Ansys Gateway Powered by AWS Troubleshooting

Ansys Gateway powered by AWS
Troubleshooting
ANSYS, Inc.
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Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1
Frequently Asked Questions ...................................................................................................................... 3
When I sign in to the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS portal, I don't see any project spaces.What should
I do? ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
I'm an Ansys Gateway administrator. What is the best way to provision resources to multiple users? ......... 3
Can I use a virtual desktop when someone else is using it? ...................................................................... 4
Why does my virtual desktop get disconnected after a period of inactivity? ............................................. 4
Can I map selected local drives on my computer to a virtual desktop? ...................................................... 5
How do I create shared storage that can be accessed on Linux virtual machines? ..................................... 5
How do I mount Linux storage on a Windows virtual machine? ................................................................ 5
If my workflow includes geometry, do I need to use graphics-accelerated instances? ................................ 5
Can I change the name of a resource after it has been created? ................................................................ 6
Can I adjust the size of a virtual machine after it has been created? .......................................................... 6
I read about Hpc6a instances in a blog post and would like to use one, but there aren't any in my Avail-
ability Zone. What do I do? ...................................................................................................................... 6
Why do I get an error when I launch Discovery on a c6i instance? ............................................................. 6
What are the recommendations for running performance benchmarks? .................................................. 6
Resolving Common Issues .......................................................................................................................... 7
Can't access the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS portal ......................................................................... 7
Sign-in attempt fails ............................................................................................................................... 7
Insufficient instance capacity when creating or resizing resources ........................................................... 8
Resource creation is taking a long time ................................................................................................... 9
Resource creation results in a 'Failed State' error ...................................................................................... 9
Newly created resource stuck 'Waiting for services' .................................................................................. 9
Resource has been stuck installing applications for a long time .............................................................. 10
Error when creating a resource: 'Unable to list VM sizes' ......................................................................... 10
Cluster stuck 'Updating' after being resized ........................................................................................... 10
Can't launch a job on an RSM cluster ..................................................................................................... 11
Error: 'Services are currently unavailable, please try again later' .............................................................. 11
Design point update results in an error .................................................................................................. 11
Known Issues and Limitations .................................................................................................................. 13
© ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information of ANSYS, Inc.
and its subsidiaries and affiliates. iii
iv and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Introduction
Occasionally you may encounter an issue or have a question when accessing or using Ansys Gateway
powered by AWS.
Use this guide to:
• Find answers to frequently asked questions (p. 3)
• Find solutions to common issues (p. 7)
• Learn about known issues and limitations (p. 13)
For help with questions or issues not covered in this guide, visit the Learning Forum at https://forum.an-
sys.com/forums/forum/discuss-simulation/ansys-gateway/. You can also access the forum directly from
the main toolbar in Ansys Gateway powered by AWS.
and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 1
2 and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Use this section to get quick answers to common questions about Ansys Gateway powered by AWS.
When I sign in to the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS portal, I don't see any project spaces.What should I do?
I'm an Ansys Gateway administrator. What is the best way to provision resources to multiple users?
Can I use a virtual desktop when someone else is using it?
Why does my virtual desktop get disconnected after a period of inactivity?
Can I map selected local drives on my computer to a virtual desktop?
How do I create shared storage that can be accessed on Linux virtual machines?
How do I mount Linux storage on a Windows virtual machine?
If my workflow includes geometry, do I need to use graphics-accelerated instances?
Can I change the name of a resource after it has been created?
Can I adjust the size of a virtual machine after it has been created?
I read about Hpc6a instances in a blog post and would like to use one, but there aren't any in my Availability
Zone. What do I do?
Why do I get an error when I launch Discovery on a c6i instance?
What are the recommendations for running performance benchmarks?
When I sign in to the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS portal, I don't see
any project spaces. What should I do?
Access to a project space is controlled through its permission settings. If you do not see a project space
on your dashboard, this means that you do not have 'View' permission in a project space. If you would
like access to a project space, ask an administrator to give you permissions. To learn more about available
permissions, see User Permissions in the Administration Guide.
I'm an Ansys Gateway administrator. What is the best way to provision

resources to multiple users?
In general, you have two options:
• (Recommended) Create resources yourself and assign them to individual team members. Although
this can be time-consuming, it is the most effective way to oversee resource usage.
• Give each user Admin permission in a project space, enabling them to create their own resources as
needed within the project space. This gives users a degree of autonomy but should be reserved for
users who are familiar with Ansys Gateway powered by AWS.
Note:
It is advisable to discuss cost monitoring and controls with each user to avoid accidental
overruns.
Can I use a virtual desktop when someone else is using it?

At this time, this is not recommended. Only one user should connect to a virtual desktop at a given
time.
To check whether any other users are connected to a virtual desktop, select Users from the drop-down
in the virtual machine tile:
Why does my virtual desktop get disconnected after a period of inactivity?

This is usually because the virtual desktop has shutdown timers specified. To view, disable, or adjust
shutdown timers, select Timers from the drop-down in the virtual desktop tile:
If my workflow includes geometry, do I need to use graphics-accelerated instances?
Can I map selected local drives on my computer to a virtual desktop?

Yes. By default, all of your local drives are automatically mapped to a virtual desktop. You can choose
to map only selected drives if desired. See Local Drive Mapping in the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS
User's Guide.
How do I create shared storage that can be accessed on Linux virtual

machines?
You must create a Linux NFS file storage server and add a shared folder to it. You can then assign the
shared folder to a project space. This mounts the shared folder on all Linux resources in that project
space. When you connect to a Linux virtual machine, you should see the storage in the /mnt folder.
For details refer to the following topics in the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS Administration Guide:
• Creating Storage for Shared Data
• Enabling Access to a Shared Folder
How do I mount Linux storage on a Windows virtual machine?

Refer to Configuring Access to NFS Storage from a Windows Virtual Desktop in the Administration Guide.
If my workflow includes geometry, do I need to use graphics-accelerated

instances?
It depends. To help you choose the best hardware for a specific workflow, refer to Recommended
Hardware for VDI Workflows in the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS Recommended Usage guide. On that
page, look at the Notes section in the table for information about graphics requirements.
Can I change the name of a resource after it has been created?

Yes. In the resource tile, click and select the Rename action.
Can I adjust the size of a virtual machine after it has been created?
Yes. When you need more cores/memory for a larger problem, or would like to downsize to reduce
costs, you can change the hardware size to suit your needs. The only requirement is that you choose
hardware from the same instance family.
1. Stop the virtual machine.
2. In the resource tile, click the drop-down and select Hardware.
3. Click Change Hardware and select the desired hardware.
4. Click Save.
I read about Hpc6a instances in a blog post and would like to use one,
but there aren't any in my Availability Zone. What do I do?
Some instance types are only available in certain AWS Regions and Availability Zones.
If there is a specific instance type that you would like to use, ask your tenant administrator to find the
instance type in the AWS EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/ and see which Availab-
ility Zones have it. The administrator can then add the required Availability Zone to your tenant.
According to AWS, hpc6a instances are only available in the US East - Ohio (us-east-2) region.
Why do I get an error when I launch Discovery on a c6i instance?

Ansys Discovery requires a virtual desktop with GPUs (graphics processing units). Try a g5 or g4dn in-
stance type instead.
What are the recommendations for running performance benchmarks?

Recommendations:
• Use the hardware recommended in Recommended Hardware for VDI Workflows and Recommended
Hardware for HPC Workflows in the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS Recommended Usage guide.
• Even if you are using fewer cores, use the biggest size (but not the metal size) in a given instance
type so that it is not shared by other users.
• When selecting a hardware type in the wizard, disable Simultaneous Multithreading or Hyper-
Threading.
Resolving Common Issues
Use this section to troubleshoot issues you might have when accessing or using Ansys Gateway powered
by AWS.
Common issues:
Can't access the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS portal
Sign-in attempt fails
Insufficient instance capacity when creating or resizing resources
Resource creation is taking a long time
Resource creation results in a 'Failed State' error
Newly created resource stuck 'Waiting for services'
Resource has been stuck installing applications for a long time
Error when creating a resource: 'Unable to list VM sizes'
Cluster stuck 'Updating' after being resized
Can't launch a job on an RSM cluster
Error: 'Services are currently unavailable, please try again later'
Design point update results in an error
Can't access the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS portal

Make sure that you are entering the correct URL in the web browser. See Signing In to Ansys Gateway
powered by AWS.
The Ansys Gateway powered by AWS portal may be temporary unavailable. To check the current status,
go to the Ansys Service Dashboard at https://status.ansys.com/acr.
Sign-in attempt fails

Attempts to sign in to Ansys Gateway powered by AWS result in an error.
Possible Causes
• You may be entering the wrong email address or password.
• You are not a member of your company's Active Directory.
• Your user account has not been added to one of the security groups created for Ansys Gateway
powered by AWS.
• You user account may not have been synchronized with Ansys Gateway powered by AWS yet.
Solutions
• Make sure that you use the email address that you normally use to sign in to your company network
(domain) and/or Microsoft Office 365. When entering your password, remember that it is case sensitive.
• If you are not part of your company's Active Directory, an administrator must add you to Active Dir-
ectory. You must also be added to a security group that can access Ansys Gateway powered by AWS.
• When Ansys Gateway powered by AWS is first set up, it does take some time for your company's
Active Directory to synchronize with Ansys Gateway powered by AWS. You may just need to give it
a bit more time.
If you continue to have issues, contact your IT team or the administrator of your AWS account.
Insufficient instance capacity when creating or resizing resources

When you create a virtual desktop, file storage server, or HPC cluster, Ansys Gateway powered by AWS
attempts to provision the requested hardware by launching AWS EC2 instances in the selected AWS
Availability Zone. You select the instance type when creating the resource. If other users are currently
using resources that use the same instance type in the same Availability Zone, the capacity of that in-
stance type is reduced and may not be sufficient to fulfill your request.
Virtual desktop or file storage server: Resource creation fails. An 'AWS issue' error is displayed with
details about the lack of capacity for the instance type. If this occurs, delete the resource and try one
of the workarounds below.
HPC cluster: If the capacity of the requested instance type in the Availability Zone runs out during
cluster creation or resizing, Ansys Gateway powered by AWS continues to try to create the cluster until
capacity becomes available and all requested nodes are created. If the cluster creation process has not
completed in 30 minutes or a capacity error is displayed, delete the cluster and try one of the work-
arounds below.
Workarounds for Instance Capacity Failure

• Create the resource with the same instance type in a different Availability Zone.
• Create the resource with a different instance type in the same Availability Zone.
• Create the resource with same instance type in the same Availability Zone at a later time.
For more information, see Insufficient instance capacity in the AWS documentation.
Note:
Your company must have sufficient service quota to provision EC2 instances. Quota increases
can be requested in the EC2 console. See AWS service quotas in the AWS documentation.
However, having sufficient quota does not guarantee on-demand EC2 instance capacity at
all times, as capacity changes every time a user requests an instance.
Resource creation is taking a long time

When you add a resource such as a virtual desktop or cluster to a project space, various tasks are executed
to get that resource set up and installed. The table below outlines the average amount of time needed
to create a resource. Note that these are rough estimates. Actual creation time may be impacted by a
number of different factors, including:
• The size or complexity of the resource
• The number of applications selected for installation
• Factors related to Amazon Web Services, such as hardware availability
Resource type Average creation time Notes

Virtual desktop 10 to 15 minutes (max 20 minutes
if GPU driver needed)
HPC cluster First deployment: 20 minutes When a specific cluster package is installed
to 2 hours for the first time in a location, a dummy
virtual machine is set up where the
Subsequent deployments: 5 application packages for the cluster are
to 15 minutes installed. Afterward, an image is created from
the dummy virtual machine, which is then
used to create the cluster. This image remains
available, making the creation of subsequent
clusters much faster.
File storage 20 minutes
server
If a new resource remains in the 'Creating' state for an exceedingly long time, contact your administrator.
Resource creation results in a 'Failed State' error

Resource creation may fail if the requested hardware is not available in the selected availability zone,
or for other reasons.
Solution
1. Click Details in the error message. An error log is displayed that indicates the cause of the error.
2. Create a new resource. Use the information provided in the error log to make suitable selections
for the resource (for example, select a different availability zone).
3. Delete the failed resource.

The 'Waiting for services' status indicates that an attempt is being made to launch a virtual machine. If
the resource has this status for an exceedingly long time, follow the steps below.
Solution
1. In the resource tile, click the drop-down and select Settings.
2. Note information about the instance, such as the Hostname and Private IP address.
3. Report the issue to your tenant administrator, and provide the instance information. The tenant
administrator can log in to the AWS console, locate the instance, and check for any reported errors
to determine whether the instance has failed or may still launch successfully.
4. In most cases, you will need to delete the resource and create a new one.
Note:
A resource that is in the Running state incurs charges, even when it is unresponsive. To avoid
unnecessary charges, make sure that you stop or delete the resource.
Resource has been stuck installing applications for a long time

The time needed to install applications on a virtual machine depends on the size and number of applic-
ations being installed. If applications have been 'Installing' for more than 30 minutes, there may be an
issue with the virtual machine.
Solution
1. In the resource tile, click the drop-down and select Settings.
2. Note information about the instance, such as the Hostname and Private IP address.
3. Report the issue to your tenant administrator, and provide the instance information. The tenant
administrator can log in to the AWS console, locate the instance, and check to see if there is an
issue with it.
4. In most cases, you will need to delete the resource and create a new one.
Error when creating a resource: 'Unable to list VM sizes'

This error indicates that there is an issue with the Availability Zone selected for the resource.
Solution
1. Click Details in the error notification and note the information that is displayed.
2. Contact Ansys Support and provide them with the error information.
Cluster stuck 'Updating' after being resized

Resizing clusters is not recommended.
If you have resized a cluster and it is stuck 'Updating', delete the cluster and create a new one.
Can't launch a job on an RSM cluster

Restarting the cluster may solve the problem. In most cases, however, it is best to delete the cluster
and create a new one.
Error: 'Services are currently unavailable, please try again later'

This error occurs when the Ansys Gateway AD Connector Service is down or unresponsive. This service
is responsible for authenticating you against your company's Active Directory, allowing Ansys Gateway
to access resources in your company's Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).
In most cases, an administrator can resolve this issue by restarting the Ansys Gateway AD Connector
Service.

When a design point update is submitted to the Ansys Design Point Service, an error may result due
to a port conflict. On Windows, DCS runs on port 443 by default (the standard https port). This port is
not available on virtual desktops.
Solution
To resolve this conflict, you must configure DCS to use another port as the main gateway:
1. On the virtual desktop, open a command prompt.
2. Stop all services by issuing the following command:

"C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v221\dcs\dclauncher.exe" stop all
3. Run the command below, which modifies the primary address within Nginx and the server and
evaluator configurations.
"C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v221\dcs\dclauncher.exe" set_primary_address localhost:444/dcs
Known Issues and Limitations
Resource Creation and Usage
• In virtual desktop sessions, Ansys Electronics Desktop can only be run on Windows-based virtual
desktops.
• In some cases, virtual desktop creation may fail if there are not enough available cores in the selected
AWS availability zone. When selecting a hardware type in the wizard, the Available cores value that
is reported is the sum of available cores across all availability zones in the AWS region. For example,
the Europe-Central region has various availability zones such as Europe-Central-1a, Europe-Central-
1b, and so on. Even though you select a specific availability zone when setting up a virtual desktop,
the Available cores value does not report the available cores in that specific zone. The Ansys Gateway
powered by AWS development team is working on a fix but there are API limitations on the AWS
side. To work around this issue, try selecting a different availability zone.
• Sometimes, when you create a Linux virtual machine from an OS image, the virtual machine may get
stuck in the 'Installing' state. Most likely, there is an issue with the OS image. To resolve this issue,
delete the virtual machine and create a new one without using the faulty OS image. To prevent future
occurrences of this issue, Ansys recommends that you delete the OS image.
• When you create a cluster for the first time, any shared storage drives that are assigned to the project
space at that time are unexpectedly mounted on the cluster nodes. An attempt will also be made to
mount the drives on nodes of any subsequent clusters that you create. To avoid this issue, make sure
that the first cluster you create does not have a mounted storage drive, as this impacts the image
that is created and used for cluster creation.
• The Stop HPC cluster when no applications have been in use for timer does not work. If this timer
has been set, the cluster will continue to run when the timer condition has been met.
• When creating a cluster from an existing image, and there are not enough nodes available to meet
the number of nodes requested, Ansys Gateway powered by AWS will attempt to create the cluster
with the reduced number of nodes available. Initially, as the cluster is spun up, the following errors
are displayed:
Known Issues and Limitations
Once the available nodes have been provisioned, the cluster goes into the Running state and the
'AWS provisioning issue' message remains displayed. You can click Details in the message to see
how many nodes were provisioned. You can try resizing the cluster to the size you originally wanted.
See Resizing a Cluster on Demand in the User's Guide.
• When you attempt to resize a cluster, the cluster appears to update when trying to resize even when
no additional nodes are available to meet the request.
• When you attempt to resize a cluster, the original number of nodes requested is displayed instead
of the number of nodes requested for the resizing.
• Occasionally, Ansys Gateway powered by AWS fails to create a valid Slurm cluster. The sinfo command
reports that the state of one or more nodes is unk* (unknown), which indicates that the node cannot
be reached. This usually occurs if the Slurm controller was previously connected to another cluster.
To fix the issue of nodes being unreachable, restart the cluster.
To connect the cluster to the controller, follow the steps in Workaround for Reusing a Slurm Controller
in the Recommended Usage guide.
• When a Slurm cluster is deleted and subsequently recreated on the same controller, the old cluster
nodes are not properly cleaned up. They remain listed in the slurm.conf file, and the sinfo com-
mand reports the nodes with a state of *unk (unknown). To avoid this issue, use a new controller
each time you want to create a Slurm cluster.
To resolve this issue, follow the steps in Workaround for Reusing a Slurm Controller in the Recommen-
ded Usage guide.
• Cluster nodes may not be fully ready even though the Overall state reported for the nodes is 'Ready'
in the node details of the HPC cluster tile. In this case, jobs submitted to the cluster will fail. Only the
controller used for job scheduling knows if all nodes are ready to perform work. Before submitting
a job, always check the state of nodes from the cluster controller. To view the state of nodes in a
Slurm cluster, for example, use the sinfo command on the Slurm controller virtual machine. Slurm
nodes are ready when their state is shown as 'idle'.
• In some cases, connecting to an HPC cluster may fail. Connection to clusters is possible only from a
Windows or Linux virtual machine in Ansys Gateway powered by AWS which is in the same region
as the cluster. All resources involved in an HPC workflow (including the file storage server if used)
must be in the Running state. Some application workflows require that you share a working directory
on the job submission virtual machine with the nodes in the cluster. For more information, refer to
the application-specific workflows in Recommended Configurations by Application in the Ansys
Gateway powered by AWS Recommended Usage guide.
• Port 443 is not available on Windows virtual desktops, which may result in a port conflict when at-
tempting to run DCS for Design Points. To work around this issue, you can configure DCS to use a
different port. For instructions, see Design point update results in an error (p. 11).
• The Manage user access feature for shared folders on a file storage server is not currently implemen-
ted. A user has full access to the shared folder even if Full Access is disabled for the user in the
folder's access settings.
General Usability
• Internet Explorer is not supported.

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U.S. Government Rights

Published in the U.S.A.

Use this guide to:

• Find answers to frequently asked questions (p. 3)

• Find solutions to common issues (p. 7)

• Learn about known issues and limitations (p. 13)

I'm an Ansys Gateway administrator. What is the best way to provision

Can I use a virtual desktop when someone else is using it?

Why does my virtual desktop get disconnected after a period of inactivity?

Can I map selected local drives on my computer to a virtual desktop?

How do I create shared storage that can be accessed on Linux virtual

• Creating Storage for Shared Data

• Enabling Access to a Shared Folder

How do I mount Linux storage on a Windows virtual machine?

If my workflow includes geometry, do I need to use graphics-accelerated

Can I change the name of a resource after it has been created?

1. Stop the virtual machine.

2. In the resource tile, click the drop-down and select Hardware.

3. Click Change Hardware and select the desired hardware.

Why do I get an error when I launch Discovery on a c6i instance?

What are the recommendations for running performance benchmarks?

Can't access the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS portal

Sign-in attempt fails

• You are not a member of your company's Active Directory.

Insufficient instance capacity when creating or resizing resources

Workarounds for Instance Capacity Failure

Resource creation is taking a long time

• The size or complexity of the resource

• The number of applications selected for installation

• Factors related to Amazon Web Services, such as hardware availability

Resource type Average creation time Notes

Resource creation results in a 'Failed State' error

3. Delete the failed resource.

Newly created resource stuck 'Waiting for services'

Resource has been stuck installing applications for a long time

Error when creating a resource: 'Unable to list VM sizes'

Cluster stuck 'Updating' after being resized

Can't launch a job on an RSM cluster

Error: 'Services are currently unavailable, please try again later'

Design point update results in an error

1. On the virtual desktop, open a command prompt.

2. Stop all services by issuing the following command:

To fix the issue of nodes being unreachable, restart the cluster.

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