Autodesk Flame Configuration (Networked)
This topic covers the requirements for creating an Autodesk Flame instance on AWS, networked with other Flame instances, with or without a Project server.
For a standalone Flame instance, see Autodesk Flame Configuration (Standalone).
Requirements for an Autodesk Flame Instance on AWS
From the Autodesk Flame AMI you created, deploy the Flame instance. You must set its instance type, storage, EFA (if using AWS CDI), and security groups:
Instance type: At least
G4dn.8xlarge
(other recommended options:G5.8xlarge
,G6.8xlarge
,G6e.8xlarge
,Gr6.8xlarge
).Storage:
- If the projects are hosted on a project server, set the system disk to 50 GB.
- If the projects are hosted by the Flame instance, set the system disk to 500 GB.
- In either case, media is stored on an attached disk array or cloud NAS.
If you plan on using AWS CDI: You must configure the Flame instance to use the EFA (Elastic Fabric Adapter) network device. You cannot add an EFA network device after the instance creation.
- Check with AWS that EFA is available in the region where you will launch the instance.
- In the Launch an instance panel, under Network settings, click Edit.
- Select a subnet other than "No preference" and click Advanced network configuration at the bottom of the section.
- Click Enable under Elastic Fabric Adapter.
Security Groups:
- Flame
- IGMP-multicast
- If you've setup an EFA network device, also select the EFA security group.
Other settings should be adjusted according to your requirements, but do configure the following:
- Network
- Subnet
- Domain join directory
- IAM role
When you create the instance, the option Instance volume deletion on termination controls what happens to the storage when you terminate the instance. If the volume is not deleted on instance termination, while you are no longer paying for the terminated instance, you are still paying for the storage.
To avoid paying for storage you no longer need, the instance volume can be deleted automatically when the instance is terminated.
- When you launch an instance, open the storage tab.
- Select Delete on termination.
Before selecting Delete on termination, understand that data stored on the instance volume is permanently deleted when the instance is terminated.
Configure the Autodesk Flame Instance
After launching your Flame instance for the first time, you must configure it to your storage and network requirements.
Once all of this is done, you connect to Flame with the user you created, using Amazon DCV or HP Anyware.
- Connect to the Flame instance
From your local machine, connect to the instance through ssh. Use the flameadmin
account and the keypair of the instance.
ssh -i <keypair> flameadmin@<INSTANCE PUBLIC IP>
- Assign a new machine ID
In a shell, run the command to assign a new machine ID to your instance:
dbus-uuidgen | sudo tee /etc/machine-id
- Stop Autodesk Backburner and Autodesk Stone & Wire services
To stop Autodesk Backburner and Autodesk Stone & Wire Services.
sudo systemctl stop adsk_backburner
sudo systemctl stop adsk_sw
- Set the hostname of the project server
- Connect to the instance.
- Set the hostname of the instance.
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname --static <Your-host-name>
- Add the instance to the identity management system, if you have one.
Follow the instructions for your identity management system.
- Configure Backburner
In a shell, enter the following:
sudo /opt/Autodesk/backburner/backburnerConfig
At the prompts, provide the following answers:
Do you want to run the Backburner Manager on this machine? ([y]es/[n]o/[s]kip/[q]uit)
: nDo you want to run the Backburner Server(s) on this machine? ([y]es/[n]o/[s]kip)
: yEnter the hostname (or IP address) of the Manager for this Server, or localhost to use default. (leave empty to keep 'localhost')
: <Your-ProjectServer-hostname>Enter the hostname (or IP address) that the Manager should use to communicate to this Server, or localhost to use default. (leave empty to keep 'localhost')
: <Your-Flame-name>
- Restart Autodesk Backburner and Autodesk Stone & Wire services
To restart Autodesk Backburner and Autodesk Stone & Wire Services.
sudo systemctl start adsk_backburner
sudo systemctl start adsk_sw
- Set up a swap partition
By default, the Flame instance doesn't have a swap partition. It is missing from the instance because the large number of possible use cases makes it impossible to predict and set the size of the swap partition.
You create the swap partition and size it according to your needs. To help you out, here is an example of a configuration that uses the ephemeral instance storage available to G4dn and G5 instances to set up a swap partition. You want to use the ephemeral storage for the swap partition because A. The swap partition doesn't need saving between restarts and B. Ephemeral storage costs are included in your instance costs.
This method is not optimal as it uses all the available space on the device, making the swap partition needlessly large. Consult AWS documentation for other swap partition creation methods.
Find the instance storage by listing the disks attached to the instance with
lsblk
:[flameadmin@vxfhost ~]$ lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT nvme0n1 259:1 0 50G 0 disk └─nvme0n1p1 259:2 0 50G 0 part / nvme1n1 259:0 0 838.2G 0 disk
In this example,
nvme1n1
is not mounted, indicating that this is our ephemeral instance storage device (data on this device is not kept when the instance is stopped). This is a good candidate for use as a swap file.WarningDo not select your media storage!
Verify that the swap partition is always created on the ephemeral storage when the instance starts, add the following to
/etc/rc.local
# Create swap partition mkswap /dev/nvme1n1 swapon /dev/nvme1n1
Verify that the device name matches the ephemeral device name found earlier with
lsblk
!Restart the instance with
sudo reboot
Once the instance is restarted, verify that the swap space is now available with lsblk
:
[flameadmin@vxfhost ~]$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1 259:1 0 50G 0 disk
└─nvme0n1p1 259:2 0 50G 0 part /
nvme1n1 259:0 0 838.2G 0 disk [SWAP]
The swap partition is identified by the [SWAP]
tag. In the previous example, nvme1n1
is now identified as the swap partition.
- Attach the NAS mount point
In a workgroup configuration, your media is stored on a network attached storage (NAS). You've configured the NAS previously, and now you mount it on the instance to use it as your media storage.
In a shell, run the following commands.
Install
autofs
.sudo dnf install autofs
Create the directory where the media is stored.
sudo mkdir /mnt/StorageMedia
Redirect to the NAS. Use the command
sudo vi /etc/auto.direct
and add the following line to the file/mnt/StorageMedia -rw,noatime,nodiratime,bg nas:/mnt/nas/StorageMedia
Note: The above is an example of an NFS exported file system from servernas
. Different shared storage solutions will use slightly different syntax. You must adapt this line to your setup.Set up the automount. Use the command
sudo vi /etc/auto.master
and add the following line at the end of the file./- auto.direct
Enable and restart
autofs
.sudo systemctl enable autofs sudo systemctl start autofs
- Configure accounts to connect to the instance using Amazon DCV or HP Anyware
What you do here depends on whether or not you are using an identity management system.
You have an identity management system
If you are using an identity management system, now is the time to add the instance to the system. The procedure to do so is outside the scope of this document, but here are links to the documentation of some common identity management systems.
From now on, connect to the instance with an identity managed user instead of flameadmin
.
You don't have an identity management system
If you are not using an identity management system, you must create a new user account. Use this account to connect to the instance with Amazon DCV or HP Anyware because flameadmin
cannot be used with Amazon DCV or HP Anyware.
This user account must match in user name, user ID, and user group one of the user accounts defined on the Burn instances for Burn jobs to be successful.
From the root account, open a shell.
Create the user account. Enter:
sudo useradd <username>
Create the user account, making sure to correctly enter their user's
<user id>
,<user group>
, and<username>
.sudo useradd -u <user id> -g <user group> <username>
Follow the onscreen instructions.
Once
passwd
is done, give the user administrative privileges:sudo usermod -aG wheel <username>
sudo
command to run commands usually reserved to the root account.