Step 6: Start your simulation - AWS SimSpace Weaver

End of support notice: On May 20, 2026, AWS will end support for AWS SimSpace Weaver. After May 20, 2026, you will no longer be able to access the SimSpace Weaver console or SimSpace Weaver resources. For more information, see AWS SimSpace Weaver end of support.

Step 6: Start your simulation

The SimSpace Weaver app SDK provides a helper script to start your simulation. The script is a wrapper around a StartSimulation API call. It provides the following parameters to the API call:

  • The name of the simulation schema (that you uploaded in an earlier step)

  • The simulation name

  • The SimSpace Weaver service endpoint

Docker
To start your simulation

  1. If you aren't there already, go to the tools folder for your project and platform. Your project-folder is path\project-name using the values that you provided when you created the project.

    At a Windows command prompt, enter:

    cd project-folder\tools\windows

  2. Use the helper script to upload start your simulation.

    .\start-simulation-project-name.bat
    Important

    Starting with version 1.12.3, the start-simulation script starts your simulation with a maximum duration of 1 hour. You can use the --maximum-duration parameter to specify a different maximum duration. In version 1.12.2 or lower, you can't provide a maximum duration to the script and simulations have a maximum duration of 14 days. For more information about the maximum duration of a simulation, see Maximum duration of a simulation.

    Important

    If you use AWS IAM Identity Center or named profiles for the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), you must use SimSpace Weaver app SDK version 1.12.1 or higher. The latest version is 1.16.0. For information about SimSpace Weaver versions, see SimSpace Weaver versions. The SimSpace Weaver app SDK scripts use the AWS CLI. If you use IAM Identity Center, you can either copy your IAM Identity Center profile for the AWS CLI to your default profile or provide the name of your IAM Identity Center profile to SimSpace Weaver app SDK scripts with the --profile cli-profile-name parameter. For more information, see Configuring the AWS CLI to use AWS IAM Identity Center in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide and Configuration and credential file settings in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

    Note

    run-project-name.bat is an alternate helper script that will also start the simulation clock. For this tutorial, you will start the clock separately in a later step.

    Starting with version 1.12.3, the run script starts your simulation with a maximum duration of 1 hour. You can use the --maximum-duration parameter to specify a different maximum duration. In version 1.12.2 or lower, you can't provide a maximum duration to the script and simulations have a maximum duration of 14 days. For more information about the maximum duration of a simulation, see Maximum duration of a simulation.

WSL
Important

We provide these instructions for your convenience. They are for use with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), and are unsupported. For more information, see Set up your local environment for SimSpace Weaver.

To start your simulation

  1. If you aren't there already, go to the tools folder for your project and platform.Your project-folder is path/project-name using the values that you provided when you created the project.

    At a Linux shell prompt, enter:

    cd project-folder/tools/linux

  2. Use the helper script to upload start your simulation.

    ./start-simulation-project-name.sh
    Important

    Starting with version 1.12.3, the start-simulation script starts your simulation with a maximum duration of 1 hour. You can use the --maximum-duration parameter to specify a different maximum duration. In version 1.12.2 or lower, you can't provide a maximum duration to the script and simulations have a maximum duration of 14 days. For more information about the maximum duration of a simulation, see Maximum duration of a simulation.

    Important

    If you use AWS IAM Identity Center or named profiles for the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), you must use SimSpace Weaver app SDK version 1.12.1 or higher. The latest version is 1.16.0. For information about SimSpace Weaver versions, see SimSpace Weaver versions. The SimSpace Weaver app SDK scripts use the AWS CLI. If you use IAM Identity Center, you can either copy your IAM Identity Center profile for the AWS CLI to your default profile or provide the name of your IAM Identity Center profile to SimSpace Weaver app SDK scripts with the --profile cli-profile-name parameter. For more information, see Configuring the AWS CLI to use AWS IAM Identity Center in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide and Configuration and credential file settings in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

    Note

    run-project-name.sh is an alternate helper script that will also start the simulation clock. For this tutorial, you will start the clock separately in a later step.

    Starting with version 1.12.3, the run script starts your simulation with a maximum duration of 1 hour. You can use the --maximum-duration parameter to specify a different maximum duration. In version 1.12.2 or lower, you can't provide a maximum duration to the script and simulations have a maximum duration of 14 days. For more information about the maximum duration of a simulation, see Maximum duration of a simulation.

The script will loop until the simulation status is either STARTED or FAILED. It can take a few minutes for a simulation to start. If your simulation starts successfully, you will see output similar to the following: 


[2022-10-04T22:15:28] [INFO] Describe Simulation Results:
[2022-10-04T22:15:28] [INFO] {
    "Status": "STARTED",
    "Name": "MyProjectSimulation_22-10-04_22_10_15",
    "RoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/weaver-MyProject-app-role",
    "CreationTime": 1664921418.09,
    "SchemaS3Location": {
        "ObjectKey": "MyProject-schema.yaml",
        "BucketName": "weaver-myproject-111122223333-us-west-2"
    },
Note

SimSpace Weaver app SDK version 1.12.x projects use separate buckets for the app .zip files and the schema:

  • weaver-lowercase-project-name-account-number-app-zips-region

  • weaver-lowercase-project-name-account-number-schemas-region