topic Re: AWS Technical Problems in FlexSim Forum

AWS Technical Problems

Jared_Dunlap — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:44:58 GMT

We are working to install our FlexSim application on an AWS virtual machine and are running into technical issues. We believe that it is related to not opening the correct ports. Does anyone have a recommendation or know which ports these would be? We are working in V 25.0.

Re: AWS Technical Problems

Ben_WilsonADSK — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 19:06:20 GMT

Hi @Jared.Dunlap,

Perhaps you have a 25.0 license, but what version of the software are you trying to install? The latest production version today is 24.0, but 24.1 is out in beta, or you may be using an older version. It could be helpful to know.

Can you please explain the symptoms you're experiencing? Is it during the actual installation? The initial startup? A screenshot could be helfpul.

Did you install using the .exe installer? The .msi?

Perhaps one of the suggestions in this article could solve your issue:

FlexSim installation or startup error - FlexSim Community

Finally, you should know that while we can offer some general advice, your setup (FlexSim on a VM) is not tested for or supported. See our system requirements, note 2 for more information.

Re: AWS Technical Problems

Jared_Dunlap — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 17:13:40 GMT

Hi @Ben Wilson thank you for your prompt response,

We are working out of FlexSim version 24.0.2.
The application is fully installed and working on the VM.
We are using a 443 port on the front end.
We believe the issue is related to which port needs to be used for the web server backend.

Is there a specific port that needs to be used on the backend?

Thanks!

Re: AWS Technical Problems

Ben_WilsonADSK — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 20:17:53 GMT

Hi @Jared.Dunlap,

Are you using your AWS instance as a remote machine for purposes of distributed experiments or optimizations (article)? Your use case would be handy to know, as well as your use of the FlexSim Webserver.

"using 443 on the front end" - where are you configuring that? What do you mean by "front end"? Is this in the "use distributed CPUs" area of the Advanced tab of the Experimenter? Somewhere else?

Please try to give us a whole view of what you're trying to do, where you're entering information, what errors you're seeing, etc. in order for us to provide the help you need. The more info/screenshots, the better.

Thanks.

Re: AWS Technical Problems

Ben_WilsonADSK — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 20:52:32 GMT

If you are running the FlexSim Webserver on the AWS instance, and you want to connect to that server over port 443, please note that the FlexSim Webserver on its own is very basic and does not include features of a mainstream webserver like Apache or nginx, such as encryption or authentication. If you need such features, it is best to proxy FlexSim's webserver behind a fully-featured webserver. See Paul Toone's articles for instructions on this:

Also, you'll want to be familiar with the FlexSim Webserver's configuration file (documentation link), where you can set a custom port number. The default is port 80. If you want to use port 443, you should change it in the config file as described at the link.

Please note that changing the port number to 443 won't make the server encrypt in transit. You should use the articles above if you want encryption (in which case you'll probably leave the Webserver at its default port 80). But you can configure your FlexSim Webserver to serve over port 443, and it will work just fine (but not encrypted), and you would connect via http://<IPAddress-or-FQDN>:443.

If you're not familiar with servers and web hosting I know this can be a bit confusing. If you have any follow-up questions please comment back.

Or I may be misunderstanding your use-case altogether, in which case any clarification would be appreciated.

Re: AWS Technical Problems

Jared_Dunlap — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 13:54:29 GMT

Hi @Ben Wilson,

Providing some clarification on our issue here. The “Frontend” we are speaking about is an Application Load Balancer (ALB). This is in front of the EC2 instance. We are receiving a “504 Timeout Gateway Error” when trying to access the URL that we have setup for the ALB.

If we open up Resource manager on the EC2 that the application is working on and check the networking tab to see what port the application is listening on, we do not see where there is an available listening port for the FlexSim application.

Is it possible for you to connect with Trent Richards to find out what port was used to connect to the FlexSim application on the successful VDI setups?

Thanks!

Re: AWS Technical Problems

Ben_WilsonADSK — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 18:04:56 GMT

Hi @Jared.Dunlap,

Thank you for clarifying this is for a VDI use-case. Is the intent that your engineers will use such a setup to develop simulation models remotely instead of locally on their own PCs?

If so, the FlexSim Webserver would not be part of that setup - It provides a completely different interface that is only meant for viewing/running already existing models over HTTP. It does not provide a development environment - it is more a viewer. It would not be part of a VDI setup for FlexSim development.

Instead, you would need to connect to the installed FlexSim application through Windows remote desktop (or equivalent solution) to get the full Windows desktop FlexSim interface. FlexSim doesn't include any built-in special settings for use in a VDI setup - it is just a vanilla Windows desktop application.

As a reminder, while you may get such a setup to meet your needs, we do not test for or support this scenario. See our system requirements, note 2 for more information.

I touched base with Trent. He doesn't know the technical specifics on how some customers are virtualizing their FlexSim use, only that they've mentioned in passing that they do in fact use FlexSim in that way.

Re: AWS Technical Problems

Jeanette_Fullmer — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 14:59:14 GMT

Hi @jareddunlap, was Ben Wilson's answer helpful? If so, please click the "Accept" button at the bottom of their answer. Or if you still have questions, add a comment and we'll continue the conversation.

If we haven't heard back from you within 3 business days we'll auto-accept an answer, but you can always comment back to reopen your question.