Autodesk VRED and NVIDIA CloudXR on AWS

Partner Solution Deployment Guide

QS

February 2023
Sahil Saini, Autodesk Solutions Architect team and Norman Geiersbach, Autodesk Sr. Principal Engineer
Marcos Hernandez Alvarez, AWS Solutions Architect team
Dave May, AWS Integration & Automation team

Refer to the GitHub repository to view source files, report bugs, submit feature ideas, and post feedback about this Partner Solution. To comment on the documentation, refer to Feedback.

This Partner Solution was created by Autodesk in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Partner Solutions are automated reference deployments that help people deploy popular technologies on AWS according to AWS best practices. If you’re unfamiliar with AWS Partner Solutions, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide.

Overview

This guide covers the information you need to deploy Autodesk VRED and NVIDIA CloudXR on the AWS Cloud. If you are unfamiliar with AWS Partner Solutions, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide.

For additional information about VRED, refer to VRED. For additional information about CloudXR, refer to NVIDIA CloudXR SDK.

Costs and licenses

There is no cost to use this Partner Solution, but you will be billed for any AWS services or resources that this Partner Solution deploys. For more information, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide.

Architecture

Deploying this Partner Solution with default parameters builds the following VRED environment in the AWS Cloud.

Architecture
Figure 1. Partner Solution architecture for Autodesk VRED and NVIDIA CloudXR on AWS

As shown in Figure 1, this Partner Solution sets up the following:

  • A highly available architecture that spans three Availability Zones.*

  • A virtual private cloud (VPC) configured with public subnets, according to AWS best practices, to provide you with your own virtual network on AWS.*

  • In the public subnets:

    • Managed NAT gateways to allow outbound internet access for resources in the subnets.

    • An Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Windows instance for the Autodesk VRED primary node that allows the primary user to share and view (in real time) with collaborators.

    • NVIDIA CloudXR, Steam VR, and NICE DCV installed to Autodesk VRED collaborator nodes in an Auto Scaling group. You can choose G4dn or G5 EC2 instance types for the collaborator nodes during deployment.

* The template that deploys this Partner Solution into an existing VPC skips the components marked by asterisks and prompts you for your existing VPC configuration.

Deployment options

This Partner Solution provides the following deployment options:

This Partner Solution provides separate templates for these options. It also lets you configure Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) blocks, instance types, and Autodesk VRED and NVIDIA CloudXR settings.

Predeployment steps

Subscribe to CloudXR Marketplace offering

Use AWS Marketplace to find CloudXR.

  1. Open AWS Marketplace and search for CloudXR to find the latest listing.

  2. Review the details and make note of the instance size, AWS pricing, usage, and other details.

  3. Choose Continue to Subscribe.

  4. Accept the Terms and Conditions to activate the subscription (this may take a few minutes). When activation is complete, an effective date displays.

Create Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket to store binaries

Create and configure an Amazon S3 bucket for storage.

Create an Amazon S3 bucket to store the SteamVR binary, VRED Core binary, and Scene file for rendering, preferably in the same region into which you’ll deploy the Partner Solution.

(Optional) Create an S3 key prefix to organize the binaries stored in the Amazon S3 bucket.

Install SteamVR binary

Install the Steam client to store SteamVR binary.

  1. Open Steam to install Steam on a PC with full internet access.

  2. In the Steam client, open the Library section.

  3. In the Tools section, search for the SteamVR entry, and then install it.

  4. Right-click the SteamVR entry, and in the the pop-up menu, choose Properties.

    1. A new window with multiple tabs opens.

      1. Choose the LOCAL FILES tab, and then select BROWSE LOCAL FILES.

        1. The directory containing the SteamVR Runtime opens.

          1. Compress this entire directory into a .zip file named SteamVR.zip. This binary is used to install Steam VR.

  5. Store the SteamVR.zip binary in the previously created Amazon S3 bucket.

Set up Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) for Autodesk Network License Management

Create and configure a network interface to manage your license.

  1. Create an elastic network interface (ENI) with a fixed MAC address. For more information, refer to Elastic network interfaces.

  2. Create an Amazon EC2 instance from a preconfigured Amazon Machine Image (AMI) or a new Windows 10 or 11 deployment.

  3. Download and install the Autodesk Network License Manager (NLM).

    1. Create a license based on the NLM server name and the MAC address of the ENI.

      1. Set up a license file for NLM using LMTools.

Install Autodesk VRED Core binary

Install and download Autodesk VRED Core binary, as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

  1. Open Autodesk Sign in. Disable browser pop-up blockers before downloading.

  2. Sign in with your Autodesk credentials or create an account.

  3. On the left, choose All Products and Services.

  4. Choose VRED Core, and then choose View downloads.

    1. Below Install now, choose View all.

      1. Choose Browser Download.

        1. From the pop-up window, choose Start download.

  5. Copy all installer *.sfx.exe files to your AWS media Amazon S3 bucket.

predeployment1
Figure 2. All Products and Services
predeployment2
Figure 3. VRED Core download page

Deployment steps

  1. Sign in to your AWS account, and launch this Partner Solution, as described under Deployment options. The AWS CloudFormation console opens with a prepopulated template.

  2. Choose the correct AWS Region, and then choose Next.

  3. On the Create stack page, keep the default setting for the template URL, and then choose Next.

  4. On the Specify stack details page, change the stack name if needed. Review the parameters for the template. Provide values for the parameters that require input. For all other parameters, review the default settings and customize them as necessary. When you finish reviewing and customizing the parameters, choose Next.

    Unless you’re customizing the Partner Solution templates or are instructed otherwise in this guide’s Predeployment section, don’t change the default settings for the following parameters: QSS3BucketName, QSS3BucketRegion, and QSS3KeyPrefix. Changing the values of these parameters will modify code references that point to the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket name and key prefix. For more information, refer to the AWS Partner Solutions Contributor’s Guide.

  5. On the Configure stack options page, you can specify tags (key-value pairs) for resources in your stack and set advanced options. When you finish, choose Next.

  6. On the Review page, review and confirm the template settings. Under Capabilities, select all of the check boxes to acknowledge that the template creates AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) resources that might require the ability to automatically expand macros.

  7. Choose Create stack. The stack takes about 30 minutes to deploy.

  8. Monitor the stack’s status, and when the status is CREATE_COMPLETE, the Autodesk VRED and NVIDIA CloudXR deployment is ready.

  9. To view the created resources, choose the Outputs tab.

Postdeployment steps

Test the deployment

When the AWS CloudFormation template has successfully created the stack, all server nodes will be running with the Autodesk VRED application installed on your AWS account. To access the application, from your preferred browser, open the VRED URL listed in the Outputs tab.

The Partner Solution creates VRED instances and an associated security group to enable connection from the CloudXR client or from the NICE DCV web URL. The Partner Solution output displays the primary node URL. Collect the secondary server IP details from the Auto Scaling group instance details.

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting common Partner Solution issues, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide and Troubleshooting CloudFormation.

Customer responsibility

After you deploy a Partner Solution, confirm that your resources and services are updated and configured—including any required patches—to meet your security and other needs. For more information, refer to the Shared Responsibility Model.

Feedback

To submit feature ideas and report bugs, use the Issues section of the GitHub repository for this Partner Solution. To submit code, refer to the Partner Solution Contributor’s Guide. To submit feedback on this deployment guide, use the following GitHub links:

Notices

This document is provided for informational purposes only. It represents current AWS product offerings and practices as of the date of issue of this document, which are subject to change without notice. Customers are responsible for making their own independent assessment of the information in this document and any use of AWS products or services, each of which is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, whether expressed or implied. This document does not create any warranties, representations, contractual commitments, conditions, or assurances from AWS, its affiliates, suppliers, or licensors. The responsibilities and liabilities of AWS to its customers are controlled by AWS agreements, and this document is not part of, nor does it modify, any agreement between AWS and its customers.

The software included with this paper is licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. A copy of the License is located at https://aws.amazon.com/apache2.0/ or in the accompanying "license" file. This code is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranties or conditions of any kind, either expressed or implied. Refer to the License for specific language governing permissions and limitations.