Connect customer-managed fleets to a license endpoint

The AWS Deadline Cloud usage-based license server provides on-demand licenses for select third-party products. With usage-based licenses, you can pay as you go. You are only charged for the time you use.

The Deadline Cloud usage-based license server can be used with any fleet type as long as the Deadline Cloud workers can communicate with the license server. This is automatically set up in service-managed fleets. This setup is only needed for customer-managed fleets.

To create the license server, you need the following:

• A security group for your farm's VPC that allows traffic for third-party licenses.

• An AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role with an attached policy that allows access to the Deadline Cloud license endpoint operations.

Step 1: Create a security group

Use the Amazon VPC Console to create a security group for your farm's VPC. Configure the security group to allow the following inbound rules:

• Autodesk Maya and Arnold – 2701 - 2702, TCP, IPv4

• Autodesk 3ds Max – 2704, TCP, IPv4

• Foundry Nuke – 6101, TCP, IPv4

• SideFX Houdini, Mantra, and Karma – 1715 - 1717, TCP, IPv4

The source for each inbound rule is the fleet's worker security group.

For more information about creating a security group, see Create a security group in the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud user guide.

Step 2: Set up the license endpoint

A license endpoint provides access to license servers for third-party products. License requests are sent to the license endpoint. The endpoint routes them to the appropriate license server. The license server tracks usage limits and entitlements. There is a charge for each license endpoint that you create. For more information, see Amazon VPC pricing.

You can create your license endpoint from the AWS Command Line Interface with the appropriate permissions. For the required policy to create a license endpoint, see Policy to allow creating a license endpoint .

You can use the AWS CloudShell or any other AWS CLI environment to configure the license endpoint using the following AWS Command Line Interface commands.

1. Create the license endpoint. Replace the security group ID, subnet ID, and VPC ID with the values you created earlier. If you use multiple subnets, separate them with spaces.

   aws deadline create-license-endpoint \
     --security-group-id SECURITY_GROUP_ID \
     --subnet-ids SUBNET_ID1 SUBNET_ID2 \
     --vpc-id VPC_ID

2. Confirm that the endpoint was created successfully with the following command. Remember the DNS name of the VPC endpoint.

   aws deadline get-license-endpoint \
     --license-endpoint-id LICENSE_ENDPOINT_ID

3. View a list of available metered products:

   aws deadline list-available-metered-products

4. Add metered products to the license endpoint with the following command.

   aws deadline put-metered-product \
   --license-endpoint-id LICENSE_ENDPOINT_ID \
   --product-id PRODUCT_ID

You can remove a product from a license endpoint with the remove-metered-product command:

aws deadline remove-metered-product \
  --license-endpoint-id LICENSE_ENDPOINT_ID \
  --product-id PRODUCT_ID

You can delete a license endpoint with the delete-license-endpoint command:

aws deadline delete-license-endpoint \
 --license-endpoint-id LICENSE_ENDPOINT_ID

Step 3: Connect a rendering application to an endpoint

After the license endpoint is set up, applications use it the same as they use a third-party license server. You typically configure the license server for the application by setting an environment variable or other system setting, such as a Microsoft Windows registry key, to a license server port and address.

To get the license endpoint DNS name, use the following AWS CLI command.

aws deadline get-license-endpoint --license-endpoint-id LICENSE_ENDPOINT_ID

Or you can use the Amazon VPC Console to identify the VPC endpoint created by the Deadline Cloud API in the previous step.

Configuration examples

Example – Autodesk Maya and Arnold

Set the environment variable ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE to:

2702@VPC_Endpoint_DNS_Name:2701@VPC_Endpoint_DNS_Name

Note

For Windows workers, use a semi-colon (;) instead of a colon (:) to separate endpoints.

Example – Autodesk 3ds Max

Set the environment variable ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE to:

2704@VPC_Endpoint_DNS_Name

Example – Foundry Nuke

Set the environment variable foundry_LICENSE to 6101@VPC_Endpoint_DNS_Name To test that licensing is working properly, you can run Nuke in a terminal:

~/nuke/Nuke14.0v5/Nuke14.0 -x 

Example – SideFX Houdini, Mantra, and Karma

Run the following command:

/opt/hfs19.5.640/bin/hserver -S "http://VPC_Endpoint_DNS_Name:1715;http://VPC_Endpoint_DNS_Name:1716;http://VPC_Endpoint_DNS_Name:1717;"

To test that licensing is working properly, you can render a Houdini scene via this command:

/opt/hfs19.5.640/bin/hython ~/forpentest.hip -c "hou.node('/out/mantra1').render()"