The top half of the EnSight Launcher dialog is used to set common options for starting EnSight. Choose between running EnSight with a single Server or multiple Servers. If using multiple Servers, indicate how many Servers should be used.
Server Machine Name specifies the hostname to use for where to
run the EnSight Server. Specify localhost for running on the
same computer as the EnSight Client. If localhost is not defined
on that computer, try 127.0.0.1. This is a common issue on
Windows.
If you choose to run the EnSight Server on a different computer, then the remaining options in the common area affect how the remote computer is accessed as well as how the EnSight Client and Server establish communications between each other. If you're not running the EnSight Server on a different computer, then there's no need to change default values for the following options in the common area.
If running the Server(s) on a remote computer, be sure to have the CEI/bin/ directory containing the EnSight executables in your PATH for this version of EnSight. You should verify this by running:
ssh -l username remote_computer_name 'which ensight_server'
where username is your user name on the remote computer and
remote_computer_name is the hostname of the remote computer. The
command should return the full path to the corresponding version of
ensight_server on the remote computer. If it doesn't then you'll need
to fix your PATH environment variable on the remote computer so
ensight_server can be found.
Note: As of Ansys version 2022 R2, EnSight defaults to using ssh on
Windows instead of plink as it did in previous versions. Starting
with Microsoft Windows 10 (with current updates), Windows includes OpenSSH. See
Microsoft documentation for setting up ssh on your Windows computer. Similarly
to using ssh on Linux and the Mac, EnSight requires passwordless ssh to be
configured when connecting to a remote computer via ssh. Before
using ssh with EnSight, you should verify that you can
successfully run from a cmd.exe shell a command of the form:
ssh -l remote_username remote_hostname which ensight
Where you replace remote_username with your user name on the
remote computer, and remote_hostname with the name of the remote
computer. If you do not get back a valid pathname to ensight on the
remote computer, then you do not have things properly set up and EnSight will
not work correctly.
Should you have an older version of Windows, or prefer to use
plink instead of ssh, EnSight can still work with
plink. Simply specify plink instead of
ssh where required. You will have to install
plink, include it in your Windows PATH, and have it
properly configured for passwordless authentication (same as with previous
versions of EnSight).
Specify your user name on the Server computer if needed for remote login.
Typically, you would use ssh for the Remote Spawn
Command if running on Linux or
macOS. If you're running on
Windows, specify plink.exe. You can
specify the full pathname to any command that follows ssh syntax.
If you'd like to tunnel the communications between the Client and Server over SSH (or plink.exe), toggle on Tunnel Client connection over SSH. This is frequently needed if the Client computer is running a firewall blocking inbound connections on TCP IP port 1106, or when the Client's hostname is not known by the computer specified by Server Machine Name. This frequently happens when the Client computer acquires a hostname and/or TCP IP address dynamically.
You can choose whether the Server connects to the Client (default), or if the Client connects to the Server. Choosing between the two may make dealing with firewalls easier.
If the Server connects to the Client and if the Client's hostname is not known by the Server's computer, then toggle on the option to use the Client's IP address. This is not needed if tunneling the communication or if you've elected to have the Client connect to the Server.