Using Remote Display Technologies with

ANSYS Workbench Products

ANSYS, Inc. Release 2020 R1

Southpointe January 2020
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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 ................................................................................................................ 2
1.2. Graphics Card Hardware and Drivers ........................................................................................... 2
2. Vendor-Specific Information ................................................................................................................ 2
2.1. NICE Desktop Cloud Visualization 2017.4 ..................................................................................... 3
2.2. Citrix XenDesktop 7 1909 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via Citrix Workspace 1909) .......................... 4
2.3. Citrix Hypervisor 8.0 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2017.4) .......................................... 4
2.4. VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2017.4) ...................................................... 4
2.5. VMware Horizon View 7.9 for VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines ........................................... 5
2.6. OpenText Exceed onDemand 8 SP11 ........................................................................................... 5
2.7. VNC Connect 6.5 with VirtualGL 2.6 ............................................................................................. 5
2.8. Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop ........................................................................................... 6
2.9. OpenText Exceed TurboX 12.0 ..................................................................................................... 6

Release 2020 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. iii
 Release 2020 R1 - © 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) 2017.4 (Remote Server: Windows® or Linux®)

• Citrix® XenDesktop™ 7 1909 for Citrix Windows®Virtual Machine (via Citrix Workspace™ 1909)

• Citrix® Hypervisor® 8.0 for Citrix Linux® Virtual Machines (using NICE DCV connection)

• VMWare vSphere ESXi™ 6.5 U2 Linux® Virtual Machines (using NICE DCV connection)

• VMWare® Horizon View™ 7.9 for VMWare vSphere ESXi™ 6.5 U2 Windows® Virtual Machine

• OpenText™ Exceed onDemand® (EOD) 8 SP11 (Remote Server: Linux®)

• OpenText™ Exceed TurboX (EXT) 12.0 (Remote Server: Linux®)

• VNC™ Connect 6.5 with VirtualGL 2.6 (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.

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Using Remote Display Technology with ANSYS® Workbench™ Products

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 applica-
tions.

The use of server-side rendering generally requires additional configuration and command-line exe-
cution arguments (such as ssrrun on EOD, ETX and vglrun on VNC Connect). Follow vendor in-
structions 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. The
latest graphics cards Nvidia Quadro, K, P, M, Grid Tesla P40, P4, M60, V100 and AMD WX series have
been tested successfully with ANSYS products.

Contact Technical Support for the most recently-tested Cards and Driver versions or refer to ANSYS
Platform-Support.

2. Vendor-Specific Information
Section Contents:
2.1. NICE Desktop Cloud Visualization 2017.4
2.2. Citrix XenDesktop 7 1909 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via Citrix Workspace 1909)
2.3. Citrix Hypervisor 8.0 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2017.4)
2.4. VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2017.4)
2.5. VMware Horizon View 7.9 for VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines
2.6. OpenText Exceed onDemand 8 SP11
2.7. VNC Connect 6.5 with VirtualGL 2.6
2.8. Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop
2.9. OpenText Exceed TurboX 12.0

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 Vendor-Specific Information

2.1. NICE Desktop Cloud Visualization 2017.4

Installation and Configuration Resources

For hardware requirements, installation and configuration of NICE DCV, refer to the NICE DCV Guide
at https://d1uj6qtbmh3dt5.cloudfront.net/docs/DCV_Administration_Guide.pdf . For specific details
about host requirements for OS and graphics cards, refer to the "Prerequisites" section of the document.

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

Known Issues and Limitations

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

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

setenv FLUENT_WB_OPTIONAL_ARGS "-driver opengl"

– If WorkBench is launched, but Fluent has 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
following 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
accelerated 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 dif-
ferent it is possible to explicitly specify the display to use. To specify the 3D rendering display
to use:

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Using Remote Display Technology with ANSYS® Workbench™ Products

– 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:
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 1909 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via Citrix Workspace
1909)

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

2.3. Citrix Hypervisor 8.0 for Citrix Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2017.4)

Installation and Configuration Resources

For information on hardware requirements, installation and configuration, refer to "Citrix Hypervisor
® 8.0" at https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-hypervisor/citrix-hypervisor-8.0.pdf.

2.4. VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines (via NICE DCV 2017.4)

Installation and Configuration Resources

For information on hardware requirements, installation and configuration of Horizon View 7.9, 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 6.5 U2, refer to the vSphere Hypervisor ESXi Support Center at https://
www.vmware.com/support/vsphere-hypervisor.html.

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 Vendor-Specific Information

2.5. VMware Horizon View 7.9 for VMware vSphere ESXi Virtual Machines

Installation and Configuration Resources

For information on hardware requirements, installation and configuration of Horizon View 7.7, 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 6.5 U2, refer to the vSphere Hypervisor ESXi Support Center at https://
www.vmware.com/support/vsphere-hypervisor.html.

2.6. OpenText Exceed onDemand 8 SP11

Installation and Configuration Resources

Installation instructions for EOD are available in ExceedonDemandQuickStart.html in the Exceed
onDemand 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.

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.

Known Issues and Limitations

• To achieve server-side rendering when using Fluent from Workbench, the additional configuration steps
below will be necessary in addition to the above described command or GUI based methods:

– If WorkBench has not yet been launched, define the following environment (assuming bash, tcsh):

setenv CORTEX_PRE /<Installation_Path_Exceed_Connection_Serv-

er>/bin/ssrrun

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

More options>Environment (tab)> CORTEX_PRE=/<Installation_Path_Exceed_Connection_Serv-

er>/bin/ssrrun

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

2.7. VNC Connect 6.5 with VirtualGL 2.6

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 in-
stalled prior to installing VNC Connect. VirtualGL is available from http://www.virtualgl.org/.

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Using Remote Display Technology with ANSYS® Workbench™ Products

The On Red hat7+ and CentOS 7 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

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

Known Issues and Limitations

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

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

• Launching polydata, polymat, polystat, or polyman via (vglrun) Virtual GL and VNC Connect on some remote
Linux platforms may throw a [VGL] error message. Since these products do not actually benefit from Vir-
tualGL, the workaround is simply to avoid using VirtualGL and to launch the executable normally (BUG
84767).

• To achieve server-side rendering when using Fluent from Workbench, the additional configuration steps
below will be necessary in addition to the above described command or GUI based methods:

– If WorkBench has not yet been launched, define the following environment (assuming bash, tcsh):

setenv CORTEX_PRE /<Installation_Path_VirtualGL>/bin/vglrun

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

More options>Environment (tab)> CORTEX_PRE=/<Installation_Path_Virtu-

alGLr>/bin/vglrun

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

2.8. Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop

Installation and Configuration Resources

Information on the configuration and use of Windows Remote Desktop is available from https://sup-
port.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4028379/windows-10-how-to-use-remote-desktop.

2.9. OpenText Exceed TurboX 12.0

Installation and Configuration Resources

For hardware requirements, installation and configuration of Exceed TurboX, refer to the Installation
Guide in the Exceed TurboX installation package area.

To achieve server-side rendering for accelerated graphics performance, the hardware acceleration in
Xterm should be configured as ON.

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 Vendor-Specific Information

Xterm >Advance mode>Protocol >Hardware acceleration ON

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

Known Issues and Limitations

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

• To achieve server-side rendering when using Fluent from Workbench, the following additional configuration
steps are necessary in addition to the above described command or GUI based methods:

– If WorkBench has not yet been launched, define the following environment (assuming bash, tcsh):

setenv CORTEX_PRE /<Exceed TurboX Node Installation_Path>/bin/ssrrun

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

More options>Environment (tab)> CORTEX_PRE=/<Exceed TurboX Node In-

stallation_Path>/bin/ssrrun

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