1.1. Starting Remote Visualization

If you have multiple releases of Ansys products installed on your machine(s), ensure that the server and the remote visualization client are from the same release, to avoid any unexpected behavior.

 

1.1.1. Steps for Starting the Server

Before you start and connect a remote client session, the server has to be running.

  1. Start the server in the Ansys Fluent session.

    1. Launch Ansys Fluent.

    2. Start the server.

       File → Applications → Server → Start...

  2. Specify the name of the server info file and its storage directory. The default name of server_info-<host process ID>.txt is supplied.

Note:  For clusters with isolated compute nodes, you must use the export REMOTING_SERVER_ADDRESS environment variable to provide an outward facing IP address for the client to connect to. This environment variable must be defined on both the server and the client.

Alternate Methods for Starting the Remote Visualization Server

Here are a few more ways that you can start a server session.

  • The -sifile=server_info_example_name.txt command line startup option.

    Note:  You can specify the location for the server info file prior to the filename, for example -sifile=D:/example_folder/server_info_example_name.txt. If you do not provide a file path before the file name and you do not provide a path using the SERVER_INFO_DIR environment variable, then the file is saved in your working directory.

  • From progress bar by clicking Start Server.

    Figure 1.1: Progress Bar with Start Server Option

    Progress Bar with Start Server Option

  • Launch Fluent Remote Visualization Client from the start menu. Right-click the RemoteSession-1 branch of the tree and select Start Server.

  • Enter the server/start-server text command into the console of a running Fluent session.

 

1.1.1.1. Port Management

When launching the server, you have the option specify a range of ports. There must be at least two ports available from the range you supplied for the server to start, otherwise it will not launch. Note that using this environment variable is optional, so if it is not declared, the server uses random ports.

Use the REMOTING_PORTS environment variable to specify the ports for starting the server: REMOTING_PORTS=<start port>/portspan=<num>

  • <start port> and <num> must be valid integers

  • <num> must be greater than 1

  • <start port> must be greater than 0

Example:

If you specify REMOTING_PORTS=2678/portspan=3, then only 3 ports are available: 2678, 2679, 2680.

Each server requires two ports, so 2678 and 2679 are consumed when you launch the server. If you then try to start another server on the same machine, it will not start as there is only one port (2680) available.

 

1.1.2. Steps For Starting the Remote Visualization Client

  1. Start the server in the Ansys Fluent session, as described in Steps for Starting the Server.

  2. Start the Remote Visualization Client (2 options):

    • Scenario—Remote Client is on a different machine than the server.

      1. (Windows) Launch Fluent Remote Visualization Client from the start menu.

        (Linux) Launch the Fluent Remote Visualization Client from installation_drive/Program Files/ANSYS Inc/v242/fluent/bin/flremote.

      2. Click in the Server Info Filename field (highlighted in yellow in the Properties window), then click Browse....

      3. Select the server information file and click Open.

      4. Connect to the server session by clicking Connect in the Actions ribbon tab (Connection group box).

         Actions → Connection → Connect

    • Scenario—Remote Client is on the same machine as the server.

      Start the remote client from the server session.

       File → Applications → Visualization Client

      The client will automatically connect to the server by loading the Server Info Filename.

Note:  For clusters with isolated compute nodes, you must use the export REMOTING_SERVER_ADDRESS environment variable to provide an outward facing IP address for the client to connect to. This environment variable must be defined on both the server and the client.

Important:  The client and server machines must be able to connect by using their IP addresses. You can confirm that the machines can connect using IP addresses by ensuring that the ping command works from both server to client and client to server.

Alternate Methods for Starting the Remote Visualization Client

  • You can start the client from progress bar by clicking Start client.

    Figure 1.2: Progress Bar with Start Client Option

    Progress Bar with Start Client Option

    Start Client will only appear as an option when there is not a Remote Visualization Client already connected to the server.

  • Enter the server/start-client text command into the console of a running Fluent session.