© 2014 ANSYS, Inc. January 6, 2015 1 ANSYS Confidential

Migrating to RSM 16.0

Configuration Changes and Examples

© 2014 ANSYS, Inc. January 6, 2015 2 ANSYS Confidential

• Release 16.0 of ANSYS Remote Solve Manager has a number of configuration changes relating to file permissions. These changes enable RSM to handle more of the secure configurations commonly requested by customers when running in service mode.

• This document describes the changes that you need to be aware of in Release 16.0.

• Two configuration examples are included that showcase the new functionality.

Introduction

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• In pre-16.0 versions of RSM, it was required that all users have access to a folder in a multi-user environment.

• This did not fit the security and file quota requirements of many computing environments.

Previous Issue: Open File Permissions

Client Solve Manager Compute Server

Open file

permissions

Open file

permissions

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• In RSM 16.0, the User Proxy (UP) is used to transfer files instead of the RSM service(s).

• Therefore, the permissions stay with the user.

Solution: The User Proxy

Client Solve Manager Compute Server

UP UP UP

Stays under user permissions throughout workflow

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• Changes to alternate account setup

• Extra firewall configuration

• Changes to RSM configuration to allow for “secure” configuration

• Configuration changes to OS file transfer mechanism for users in a “secure” configuration

Implications for Configuration

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• The alternate account now has an extra role because of the User Proxy workflow.

• The alternate account assigned to localhost is also the account that is used for User Proxy file transfer from Client to Solve Manager.

• Therefore, if the remote Manager has a different account than the Client account, you must assign an alternate account to that “manager (localhost)”, even if it will not be used as a compute server.

Alternate Account Setup

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• Ans.Rsm.JMHost.exe – 9160

• Ans.Rsm.SHHost.exe – 8160

• Ans.Rsm.UPHost.exe – dynamic port allocation (both client & server)

Firewall Configuration

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• Configuration options from various files have been amalgamated into one new Ans.RSM.AppSettings.config file.

• User Proxy uses dynamic ports by default. Since this is most likely what will need to be changed, this is what is shown in the example below.

• If you want to restrict/change the UP port range:

- Open the following file in a text editor:

Windows: \Ansys Inc\v160\RSM\Config\Ans.Rsm.AppSettings.config

Linux: \ansys_inc\v160\RSM\Config\Ans.Rsm.AppSettings.config

- Edit the following line in the relevant section:

<add key="PortRange" value=“" />

For example, you could specify a port range of 1000-2000.

This value should be enough to cover the number of users.

Restricting/Changing the Default Ports and Dynamic Port Ranges

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• If you are using a group share method (such as a shared drive with open permissions), no changes are needed to your setup from R15.0 or earlier.

• If you are using a secure share method (such as a user’s home directory), you will need to change the way you set up network shares (especially if using Samba).

Refer to section 2.4.1. Operating System File Transfer Utilizing Network Shares in the RSM User’s Guide for more information.

Configuration Changes to OS File Transfer

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• User Proxy also enables us to have the correct user expand those variables before file transfer.

• Administrators can add variables that would be expanded by users, such as a link to their $HOME.

• This means shared directories can now be a thing of the past.

Environment Variables Allowed in RSM Interface

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RSM 16.0 Configuration Examples

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The following examples pertain to new functionality that was not available prior to Release 16.0.

If you are using a group share method (such as a shared drive with open permissions), you do not need to make any changes to your setup from R15.0 or earlier.

Important

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• It is recommended that you have a separate “rsmtemp” directory under each HOME for storing temporary files.

• If doing Windows -> Linux file transfers, you will need to configure Samba.

• A sample Samba configuration for RSM_MGR and RSM_CS is shown below, where %H stands for the HOME directory.

Example 1: Using Per-user Linux HOME Directories for the Project and Shared Cluster Directories

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• It is recommended that you have a separate directory under each HOME for storing temporary files (in this case called rsmJobs).

• If doing Windows -> Linux file transfers you will need to configure Samba.

• A sample Samba configuration for RSM_MGR and RSM_CS is shown below, where the %u path variable represents a user’s username.

Example 2: Using a Shared Drive with User-specific Folders