Using Remote Display Technologies with

ANSYS Workbench Products

ANSYS, Inc. Release 19.0

Southpointe January 2018
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Table of Contents
Using Remote Display Technology with ANSYS® Workbench™ Products ........................................................ 1
1. General Information ............................................................................................................................ 1
1.1. Server-Side Rendering ................................................................................................................ 1
1.2. Graphics Card Hardware and Drivers ........................................................................................... 2
2. Vendor-Specific Information ................................................................................................................ 2
2.1. NICE Desktop Cloud Visualization 2016 ....................................................................................... 2
2.2. Citrix XenDesktop 7.14 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via Citrix Receiver 4.3) ..................................... 4
2.3. Citrix XenServer 7.1 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2016) .............................................. 4
2.4. VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2016) ........................................................ 5
2.5. VMware Horizon View 7.2 for VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines ........................................... 5
2.6. OpenText Exceed onDemand 8 SP9 ............................................................................................. 5
2.7. VNC Connect 6.2 with VirtualGL 2.5 ............................................................................................. 6
2.8. Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop ........................................................................................... 6

Release 19.0 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. iii
 Release 19.0 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
iv of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Using Remote Display Technology with ANSYS® Workbench™
Products
This document explains how to use Remote Display technology with ANSYS Workbench products.

Document Contents:
1. General Information
2. Vendor-Specific Information

1. General Information
Section Contents:
1.1. Server-Side Rendering
1.2. Graphics Card Hardware and Drivers

A remote display device is a software product that allows a user to run an application such as ANSYS
on a remote machine (the server), while displaying the graphical interface on their local machine (the
client). The following Remote Display products have been tested and are certified for use with ANSYS
products:

• NICE Desktop Cloud Visualization (DCV) 2016 (Remote Server: Windows® or Linux®)

• Citrix® XenDesktop™ 7.14 for Citrix Windows®Virtual Machine (via Citrix Receiver™ 4.3)

• Citrix® XenServer® 7.1 for Citrix Linux® Virtual Machines (using NICE DCV connection)

• VMWare vSphere ESXi™ 6.0 U3 Linux® Virtual Machines (using NICE DCV connection)

• VMWare® Horizon View™ 7.2 for VMWare vSphere ESXi™ 6.0 U3 Windows® Virtual Machine

• OpenText™ Exceed onDemand® (EOD) 8 SP9 (Remote Server: Linux®)

• VNC™ Connect 6.2 with VirtualGL 2.5 (Remote Server: Linux®)

• Microsoft Windows® Remote Desktop

Remote Display technologies can be a useful tool for accessing desktop applications on remote or
centralized computing resources, where low-latency network connections exist. However, users of Remote
Display technologies can expect to encounter some performance degradation and minor display issues
compared to direct desktop display.

1.1. Server-Side Rendering

Most Remote Display products can make use of the graphics hardware and drivers on the server, while
displaying the output on the client machine (server-side rendering). Remote display devices also provide
options for client-side rendering or software rendering without hardware acceleration. The use of server-
side rendering is recommended to achieve acceptable performance for 3D applications.

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Using Remote Display Technology with ANSYS® Workbench™ Products

The use of server-side rendering generally requires additional configuration and command-line execution
arguments (such as ssrrun on EOD and vglrun on VNC Connect). Follow vendor instructions for the
configuration of server-side rendering, and ensure that standard 3D test applications (such as glxgears
or SPECviewperf®) execute with acceptable performance before running ANSYS applications.

1.2. Graphics Card Hardware and Drivers

Most remote display vendors have specific hardware and graphics requirements for remote display
servers. Follow those vendor recommendations when configuring your server.

The stability of Remote Display systems depends strongly on the graphics card driver being used. Before
installing any Remote Display software, you should install the latest graphics card drivers available directly
from the vendor. Note that Automatic Updates for many operating systems do not provide the latest
drivers, so direct contact with your graphics card vendor is recommended.

2. Vendor-Specific Information
Section Contents:
2.1. NICE Desktop Cloud Visualization 2016
2.2. Citrix XenDesktop 7.14 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via Citrix Receiver 4.3)
2.3. Citrix XenServer 7.1 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2016)
2.4. VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2016)
2.5. VMware Horizon View 7.2 for VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines
2.6. OpenText Exceed onDemand 8 SP9
2.7. VNC Connect 6.2 with VirtualGL 2.5
2.8. Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop

2.1. NICE Desktop Cloud Visualization 2016

Installation and Configuration Resources
For hardware requirements, installation and configuration of NICE DCV, refer to the NICE DCV Guide at
http://www.nice-software.com/download/nice-dcv-2016#documentation. For specific details about host
requirements for OS and graphics cards, refer to the "Prerequisites" section of the document.

The On Red hat7+ servers, users may encounter a hang or grey screen. In such cases, refer to the link
below vnc documentation to modify xstartup file; https://support.realvnc.com/knowledgebase/article/
View/345/5/vnc-server-in-virtual-mode-appears-to-hang-or-you-see-a-grey-screen-because-a-desktop-
environment-cannot-be-loaded

For more information and assistance with the installation of DCV, contact NICE Support at support@nice-
software.com.

Known Issues and Limitations

• SpaceClaim input values do not work on the Pull or Move tool in an earlier version of DCV 2013. To address
this issue, install NICE DCV 2016.

• After an Icepak or ICEM graphics failure, a reconfiguration is required for affected fonts. For more information,
see the related NICE Support page at http://support.nice-software.com/solution/articles/1000052632-x11-
and-dcv-fonts-configuration (DE79209).

• NICE DCV not supported on remote server on Suse 12.x per vendor documentation.

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 Vendor-Specific Information

• No gnome support for RH 7.x and CentOS 7.

• For RH 7.x and CentOS 7, Xstartup file must be updated with correct kde session.

• When OpenText EOD and NICE DCV are installed on the same machine, behavior can be erratic.

• VNC and NICE DCV cannot be installed on the same server. If installing VNC and NICE DCV on the same client,
then the NICE DCV Portable Endstation must be used to execute the DCV client application due to VNC
compatibility issues.

• When using Fluent, additional configurations may be necessary to using OpenGL®, as follows:

– If WorkBench is not yet launched, define the following environment (assuming csh):

setenv FLUENT_WB_OPTIONAL_ARGS "-driver opengl"

– If WorkBench is launched but Fluent is not yet launched, define the following in the Fluent launcher
window:

More options>Environment (tab)>LAUNCHER_FLUENT_OPTIONS=-driver opengl

– If both WorkBench and Fluent have been launched, use the Fluent command window to change display
settings (you will need to close the existing graphics sub-window in Fluent and open a new one to make
it effective):

/display/set/rendering-options/driver opengl

– In all of the above cases, you can verify display info by selecting Display>Options>Info in the menu, or
by issuing following command in Fluent text window:

/display/set/rendering-options/device-info

This command should show "Driver GLX_Hardware" for OpenGL graphics.

• If there are configuration issues, an OpenGL® application on Linux may not start and you may see the fol-
lowing error:
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified
DCV RVN: error, cannot init local display.

DCV uses a 3D hardware accelerated X11 display, the "3D rendering display", to render OpenGL ac-
celerated graphics. Usually the 3D rendering display is the first display, : 0, but it may change for
different reasons. An example is a case in which multiple 3D video cards are installed.

To ensure DCV can render 3D graphics:

1. The OpenGL application must know the 3D rendering display to connect to. By default, DCV will
use the first :0.0 display as 3D rendering display. In case the 3D rendering display is different
it is possible to explicitly specify the display to use. To specify the 3D rendering display to use:

– You can permanently configure the display in the dcv.conf file (see Appendix A, dcv.conf ).

– Alternatively, if you want to change the display just for the execution of an application, you
can use the RVN_LOCAL_DISPLAY environment variable. For example, to make the DCV Test
application use the second screen on the first display, use the following line:

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Using Remote Display Technology with ANSYS® Workbench™ Products

RVN_LOCAL_DISPLAY=:0.1 dcvtest

2. The 3D rendering display must grant X connections from the local machine to any user; you must
grant local connections to the 3D rendering display. To let the 3D rendering display accept X
connections on a production system, we suggest that you start the system at runlevel 5
(graphics mode with GDM or other Display Manager for login).

In the GDM startup script, add the following command at the beginning:
/usr/bin/xhost +local: # Enable local Unix Domain Sockets connections
# (Check xhost path on your distribution)

The appropriate script location may change depending on the Linux distribution or the installed
Display Manager.

For additional detail on this error and its resolution, refer to the "Cannot Init Local Display" section
of the NICE DCV Installation and User Guide.

2.2. Citrix XenDesktop 7.14 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via Citrix Receiver 4.3)
Installation and Configuration Resources
For information on hardware requirements, installation and configuration, refer to the "XenDesktop"
page of the Citrix Product Documentation site at http://www.citrix.com/products/xendesktop/over-
view.html

Known Issues and Limitations

Only supported on Windows virtual machines.

2.3. Citrix XenServer 7.1 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2016)
Installation and Configuration Resources
For information on hardware requirements, installation and configuration, refer to the "Citrix XenServer
® 7.1 Virtual Machine User's Guide" at https://docs.citrix.com/content/dam/docs/en-us/xenserver/7-1/
downloads/xenserver-7-1-vm-users-guide.pdf.

The On Red hat7+ servers, users may encounter a hang or grey screen. In such cases, refer to the link
below vnc documentation to modify xstartup file; https://support.realvnc.com/knowledgebase/article/
View/345/5/vnc-server-in-virtual-mode-appears-to-hang-or-you-see-a-grey-screen-because-a-desktop-
environment-cannot-be-loaded.

Known Issues and Limitations

• Only supported on Linux virtual machines.

• No Server support of NICE DCV for Suse 12.x per vendor documentation.

• No gnome support for RH 7.x and CentOS 7.

• For RH 7.x and CentOS 7, Xstartup file must be updated with correct kde session.

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4 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Vendor-Specific Information

2.4. VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2016)
Installation and Configuration Resources
For information on hardware requirements, installation and configuration of Horizon View 7.2, refer to
the "Getting Started" page of the VMware Horizon Support Center at https://www.vmware.com/support/
horizon-view.html.

For information on vSphere ESXi 6.0 U3, refer to the vSphere Hypervisor ESXi Support Center at https://
www.vmware.com/support/vsphere-hypervisor.html.

Known Issues and Limitations

• Only supported on Linux virtual machines.

• No Server support of NICE DCV for Suse 12.x per vendor documentation.

• No gnome support for RH 7.x and CentOS 7.

• For RH 7.x and CentOS 7, Xstartup file must be updated with correct kde session.

2.5. VMware Horizon View 7.2 for VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines
Installation and Configuration Resources
For information on hardware requirements, installation and configuration of Horizon View 7.2, refer to
the "Getting Started" page of the VMware Horizon Support Center at https://www.vmware.com/support/
horizon-view.html.

For information on vSphere ESXi 6.0 U3, refer to the vSphere Hypervisor ESXi Support Center at https://
www.vmware.com/support/vsphere-hypervisor.html.

Known Issues and Limitations

Only supported on Windows virtual machines.

2.6. OpenText Exceed onDemand 8 SP9

Installation and Configuration Resources
Installation instructions for EOD are available in ExceedonDemandQuickStart.html in the Exceed on-
Demand installation package.

Installation videos and discussion of server-side rendering with Exceed onDemand are also available
through the OpenText YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/opentextcorp?feature=watch.

Known Issues and Limitations

• To achieve server-side rendering for accelerated graphics performance, ANSYS applications must be executed
using the EOD ssrrun command, or by selecting "Use Direct Server-Side Rendering" in the OpenGL Server
Host Application settings in the Xstart configuration.

• No gnome support for RH 7.x and CentOS 7.

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Using Remote Display Technology with ANSYS® Workbench™ Products

2.7. VNC Connect 6.2 with VirtualGL 2.5

Installation and Configuration Resources
For hardware requirements, installation and configuration of VNC Connect, refer to the VNC Connect
support page at http://www.realvnc.com/support/documentation.html.

Note that VirtualGL is required to support server-side rendering with VNC Connect, and must be installed
prior to installing VNC Connect. VirtualGL is available from http://www.virtualgl.org/.

The On Red hat7+ servers, users may encounter a hang or grey screen. In such cases, refer to the link
below vnc documentation to modify xstartup file; https://support.realvnc.com/knowledgebase/article/
View/345/5/vnc-server-in-virtual-mode-appears-to-hang-or-you-see-a-grey-screen-because-a-desktop-
environment-cannot-be-loaded

Known Issues and Limitations

• No SLES 12.x support per vendor documentation.

• After an Icepak or ICEM graphics failure, a reconfiguration is required for affected fonts. Follow the instructions
given for NICE Desktop Cloud Visualization 2016 (p. 2).

• To achieve server-side rendering for accelerated graphics performance, ANSYS applications must be executed
using the VirtualGL vglrun command.

• No gnome support for RH 7.x and CentOS 7.

• For RH 7.x and CentOS 7, Xstartup file must be updated with correct kde session.

• VNC Connect and NICE DCV cannot be installed on the same server, as they use related but incompatible
VNC versions.

2.8. Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop

Installation and Configuration Resources
Information on the configuration and use of Windows Remote Desktop is available from http://win-
dows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/connect-using-remote-desktop-connection#connect-using-remote-
desktop-connection=windows-7.

Known Issues and Limitations

• For Windows 7 server using AMD graphics, AIM performance might be slow when operating through a
Windows Remote Desktop WRD connection (DE83494).

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