With two phases of investment in buildings and beamlines, the facility represents the largest UK scientific investment for 40 years and can ultimately host up to 40 beamlines. Diamond Light Source Ltd has a team of over 400 dedicated staff, including engineers, scientists, support staff and technicians from around the world.

A leading edge facility for scientific research, Diamond supports a wide range of academic researchers, in-house scientists and industrial companies delivering benefits to both the UK and world society and economy. Both UK and foreign researchers use Diamond beamlines and scientific resources in their research, leading to new discoveries.

The Challenge

With all that has been invested into Diamond making it one of the world's top synchrotron facilities, it draws users from all around the globe. With researchers across UK and around the world needing access to Diamond's beamlines, Linux-based computing environment, applications and custom software, Diamond looked for a resilient, cross-platform remote access solution that would deliver beamline and computing resources in real-time to increase project run-time and productivity.

Diamond needed a high performance desktop and application delivery solution with the ability to support their large amount of users and run many multiple sessions at once. As the longer established beamlines increase the amount of experiments that can be operated remotely, Diamond searched for a solution to allow users to work remotely and meet their users' high expectations for performance, reliability and security. Speed and the ability to effectively display heavy graphical applications were also important to Diamond users.

The Solution

NoMachine NX was decided on as the remote access solution for Diamond providing fast and secure remote desktop capability in real-time allowing users to perform remote research as quickly and accurately as if they were located at the facility. From any location, materials can be shipped to Diamond to be analyzed and then all further manipulation and experimentation can be performed using NX for remote access.

NX provides Diamond users with direct access to the Linux computing environment at Diamond from any location inside or outside the facility. With 16 major NX Server subscriptions and approximately 150 total NX installations, the general purpose access server is used for remote access to the Diamond computing environment and software, providing a standard Linux desktop to internal Microsoft users.

Five more NX Enterprise Servers and 10 NX Small Business Servers provide specific access to certain beamlines. These NX Servers give both local and remote users the ability to access and control the beamline from their own personal workstation to continue projects and research away from the facility. In addition, every Linux workstation has NX Client installed providing access to the facility's computing environment and resources.

Offering multi-platform support and unique compression and caching features, NX provides resilient access allowing users to effortlessly work with even heavy graphical applications to perform experiments remotely. With the rise of experiments being performed remotely, NX enables users to run sophisticated experiment control and data acquisition software to see results from the detectors almost instantly from remote locations as if they were at the facility.

Results

NoMachine NX has proven to be a successful remote access solution for Diamond, not only providing connections to the synchrotron beamlines and custom Diamond software, but also standard office type applications. Users are also presented with e-mail readers, Web browsers and MatLab. With this anywhere access to critical research tools and resources, researchers have noticed significant reductions in the amount of time and money they invest in their research projects.

With NX, administrators can provide support more easily and access Diamond software from home or other remote locations to perform the required trouble shooting and maintenance. Experimentation with desktop session shadowing on some beamlines has enabled administrators to remotely diagnose problems that facility users might be experiencing.

As a result of the successful solution and benefits NX provides, Diamond decided to install all workstations with NX by default, providing users a straightforward and easy way to access a Linux desktop, applications, Diamond beamlines and other resources from any operating system anywhere.

Senior Linux Administrator, Greg Matthews, said, "By providing a full desktop experience, NX provides for sophisticated experiments to be performed completely remotely, thereby enabling science that might otherwise never be possible."

NX security is guaranteed at every layer involved in the communication process. NX uses SSH public-key encryption and 128 bit volatile random cookie generation.