AWS Technical Problems

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jareddunlap asked Apr 3, '24 Jeanette F commented Apr 19, '24

AWS Technical Problems

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.

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Ben Wilson ♦♦ commented · Apr 03 at 07:06 PM

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.

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jareddunlap Ben Wilson ♦♦ commented · Apr 04 at 05:13 PM

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!

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Ben Wilson ♦♦ jareddunlap commented · Apr 04 at 08:52 PM

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.

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Jeanette F ♦♦ commented · Apr 19 at 02:59 PM

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.

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Answer 1 · 2024-04-05T18:04:56Z

Ben Wilson answered Apr 5, '24

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.

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