Creating launch profiles

This admin tutorial shows you how to create launch profiles. To learn how to update launch profiles, see the Modifying launch profiles tutorial.

Launch profiles control access to resources in your studio such as compute farms, shared file systems, instance types, and Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). StudioBuilder creates two default launch profiles for you, the first time that it runs: Workstation-Default and RenderWorker-Default. The Workstation-Default launch profile is what your artists will use to launch virtual workstations. You can use the RenderWorker-Default launch profile to manage rendering resources and their access to storage.

To customize your team’s access to studio resources, this tutorial shows you how to create your own launch profiles.

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Prerequisites

• To complete this tutorial, you need an active Nimble Studio cloud studio deployed in your AWS account. If you don't have a cloud studio already deployed, see the Deploying a new studio with StudioBuilder tutorial.

• Optionally, you can complete the steps in the Adding studio users tutorial before starting this one. By adding users first, you can assign your new launch profile to specific users at the end of this tutorial. However, if you prefer to create your launch profiles first, you can return to the end of this tutorial after adding users.

Step 1: Create a launch profile by copying an existing one

The easiest way to create a new launch profile is to copy an existing one. From there, you can make edits, so that the new profile is configured in the way that you want. The added benefit of copying an existing launch profile is that you can start with default settings for each element of the launch profile.

To copy an existing launch profile

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Nimble Studio console.

2. Choose Launch profiles in the left navigation pane.

3. Select the launch profile that you want to copy.

   1. If this is your first new launch profile, you will be copying the Workstation-Default launch profile that was created by StudioBuilder.

4. Choose Actions. Then choose Copy to new.

5. Give your launch profile a name.

   1. To keep track of launch profiles, you can include details such as the version number, a date, or a relevant studio department.

      1. Example: animation-2021-03-08, studio-v003

6. Give your launch profile a description.

   1. Describe what makes this launch profile unique in your description.

   2. Example: “Added Adobe Photoshop and Yeti; added X: drive; increased instance size to XLarge (g4dn.16xlarge).”

7. In the Amazon Machine Images (AMI) section, choose the Amazon Machine Images that you want to be available to artists when they launch workstations with your new launch profile.

   1. If you specify a non-gp3 EBS volume type (gp2, io1, io2, etc.) for your AMI, it converts to a gp3 EBS volume for your Nimble Studio workstations. You only pay for gp3 EBS volumes.

   2. If you haven’t created any new AMIs yet, choose either the Windows or Linux default AMI.

   3. If you have created a new workstation AMI, choose the new one that you made.

   4. You can select multiple AMIs for your launch profile. Multiple AMIs give the artist a choice when launching. This is useful if you allow artists to choose their operating system, such as Linux or Windows.

8. In the Launch profile components section: Select the components that you want artists to access when they launch workstations with your new launch profile.

   1. If you haven’t created any new storage or farm components, keep these as default.

9. In the Subnet IDs section, don't modify the subnets, unless you want to launch workstations in a different Availability Zone than the one you chose during StudioBuilder deployment.

10. In the Virtual workstation type section, choose which instance type that you want your artists to have access to when using this launch profile. Enter the maximum consecutive hours that instances can be in the Running and Stopped states.

    1. To learn about various instance sizes, such as how many vCPUs, GPUs, and how much memory they have, see the Product Details section of the Amazon EC2 G4 Instances page.

    2. To use G5 instances, increase your quota limit for G5 streaming sessions per studio. For instructions about how to increase your quota limit, see (Optional) Request a quota increase for G5 streaming sessions.

    3. For information about pricing, see Amazon Nimble Studio Pricing.

11. Choose to keep persistent storage enabled in the Streaming session storage volume section. With persistent storage, you can Start and stop workstations. To keep persistent storage, configure the gp3 EBS volume by entering the following information:

    1. For Size, enter the size of the volume, in GiB. For more information, see Constraints on the size and configuration of an EBS volume.

    2. For IOPS, enter the maximum number of input/output operations per second (IOPS) that the volume should provide.

    3. For Throughput, enter the throughput that the volume should provide, in MiB/s.

    4. Enter the maximum consecutive hours that instances can be in the Running and Stopped states. To learn more about Running, Stopped, and Terminated states for workstations, see Starting and stopping workstations.

    5. To enable backups, select Turn on auto backup in the Auto backup section. Then, choose the Maximum backups per streaming session and select the box next to the agreement. For more information about automatic backups, see Session auto backup.

12. In the Streaming session upload section, select the box next to Enable uploads.

    1. In the Linux upload location, enter a valid directory path. This is the location where files will be uploaded for Linux workstations. Make sure that the artists who will use this launch profile have access to the folder that you choose. If you don’t specify a location, the directory path defaults to $HOME/Downloads.

    2. In the Windows upload location, enter a valid directory path. This is the location where files will be uploaded for Windows workstations. Make sure that the artists who will use this launch profile have access to the folder that you choose. If you don’t specify a location, the directory path defaults to %HOMEPATH%\Downloads.

13. (Optional) Add tags if you're using tags to track your AWS resources.

14. Select Create launch profile. This creates a launch profile and checks that it can be launched.

    1. Validating the launch profile doesn’t mean that the launch profile will work, but it can detect known failures that would prevent it from launching.

    2. If the validation succeeds, the launch profile goes into the Ready state. However, if the validation fails, the launch profile goes into the Impaired state. Regardless of the validation state, the launch profile is created.

    3. If your validation failed, an error banner will display at the top of the menu bar. If the failure is because a dependent service has an outage, the validation is cancelled, and your launch profile isn't marked as impaired.

    4. You can view the details of your launch profile validation in the Launch profile details section of your launch profile.

Step 2: (Optional) Perform a test launch

Before you launch a virtual workstation with the new launch profile, you can test if the launch profile can create a streaming session.

Note

A test launch is the same as a regular launch, so the charges are the same for both.

1. Choose the launch profile that you just created.

2. For the Actions dropdown, choose Perform test launch.

   1. You can only run a test launch on a launch profile that has the status Ready or Impaired.

3. Choose Perform test launch.

   

4. The status of your launch profile will change to Performing test launch.

   

   1. The amount of time it takes to finish the launch test depends on the AMI. After one hour, the request times out (expires) and the test launch fails.

5. If the test launch is successful, the launch profile goes into the Ready state. However, if the test launch fails, the launch profile goes into the Impaired state.

   1. To troubleshoot a failed test launch, select the status of the failed launch. When the Impaired: Streaming session launch failed bubble appears, select the View errors link.

      

   2. Alternatively, choose the launch profile that you just created and select Actions. Then choose View errors.

      

6. In the View errors section, you can either choose Edit launch profile to adjust the settings, or Perform test launch to retry the test launch with the unmodified launch profile.

7. You can view the details of your test launch in the launch profile details section of your launch profile.

Step 3: Share launch profiles with studio users

By default, studio admins can use all launch profiles. However, for other users to access launch profiles, admins must share these in the Nimble Studio portal. The following instructions show you how.

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Nimble Studio console.

2. On the Studio manager page, choose Go to Nimble Studio portal.

3. Sign in to the Nimble Studio portal using your AWS Managed Microsoft AD administrator credentials.

   1. Enter Admin as the user name. Use the password that you set up during StudioBuilder deployment.

      

   2. If you forgot your password, do the following:

      1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the AWS Directory Service console.

      2. In the AWS Region selector (top-right navigation bar), verify that the Region for your studio is selected.

         

      3. Select the Directory ID for your studio's Active Directory.

      4. Choose Reset user password.

4. In the upper-right corner of the Nimble Studio portal, choose your user name.

5. Choose Settings from the dropdown menu.

   

6. Choose Launch profiles in the left navigation pane.

   

7. Locate the launch profile that you want to share.

8. Choose the share icon next to it.

   

9. Select the user or users who should have access to the launch profile.

   1. You can search for user names in the search field to help you find users.

10. Choose Share to grant the user access to the launch profile.

11. Choose Save changes.

    

12. When the user reloads their page, they will see the launch profile that you shared with them.

Now that you’ve created launch profiles, you can also add new studio components to them, make updates, and customize your studio setup.

Troubleshooting

I get an error when trying to create a new launch profile.

The default quota value for the number of launch profiles is 50. Therefore, if you got an error when choosing Create launch profile, you might have exceeded your studio’s limit.

To correct this error, you can either remove launch profiles that you don't need by following Remove launch profile instructions. Or you can request a quota increase for more launch profiles. To request a quota increase, see Request a quota increase in the Setting up to use Nimble Studio tutorial.

I need to upgrade my NVIDIA drivers

Upgrade your NVIDIA drivers so that the NVIDIA GRID version is 13.1 or later. For instructions about how to upgrade your NVIDIA drivers, see NVIDIA.

Related resources

• Amazon EC2 G4 Instances