Getting Started with Ansys Gateway powered

by AWS

ANSYS, Inc.
Southpointe November 2022
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Canonsburg, PA 15317 ANSYS Europe,
Ltd. are UL
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(T) 724-746-3304 companies.
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Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1
What Do I Need? ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Signing In to Ansys Gateway powered by AWS ........................................................................................ 2
Signing Out of Ansys Gateway powered by AWS ..................................................................................... 3
Ansys Gateway powered by AWS Environment ......................................................................................... 5
Quick Tour .............................................................................................................................................. 5
Using Multiple Monitors ......................................................................................................................... 6
Toggling the Display of the Welcome Screen ........................................................................................... 6
Where Do I Start? ........................................................................................................................................ 9
Types of User Roles ................................................................................................................................. 9
Tasks to Get You Started ........................................................................................................................ 10
Getting Help ......................................................................................................................................... 10
Online Help .................................................................................................................................... 11
Learning Forum .............................................................................................................................. 11
Technical Support ........................................................................................................................... 11
Glossary .................................................................................................................................................... 13

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Introduction
Ansys Gateway powered by AWS is a secure, online portal that provides on-demand access to cloud-
based applications and compute resources over the Internet. Resources are provisioned through Amazon
Web Services (AWS) from data centers around the world using your company's AWS account.

To enable your company to access AWS resources via Ansys Gateway powered by AWS, an IT adminis-
trator with access to your company's local IT environment and AWS account must complete a guided
setup process (see Requirements for Integrating with Ansys Gateway powered by AWS in the Adminis-
tration Guide). In addition, your company must obtain licenses for any Ansys applications to be run in
AWS Cloud (see Managing Application Licenses). When the required setup has been completed, users
can start signing in to Ansys Gateway powered by AWS.

Take a couple of minutes to learn the basics of accessing Ansys Gateway powered by AWS:
What Do I Need?
Signing In to Ansys Gateway powered by AWS
Signing Out of Ansys Gateway powered by AWS

What Do I Need?
To be able to access Ansys Gateway powered by AWS and launch remote desktop sessions, you need
the following:

• User access. During the setup process, your company's Active Directory is synchronized with Ansys
Gateway powered by AWS. The IT administrator adds selected user accounts to Ansys Gateway security
groups created on your company's Active Directory server. If your user account has been added to
one of those security groups, you can sign in (p. 2) to Ansys Gateway powered by AWS using your
Single Sign-On (SSO) credentials.

• Web access. You access Ansys Gateway powered by AWS using a web browser. Google Chrome and
Microsoft Edge are recommended. Internet Explorer is not supported.

• Remote Desktop Connection client. Required to launch virtual desktop sessions. Microsoft Remote
Desktop Protocol (RDP) is used to provide remote display and input capabilities over a network. RDP
connects you to remotely installed applications through a Remote Desktop Connection client. If you
are using a Windows device, there is nothing that you need to install, as the Remote Desktop Con-
nection client is integrated into Microsoft Windows. If you are using a Mac, you must install Windows
on your Mac and switch to Windows when you want to connect to virtual desktops in Ansys Gateway
powered by AWS.

Note:

Currently, Ansys Gateway powered by AWS is not supported on mobile devices.

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Introduction

Signing In to Ansys Gateway powered by AWS

You can sign in to Ansys Gateway powered by AWS on any web-enabled laptop or desktop using your
Single Sign-On (SSO) credentials provided that you meet the requirements described in the previous
section, What Do I Need? (p. 1).

1. Open a web browser, go to https://gateway.ansys.com/<companyDomain>, where <companyDo-

main> is the domain name associated with the tenant that has been integrated with Ansys Gateway
powered by AWS.

For example, if the domain name were 'mycompany' (as found in https://www.mycompany.com),
you would enter the following URL: https://gateway.ansys.com/mycompany.

If you are unable to access Ansys Gateway powered by AWS or are unsure of the URL, contact your
tenant administrator.

Note:

Internet Explorer is not supported.

2. Enter your corporate email address (the address that you use to sign in to your company network
and/or Microsoft Office 365.

3. Click Sign in. Your email address is verified. If it is valid, a password field is displayed.

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 Signing Out of Ansys Gateway powered by AWS

4. Enter the password for your corporate user account.

5. Click Sign in. The Ansys Gateway powered by AWS site is loaded.

Signing Out of Ansys Gateway powered by AWS

To sign out of Ansys Gateway powered by AWS, click on the main toolbar and select Sign out.

Note:

To maintain efficient operation, Ansys Gateway powered by AWS signs you out automatically
after a period of inactivity. A notification is displayed a few seconds before this occurs.

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Ansys Gateway powered by AWS Environment
When you sign in to Ansys Gateway powered by AWS, your workspace is displayed. The workspace
contains the project spaces that have been made available to you.

A project space contains one or more cloud resources. A resource may be a virtual desktop, HPC
cluster, or file storage server. Typically, each project space is configured to support a specific project
or workflow in a selected availability zone.

Each resource has a set of assigned users who have permission to use that resource. Only the project
spaces that have been assigned to you are visible in your workspace.

If you are a Tenant Administrator or Project Space Administrator, additional features are available for
performing administrative tasks and configuring workspaces.

In this section:
Quick Tour
Using Multiple Monitors
Toggling the Display of the Welcome Screen

Quick Tour
Take a minute to familiarize yourself with the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS environment:

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Ansys Gateway powered by AWS Environment

Note:

Some features, like the Administration menu and the ability to create project spaces, are
only visible to Administrators.

Using Multiple Monitors

If you are using two or more monitors and would like to display your virtual desktop on all monitors,
enable the Display toggle on the main toolbar:

If you prefer to display your virtual desktop on only one monitor so that you can keep your local desktop
displayed on another monitor, switch the toggle off.

Toggling the Display of the Welcome Screen

By default, a welcome screen is displayed on the main page when you sign in to Ansys Gateway powered
by AWS and remains displayed unless you turn it off.

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 Toggling the Display of the Welcome Screen

You can hide the welcome screen by clicking the close icon on the screen itself.

You can also toggle the screen on or off in your user settings:

1. On the main Ansys Gateway powered by AWS toolbar, click and select User settings.

2. On the Preferences tab, click the Show welcome screen on the dashboard toggle to turn the
screen on or off.

3. Click Save to apply the change.

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Where Do I Start?
Once you are familiar with the basics you can start performing tasks in Ansys Gateway powered by
AWS. The tasks that you perform depend on your role in your organization.

Topics:
Types of User Roles
Tasks to Get You Started
Getting Help

Types of User Roles

Different types of users have different goals in Ansys Gateway powered by AWS. Your role determines
how you use Ansys Gateway powered by AWS and the areas and features that you can access.

Tenant Administrator Project Space Administrator Simulation User

The primary administrator who creates A user who has been assigned A user who wants
project spaces and has full 'Admin' permission in a to perform
administrative rights on everything in specific project space and is simulation in
Ansys Gateway powered by AWS. This therefore responsible for AWS Cloud.
identity has complete access to all administering the project
AWS services and resources in a space. Simulation users
company's AWS account. can:
A project space administrator
A tenant administrator can: can: • Access project
spaces to
• Add AWS Account information • Add resources such as which they
virtual desktops to a project have been
• Add availability zones for resource space granted access
access
• Control who has access to • Launch a
• Define tags to be applied to project the project space and what virtual desktop
spaces, resources, and so on types of permissions each
user has
• Create and manage project spaces
(permissions, resources, settings) • Set a monthly budget
allowance on the project
• Add and delete users space
• Configure license settings for
applications

• Specify firewall exceptions

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Where Do I Start?

Once you have identified your role, see Tasks to Get You Started (p. 10) in this guide.

Tasks to Get You Started

The following diagram provides an overview of how Ansys Gateway powered by AWS is set up and
used, and indicates the main tasks that you need to perform based on your role (p. 9).

To get started on the tasks that you need to perform, use the topic links below.

Tenant Administrator Project Space Administrator Simulation Users

In the Ansys Gateway In the Ansys Gateway powered by In the Ansys Gateway
powered by AWS AWS Administration Guide: powered by AWS User's
Administration Guide: Guide
• Compute Resources
• Creating a Project Space • Using Resources
• Setting a Monthly Budget for a
• User Permissions Project Space

• User Permissions

For recommendations on how to configure, select, and use resources for specific application workflows,
see the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS Recommended Usage guide.

Important:

Cost management is an important consideration when configuring and using resources in

Ansys Gateway powered by AWS. Ansys highly recommends that you familiarize yourself
with the strategies provided in Best Practices for Managing Costs in the Administration Guide.

Getting Help
When you have a question or issue, Ansys recommends that you seek support using the following re-
sources in the order specified:

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 Getting Help

Online Help
Learning Forum
Technical Support

Online Help
The Ansys Gateway powered by AWS documentation contains detailed information for both adminis-
trators and simulation users. The documentation is available on the Ansys Help site at https://ansy-
shelp.ansys.com/account/secured?returnurl=/Views/Secured/prod_page.html?pn=Ansys%20Gate-
way%20powered%20by%20AWS&pid=AnsysGateway&lang=en.

To access the documentation directly from the Ansys Gateway powered by AWS portal, click on
the main toolbar and select Ansys Gateway help.

Learning Forum
The Ansys Gateway powered by AWS Learning Forum is a place where you can ask questions, find
answers to Frequently Asked Questions, and connect with other Ansys Gateway powered by AWS
users.

To access the forum:

• From Ansys Gateway powered by AWS: Click on the main toolbar and select Support forum.
Or,

• In a web browser: Go to https://forum.ansys.com/forums/forum/discuss-simulation/ansys-gateway/

Technical Support
Technical support for Ansys Gateway powered by AWS is available through the Technical Enhancements
and Customer Support (TECS) program, which includes access to 1-on-1 support from technical experts
at Ansys.

For more information see Contacting Technical Support.

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Glossary
Here are definitions of some common terms that you may see when using Ansys Gateway powered by
AWS or viewing the help:

AD Connector Service A proxy service that authenticates users against your on-premises
Active Directory and manages requests sent to the AWS Virtual
Private Cloud (VPC) from Ansys Gateway powered by AWS.

Availability zone A location defined in AWS which is mapped to a physical data center
in an AWS region. A data center provides the hardware and network-
ing systems needed for data storage and high-performance comput-
ing.

AWS Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud platform that offers compute
and storage infrastructure from data centers around the world.

Budget Cap A spending limit placed on a project space to help manage costs.

EBS volume Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) is used to provide storage
volumes for use with EC2 instances.

EC2 Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Provides virtual computing environ-

ments known as instances.

File Storage Server A virtual machine used for shared file storage. On a file storage
server, Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) is used to provide
storage volumes for use with EC2 instances.

FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name. The complete address of a computer

that can be accessed on the Internet (for example, [email protected]
sys.com).

GPU Graphics Processing Unit. A processor designed to accelerate

graphics rendering.

HPC Cluster Consists of several compute servers that are networked together.
Each server is called a node. The nodes work in parallel with each
other, boosting processing speed to deliver high performance
computing.

Hyper-threading A technology on Intel hardware which allows a single physical pro-

cessor core to behave like two logical processors, essentially allowing
two independent threads to run in parallel. This enables more data
to be processed in less time, improving performance and efficiency.

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Glossary

IAM Identity and Access Management. A web service that helps you se-
curely control access to Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources.

Instance A virtual machine used for computing or storage in AWS Cloud.

Instance Capacity The availability of EC2 instances in a selected AWS Availability Zone
at a given time. Instance capacity changes as users launch EC2 in-
stances into Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs).

Instance Type A combination of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity.

You select an Amazon EC2 instance type when creating a virtual
resource in Ansys Gateway powered by AWS. For more information
see Amazon EC2 Instance Types.

IP Address A unique string of characters used to identify a device that is con-

nected to a network and uses the Internet Protocol for communica-
tion.

KDE Desktop K Desktop Environment (KDE) provides a graphical user interface for
working on a Linux machine. For example, KDE provides a file man-
ager and window manager.

NFS Storage The Network File System (NFS) protocol is a mechanism for creating
a file system on a Linux virtual machine. Enables users to access files
on a remote server. See also: File storage server

OS Image A template for creating new virtual desktop instances. It is a file that
contains a virtual disk that contains a bootable operating system.

Placement Group When creating a cluster, a placement group is a way of grouping

the EC2 instances in a single AWS Availability Zone to facilitate
communication between nodes, providing low latency and high
throughput. For more information refer to Placement groups in the
AWS documentation.

Project Space An area containing resources such as virtual desktops and HPC
clusters. Each project space is accessible to selected users who have
been assigned permissions in the project space.

Project Space Administrator A user who has been granted 'Admin' permission in a project space.
They can add resources, control user permissions, and set budgets
in that project space.

RDP Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol. Allows you to connect to a

remote computer. The RDP client is used to deliver a Windows re-
mote desktop session.

Service Quota The maximum value for the resources, actions, and items in your
AWS account. Having sufficient quota is necessary to provision EC2
instances, but does not guarantee on-demand EC2 instance capacity
at all times. Quota increases can be requested in the AWS console.
For details see AWS service quotas in the AWS documentation.

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Shutdown Timer A cost-saving feature that shuts down a resource after a period of
inactivity.

Simultaneous Multithread- A technology that allows a single physical processor core to behave
ing like two logical processors, essentially allowing two independent
threads to run in parallel. This enables more data to be processed
in less time, improving performance and efficiency.

Slurm Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management (SLURM). A cluster

management and job scheduling system for Linux clusters.

SMB Storage Network file sharing service on a Windows virtual machine. File
sharing functionality is delivered using the Server Message Block
(SMB) protocol. Enables users to access files on a remote server. See
also: File storage server

Tags Labels that can be applied to objects such as project spaces and
resources to help administrators track ownership, usage, and so on.

Tenant Administrator A user who is part of the Tenant Admin group in AWS. In |Product|,
a tenant administrator can create and manage project spaces, add
and delete users, configure applications and cluster packages, and
perform other top-level administrative tasks.

VDI Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) technology enables you to run

Cloud-hosted applications in a remote desktop session on your local
computer.

Virtual Desktop A virtual computer system that is accessed over the Internet. It has
the functionality of a physical computer but is not tied to a physical
machine. A virtual desktop looks and behaves just like a local
desktop.

VPC Virtual Private Cloud. A virtual networking environment in the AWS

cloud which is dedicated to your AWS account. AWS instances are
launched into VPCs. For more information refer to https://
docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/index.html.

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