The information in this section applies to Autodesk Simulation desktop products only. It is not applicable to Autodesk Simulation Mechanical 360. The Configure Remote Execution options do not appear within the Analysis tab of the program Options dialog box for the 360 version.
Activate the command:
-
Application Menu 
Options Analysis tab Configure Remote Execution button Remote Exec Programs tab, or 
Tools Options Application Options Analysis tab Configure Remote Execution button Remote Exec Programs tab.
The first requirement to remotely submit an analysis to a different computer is to identify the remote execution program. This is done in the Remote Exec Programs tab of the Remote Execution Options dialog. All version of Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 include Rexec. It is also included in the Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows Vista (but this is not a supported platform for Simulation Mechanical). Rexec is not included with Windows 7 or Server 2008.
If the Rexec executable is present on the local system, it will already be displayed in the Remote Exec Program tab.
Rexec works in conjunction with the remote execution daemon, Rexecd. Rexecd is available for most Unix-like operating systems including Linux. Rexecd is not freely available for Windows.
There are a number of available server-client applications for handling remote submission tasks from newer versions of Windows to remote hosts with newer versions of Linux or Windows. Two suggested applications follow:
- PsExec, from System Internals: To obtain PsExec, go to http://technet.microsoft.com/sysinternals and enter PsExec in the search field. SysInternal's licensing scheme prohibits us from shipping PsExec, but the application is available free of charge.
- Plink from PuTTY.org: To obtain Plink, go to http://www.putty.org. Click the link to the PuTTY download page and locate the download link for Plink.exe. Download thls file to the working folder of your choice on the client computer. Plink uses the SSH protocol, is more secure than PsExec, and is recommended when tasks will be submitted to a Linux computer or cluster. This application is available free of charge.
Notes:
- Neither PsExec nor Plink require you to install a service on the remote system. The needed service is installed by the client during execution.
- For information on installing the Simulation Mechanical software to a Linux PC (to be used as a remote host), see the Linux Installation page.
Setting Up Your Remote Execution Program
If you will be using a remote execution program other than Rexec (included with older versions of Windows only), begin by pressing the New button.
There are four parameters that must be defined to properly set up the remote execution utility. These four parameters are described below, with specific examples of the setup for PsExec and Plink following the parameter descriptions.
- Description: A unique display name must be provided. This will be used to identify the program in the Remote Execution Options dialog box (for example, PsExec or Plink ).
- Path: The full path and filename of the remote execution program on the local system.
- Options Mask: This setting allows the parameterization of the remote execution program's command line using the information that will be provided in the Remote Hosts tab. The following four tokens are supported.
- %hostname%: The remote host entry's Host Name property.
- %username%: The remote host entry's User Name property.
- %password%: The remote host entry's Password property.
- %cmdline%: The Autodesk Simulation processor command line modified to be pathed to the remote system's Autodesk Simulation installation and model working paths.
- Show Window: Activate this check box to specify that the command window must be displayed during the remote execution. This check box must be activated for the Microsoft Rexec utility because it does not accept the password on the command line, and you must type it into the command window at the start of the remote execution process.
The recommended remote execution program settings for PsExec are:
- Description: SysInternals PsExec
- Path: Full path to the PsExec executable file (such as C:\Program Files\pstools\psexec.exe – modified to match the actual installation path, if different)
- Options Mask: \\%hostname% -u %username% -p %password% %remotecmdline%
- Show Window: True
The recommended remote execution program settings for Plink are:
- Description: PuTTY Plink
- Path: Full path to the file Plink.exe
- Options Mask: -ssh %username%@%hostname% -pw %password% %remotecmdline%
- Show Window: True
Continue to the Remote Hosts Tab page for the completion of the remote execution setup.