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Make Your Ansys License Server Public Facing (BYOL)

Authored by Caleb Scharf February 17th, 2022 1073 views 1 likes KB956149

Description

Generally, setting up a VPN to the network where your Ansys license server is installed, is the most common way for Ansys clients to access the license server so they can work remotely. There are also several other solutions you can read about Choosing a Remote Connection Type‍. However, there are three common scenarios where you may need to make your Ansys license server directly available to a client computer on the public internet:

You are using Ansys Cloud Bring Your Own Licensing (BYOL) - BYOL requires the Ansys Cloud service, which acts as an Ansys client, to be able to access your privately hosted license server.
You Don’t Have a VPN - You may not have a VPN setup, that allows you to access the private network that your license server resides on, when you are working from home.
Your Using a Cloud Virtual Machine - You may need to install your Ansys License Server on a cloud virtual machine hosted on AWS, Azure or Google and that cloud environment/VM is not networked to your local environment where your Ansys clients reside.

Considerations

Making your license server public facing is not always the best option and can have several downsides depending on your situation. There are several main requirements unique to this scenario which may be limitations for some. If you have many clients or they will be traveling to different locations frequently, setting up a VPN to your network where the license server is located is often the best solution.

Requirements

IT Expertise to setup firewall rules and IP/Port forwarding.
Your License Manager must be running Windows (While it may be possible do to this on a Linux machine, this guide does not specifically cover that scnenario)
A public domain with the ability to add an A record/subdomain.
- Obtainable for Free from a service provider such as NoIP.com
- Obtainable for ~$12/year from a registrar of your choice (Ex. godaddy.com, networksolutions.com , etc.)
A public static IP address that you can configure to point traffic to your license server.
- Obtainable for ~$5/mo from your ISP. While you use a dynamic IP (one that changes intermittently), you'll end up needing to reconfigure your Ansys Cloud settings and your public domain A record anytime your IP changes.
A public static IP address that your client computer will be connecting from.
- Obtainable for ~$5/mo from your ISP.
- You will only be able to access the license server from IP's that have been allowed through firewall. If your clients do not have a static IP, this can still work, however, you may need to frequently update your firewall rules as some residential ISP's will change your IP address at random.

Solution

Step #1 - Setup Static IP and Domain Name

Obtain a public static IP address from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) where your license serveris located.
1. Residential ISP's do not generally issue static IP's by default and you will need
Obtain ab public domain name from a provider listed above.
1. For this article, we will use the example domain "mycustomdomain.com"
Create a public DNS hostname that points to your public static IP address.
1. From your domain providers DNS management console, add an A record using the following values"
  1. Host = name of your choice (example: license)
  2. Points To = your public static IP address
  3. TTL = 10min - 1hr is normal (this value is not critical)
2. Your public DNS hostname is now "license.mycustomdomain.com"

Step #2 - Modify Windows Host File

These steps must be performed on the license server
Search for Notepad in your start menu > right click and select Run As Administrator
File > Open > Paste this path into the file name field "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts" > Open
Add the following line to the file and save the file.
1. "127.0.0.1 license.mycustomdomain.com"

Step #3 - Configure Ansys License Manager

Install the Ansys License Manager software if you have not already done so.
Modify the license file host name and vendor port:
1. First, Stop the Ansys License Manager‍
2. Open the installed license file in notepad. The path is:
  1. ```
   "C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\Licensing\license_files\ansyslmd.lic"
```
3. Set at a static ansyslmd vendor port of 1056 by adding the term PORT=1056 to the second line as seen in the picture below.
4. Replace the existing hostname/computer name in the license file to license.mycustomdomain.com as seen in the picture above.
5. Start‍ your license manager
  
  Warning
  
  If you are using LM version 2021R1 or earlier, after making this change, you must not start the license manager from the License Management Center webpage. You must now start it from the services.msc console window. If the license server is ever started from the License Management Center webpage, it will revert the manually specified hostname back to the actual host name of the computer and your configuration will not work.

Step #4 - Configure Your Ansys Cloud Server (BYOL Setup Only)

If you are setting up Ansys Cloud Bring Your Own License (BYOL), your cloud environment will act like any other Ansys client in regards to pulling licenses and must be able to communicate with your private license server. Therefore, you must allow the public static IP(s) of your Ansys Cloud Server(s) through you're network firewall. This public IP address of your Ansys cloudaddress is referred to as the AnsysProxy Address.

Important

This proxy address is unique to each customer and region that is being activated
If you are using multiple regions, you will have multiple proxy addresses
If you ever deactivate and then reactivate a region, these IP's will change and your firewall configuration will need to be updated.

Obtain Ansys Proxy Address:

To obtain your Ansys Proxy Address(s) you will need to setup and activate a region.
Visit https://cloud.ansys.com/companyAdmin/licenseSettings
Select License Server Connection> expand Region> Expand License Server Connection Settings>Activate>Fill in the settings as follows:
Once activated, the Ansys Proxy Address will be listed. Take note of this address as it will be used when creating your firewall rules.

Step #5 - Firewall Configuration

Ensure you're Ansyslicense server is using a static IP address.
On your network firewall, open and forward traffic destined for your public facing static IP address on ports 1055, 1056 and 2325 to the internal static IP address of your Ansys License Server.
1. Limit the scope of this traffic to only the public IP addresses of the Ansys client computers that will be accessing your license server. (This will be or include the Ansys Proxy Address if setting up BYOL).
2. Warning
  
  If you do not do this limit the scope as instructed in this last step, any computer on the public internet can access your Ansys license server which is a severe security risk.

Step #7 - Complete BYOL Setup (BYOL Setup Only)

If setting up BYOL, there are still several remaining steps you need to follow in order to complete this process. Those steps can be found here: https://ansyshelp.ansys.com/account/secured?returnurl=/Views/Secured/Cloud/v000/en/ans_cloud_compute/verify_conn.html

Step #6 - Test Connectivity

Once you've complete the above steps, it's now time to test to see if everything works.

Standard Ansys Client - launch and run your Ansys software to insure it can pull a license.
BYOL Test - submit a very small job to the cloud. Follow the instructions found here:
1. https://ansyshelp.ansys.com/account/secured?returnurl=/Views/Secured/Cloud/v000/en/ans_cloud_compute/verify_conn.html

If something isn't working properly, either review the steps/settings above for accuracy and or utilize the following guide to troubleshoot communication. Testing Network Port Communication in the following article is a good place to start:

HOW TO - Verify the Ansys Client Can Communicate With the License Server‍

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