Deploying a new studio with StudioBuilder - Amazon Nimble Studio
PrerequisitesStep 1: Enable AWS Single Sign-On (AWS SSO)Step 2: Access the StudioBuilder AMIsStep 3: Launch the StudioBuilder EC2 instanceStep 4: Configure studio with StudioBuilderStep 5: Deploy studio with StudioBuilderStep 6: Link AWS Managed Microsoft AD as an AWS SSO identity sourceStep 7: Confirm subscription to burst alert emailsTroubleshootingRelated resources

Deploying a new studio with StudioBuilder

This tutorial is for admin users. It guides you through the process of deploying Amazon Nimble Studio in your AWS account using the StudioBuilder app. In this step-by-step tutorial, you’ll learn how to configure your studio, including choosing your studio name, setting up AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory (AWS Managed Microsoft AD), creating shared storage, and selecting options for your render farm.

Estimated time: 2 hours

Prerequisites

Step 1: Enable AWS Single Sign-On (AWS SSO)

This first step will enable AWS Single Sign-On (AWS SSO) for your account. With AWS SSO, you can manage user permissions and access to your accounts and applications in one place. To enable AWS SSO, go to the Nimble Studio service page and follow the first step to set up your studio. After you enable AWS SSO, you’re ready to deploy your studio with StudioBuilder.

To deploy your studio and enable AWS SSO

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

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

    Nimble Studio console Region selector.

  3. Choose Set up your cloud studio.

    Nimble Studio console set up your studio button.

  4. Select CNR: I have no existing resources, then choose Next.

    1. While it's possible to use existing resources that you have, such as storage or a license service, this tutorial assumes that you're starting with no resources.

      Nimble Studio console create new resources.

  5. Choose Enable AWS SSO.

    1. If you see a green confirmation that AWS SSO has already been enabled, skip to Step 2: Access the StudioBuilder AMIs.

      Nimble Studio console enable AWS SSO.

  6. In the Enable AWS SSO pop-up, choose Create AWS organization.

    Nimble Studio console create AWS organization.

    1. A success message confirms that AWS SSO has been enabled.

      Nimble Studio console AWS SSO enabled.

Step 2: Access the StudioBuilder AMIs

To run StudioBuilder and deploy your studio, you must launch an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance using the StudioBuilder Amazon Machine Image (AMI). This has all of the packages that you need for to deploy your studio.

The following steps show how to add the Linux, Windows, and StudioBuilder AMIs to your account. These steps are necessary before you can launch an instance with the StudioBuilder AMI.

To navigate to the StudioBuilder AMIs in the AWS Marketplace

  1. Choose Access StudioBuilder AMIs.

    1. The Access StudioBuilder AMIs window will open.

      Nimble Studio console access StudioBuilder AMIs window.

  2. Choose Subscribe to Deadline Linux Farm AMI in Marketplace.

    1. The Nimble Studio Deadline Linux farm worker page will open in the AWS Marketplace.

      AWS Marketplace Linux worker continue to subscribe.

  3. Choose Continue to Subscribe.

  4. Read the terms and conditions and then choose Accept Terms.

    AWS Marketplace accept terms.

  5. Return to the Access StudioBuilder AMIs window and choose Subscribe to Deadline Windows Farm AMI in Marketplace.

  6. Repeat the previous steps to accept the terms and conditions.

  7. Return to the Access StudioBuilder AMIs window again and choose Subscribe to StudioBuilder AMI in Marketplace.

  8. Repeat the same steps to accept the terms and conditions.

  9. After the subscribe request has finished processing, choose Continue to Configuration.

    AWS Marketplace StudioBuilder continue to configuration.

  10. In the Region dropdown menu, select the AWS Region that you want to deploy your studio to and choose Continue to Launch.

    AWS Marketplace StudioBuilder Region select.

  11. In the Choose Action dropdown menu, select Launch through EC2, and choose Launch.

    AWS Marketplace StudioBuilder launch through EC2

    1. The Amazon EC2 console will open to guide you through the rest of the launch process.

    2. Since you have already chosen an AMI, the EC2 console will automatically skip Step 1: Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) and proceed directly to Step 2: Choose an Instance Type.

Step 3: Launch the StudioBuilder EC2 instance

To start launching the StudioBuilder EC2 instance

  1. For Name and tags, give the instance a name so that you can easily find it later, such as to NimbleStudioBuilder.

  2. For Instance Type, select t3.medium from the list.

    E.C.2. instance type dropdown with t3.medium selected.

  3. For Key pair (login) choose Proceed without a key pair from the first dropdown.

    1. A key pair, consisting of a private key and a public key, is a set of security credentials that you use to prove your identity when connecting to an instance. You will use EC2 Instance Connect so you don’t need a key pair.

    Keypair name dropdown with Proceed without key pair selected.

  4. On Network Settings, choose Edit.

    Edit button for E.C.2. network settings.

  5. Set Auto-assign Public IP to Enable to ensure that your instance receives a public IP address that you will use when connecting to it later.

    StudioBuilder instance launch dropdown: enable auto-assign public IP.

  6. In Advanced details, specify an an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role.

    1. The IAM role enables administrator access from your StudioBuilder instance.

    2. If you have connected to StudioBuilder before, choose the StudioBuilder_Instance_Admin_Role role that you created previously and continue to Step 5.

    3. If you haven't connected to StudioBuilder before, choose Create new IAM role to open a new tab with the Create role page in IAM.

      StudioBuilder instance launch with link to create new IAM role.

      1. Choose Create role.

      2. Select AWS service.

      3. Choose EC2.

        StudioBuilder instance launch process: choose role use case.

      4. Choose Next: Permissions.

      5. Select AdministratorAccess.

        Create role, launch process: administrator access is selected.

      6. Choose Next: Tags.

      7. Choose Next: Review.

      8. Enter the Role name. Example: StudioBuilder_Instance_Admin_Role.

      9. Enter a Role description. Example: Gives administrative access to the StudioBuilder instance.

        Create role description to give admin access to StudioBuilder instance.

      10. Choose Create role.

      11. Close the tab and switch back to the Launch instance wizard tab.

    4. To update the list of available IAM roles, choose the Refresh button next to Create new IAM role.

    5. Select the new role you created from the list.

      StudioBuilder instance launch select iam role for instance

  7. Choose Launch.

  8. On the Launch Status page, choose View Instances at the bottom of the page.

  9. Change the name of the instance so that you can easily find it later.

    1. In the list of instances, under the Name column, hover over the empty name field for the instance.

    2. Choose the edit icon that appears.

    3. Change the name to NimbleStudioBuilder.

    4. Choose Save.

  10. After the instance state of your instance changes from Initializing to Running, select it and choose Connect.

    StudioBuilder instance state.

Step 4: Configure studio with StudioBuilder

Next, you’ll connect to your instance to run StudioBuilder. StudioBuilder helps you deploy a studio by asking a series of questions about how you want to configure your studio. Throughout the process, StudioBuilder builds your studio based on your answers.

Connect to the instance with EC2 Instance Connect

  1. On the Connect to instance page, make sure EC2 Instance Connect is selected.

  2. Change the user name to ec2-user. If you leave the user name as root, StudioBuilder might not run correctly.

  3. Choose Connect.

    Connect to instance with EC2 Instance Connect.

    1. A connection to your instance is established.

    2. A new window opens to the StudioBuilder Command Line Interface (CLI) so you can configure your studio.

      1. If at any time during the configuration process you need to reconnect to your instance, follow the previous steps to reconnect with EC2 Instance Connect to continue where you left off.

Configure your studio

Note

During deployment or deletion, Amazon Nimble Studio might collect generic user metrics, called telemetry, to inform us about StudioBuilder errors and configuration preferences. These metrics are for diagnosis purposes only, and aren't shared or transferred.

If StudioBuilder doesn’t automatically run, see the Troubleshooting section of this tutorial for instructions on how to run StudioBuilder manually.

StudioBuilder will run and ask you the following questions about how to configure your studio.

  1. Welcome to StudioBuilder! What would you like to do?

    1. Using the arrow keys, choose Create a studio with StudioBuilder and press the enter (or return) key.

      StudioBuilder welcome screen

  2. Please confirm that you wish to deploy your studio to Region <current-region>.

    1. In the line that precedes the question, check that the Region you want is listed, then choose Deploy my studio in this Region and press the enter (or return) key.

Set up studio

  1. Enter a name for your studio.

    1. Enter a name for your studio and press the enter (or return) key.

    2. Your studio name must be between 3-64 characters and only include lowercase letters from a-z and numbers from 0-9.

  2. Enter your studio name as you would like it displayed.

    1. Enter the display name for your studio and press the enter (or return) entered previously. You can enter a more descriptive name here, using whatever characters you like.

Configure VPC settings

  1. Specify a CIDR block for the virtual private cloud (VPC) resource, or leave at 10.0.0.0. Then, press your enter (or return) key.

    1. You can specify a particular CIDR block, or just leave this at the default of 10.0.0.0 and press the enter (or return) key.

  2. Select an Availability Zone for your studio, then press Enter.

    1. We recommend leaving this at the default of Please choose for me (Recommended), then pressing the enter (or return) key.

  3. Select a Local Zone for your studio, then press Enter.

    1. You can only choose a Local Zone if your studio is hosted in the us-west-2 Region and if you have opted in to using Local Zones from the console. For instructions on how to opt in, see the Availability Zones for Amazon Nimble Studio tutorial.

  4. What domain name would you like to associate your studio and studio resources with?

    1. By default, the domain name contains your studio ID.

  5. Would you like to deploy VPC endpoints to privately connect to supported AWS services?

    1. Your studio uses VPC endpoints to privately connect to supported AWS services without using public IP addresses. This is safer than using a public internet connection because traffic between your VPC and other services doesn’t leave the Amazon network.

    2. The default selection here is Yes, I’d like to use VPC Interface Endpoints.

Choose your AWS Directory Service name

The command line interface (CLI) will ask you to:

  1. Create your Admin password for AD using 3–64 lower and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

    1. Specify a password and press the enter (or return) key.

    2. Confirm the password and press the enter (or return) key.

      Note

      If you ever forget this password, you can retrieve it from the StudioBuilder-SecretForAD secret in AWS Secrets Manager.

AWS Directory Service - POSIX file system support

  1. Would you like to specify a POSIX GID and UID?

    1. Nimble Studio will configure AWS Managed Microsoft AD to operate on POSIX file systems, such as Linux. That allows your users to work on both Windows and Linux workstations.

  2. If you plan to bring an existing file system, we recommend that you specify a uid and gid to prevent collisions with permissions on pre-existing files or folders.

  3. However, if you don’t plan to bring an existing file system, we recommend choosing Please choose for me (Recommended) and pressing the enter (or return) key.

Deletion protection

  1. Deletion protection prevents you from accidentally deleting your studio and farm, which could cause you to lose data. Within the CLI interface, do one of the following:

    1. (Recommended) Choose Enable deletion protection.

    2. Press the enter (or return) key to continue without enabling deletion protection.

Render fleets

Follow these steps when the CLI prompt says: If you don’t have a render farm in your studio, you can create one now. Render farm costs can vary. For pricing estimates, see https://aws.amazon.com/nimble-studio/pricing .

  1. Use the arrow keys to choose if you would like to create a render farm or not, and then press the enter (or return) key.

    1. If you choose Yes, I want to create a render farm for my studio:

      1. You will see Render fleet questions, as shown in the following section of this tutorial.

      2. Follow the prompts in the CLI for configuring your render farm.

  2. If you choose No, I don’t want to create a render farm at this time

    1. Skip all render farm questions and prompts. Later, you can create a render farm by following the steps in the Update to latest StudioBuilder version tutorial.

UBL Licensing

  1. Do you want to enable UBL support for your studio?

    1. Use the arrow keys to choose if you would like to enable UBL support for your studio or not, and then press the enter (or return) key.

    2. If you choose Yes, I want to enable UBL support for my studio, see the Setting up Deadline Usage Based Licensing with Nimble Studio tutorial for more information about integrating UBL with your Nimble Studio cloud studio.

Storage

Use the arrow keys to choose the option that you want, then press the enter (or return) key.

Default storage (FSx for Windows)

  1. Are you planning to use Window workstations? If so, we will deploy a default FSx for Windows for Roaming Profiles.

    1. If you choose Yes, I want a file system for Roaming Profiles, the command line interface (CLI) will ask you to:

      1. Select the Availability Zone that you want to create this file system in.

        Note

        If you chose to deploy to the LA Local Zone, we recommend that you also deploy your storage to the LA Local Zone.

      2. Enter your desired SSD storage capacity in GB. The suggested minimum is 1G/user. We recommend that you start with 40.

      3. Enter your desired throughput capacity in MB/s. We recommend that you start with 32.

    2. If you choose No, I don’t want a file system for Roaming Profiles, you will receive the next prompt.

CloudWatch Alarms

Amazon CloudWatch alarms are notifications that are triggered based on metrics that are monitored for the AWS services that your studio uses.

  1. Enter an email address for CloudWatch Alarms to send warnings to when the given filesystem’s burst credits are below four different thresholds.

    1. Enter the email address that you would like to use to receive these alarms, and press the enter (or return) key.

      1. CloudWatch Alarms will email you when the Amazon EFS file system that’s storing the Deadline Repository depletes burst credits.

        Important

        You must confirm your subscription to the CloudWatch Alarm emails in order to receive notification messages when your burst credits are low. Failure to take appropriate action based on these emails could result in your render farm losing the ability to function.

    2. When your deploy is complete, follow the instructions in Step 7: Confirm subscription to burst alert emails.

      1. For more information about Amazon CloudWatch alarms, see Using Amazon CloudWatch Alarms - Amazon CloudWatch.

      2. For more information about Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) performance, see Amazon EFS performance.

Linux home directory

  1. Are you planning to use Linux Workstations? We will deploy an EFS filesystem for persistent home directories.

    1. If you choose Yes, I want persistent user home directories for Linux workstations, Nimble Studio will deploy an Amazon EFS file system for your studio. You will then be prompted to choose an Availability Zone for where you want to deploy the Amazon EFS file system.

      Note

      If you chose to deploy to the LA Local Zone, we suggest that you also deploy your storage to the LA Local Zone.

    2. If you choose No, I don’t want persistent user home directories for Linux workstations, Nimble Studio won't deploy and Amazon EFS file system.

Additional storage

  1. Do you want to add additional storage?

    1. If you choose No, you will receive the next prompt.

    2. If you choose Yes, you will be asked Which storage type do you want to use? Use the arrow keys to choose a type of storage and then press enter (or return).

      1. If you choose FSx for Windows, the command line interface will ask you to:, the command line interface will ask you to:

        1. Select the Availability Zone that you want to create this file system in.

          Note

          If you chose to deploy to the LA Local Zone, we suggest that you also deploy your storage to the LA Local Zone.

        2. Enter an ID name for this storage. We recommend the name FSxWindows1.

        3. Add a description for your storage.

        4. Enter your desired SSD storage capacity in GB. We recommend 200.

        5. Enter your desired throughput capacity in MB/s. We recommend 32.

        6. Enter a Windows Drive letter. We recommend D.

        7. Enter the Linux mount path. The path can be any valid folder, except the system folder. For example: /usr/bin, /usr/lib, /usr/lib64 or /usr/sbin. We recommend /mnt/fsxwindows1

      2. If you choose FSx for Lustre, the command line interface will ask you to:

        1. Select the Availability Zone that you want to create this file system in.

          Note

          If you chose to deploy to the LA Local Zone, we suggest that you also deploy your storage to the LA Local Zone.

        2. Enter an ID name for this storage. We recommend the name FSxLustre1.

        3. Add a description for your storage.

        4. Enter your desired FSx storage capacity in GiB. The smallest valid value is 1,200. Other valid values begin at 2,400 GiB and increase in 2,400 increments. We recommend 1,200.

        5. Choose the amount of read and write throughput for each 1 TiB of storage, in MB/s/TiB.

        6. Enter the Linux mount path. The path can be any valid folder, except the system folder. For example: /usr/bin, /usr/lib, /usr/lib64 or /usr/sbin. We recommend /mnt/fsxlustre1

      3. If you choose EFS, the command line interface will ask you to:

        1. Select the Availability Zone that you want to create this file system in.

          Note

          If you chose to deploy to the LA Local Zone, we suggest that you also deploy your storage to the LA Local Zone.

        2. Enter an ID name for this storage. We recommend the name EFS1.

        3. Add a description for your storage.

        4. Enter the Linux mount path. The path can be any valid folder, except the system folder. For example: /usr/bin, /usr/lib, /usr/lib64 or /usr/sbin. We recommend /mnt/efs1

  2. Do you want to add additional storage?

    1. If you choose Yes, you run through the above prompts again.

    2. If you choose No, you will receive the next prompt.

Render fleet questions

  1. Which type of fleet would you like?

    1. Use the arrow keys to choose the type of fleet that you would like to use for your render farm workers and press the enter (or return) key.

    2. Choosing Spot Instance will use Spot instances for your render fleet, while On-Demand Instance will use On-Demand instances. With On-Demand instances, you pay for the time that you use them, and while in-use they won't be interrupted. Spot instances are unused On-Demand instances that are available for up to a 90% discount off the On-Demand price, but they might be interrupted if demand for On-Demand instances becomes too high.

    3. We recommend choosing Spot Instance because of their potential cost savings from using Spot instances. While Spot instances can be subject to occasional interruption, the individual frames of a render job make them well suited to being automatically required with little impact. In addition, Spot instances are automatically launched when needed and automatically terminated when they aren’t, resulting in the maximum cost savings for you.

    4. For more information about Spot and On-Demand instances, see Instance purchasing options.

  2. Enter a unique identifier for this fleet. This ID will also be used for your AWS Thinkbox Deadline Group.

    1. This is the name of the group that your artists will choose when rendering with this fleet. Example: farm-default.

    2. You can only use alphanumeric, upper and lowercase letters and the hyphen(-) in your fleet name.

      Important

      Remember the identifier because you will need it later when configuring Deadline.

  3. Which Operating System will this fleet use?

    1. Use the arrow keys to choose either Linux or Windows and press the enter (or return) key. This will be the operating system that is used for your render farm workers.

    2. We recommend choosing Linux because of the cost savings over Windows.

      Note

      Some digital content creation applications, such as Adobe Creative Cloud and Autodesk 3ds Max, won't run on Linux. Consider this when choosing an OS for your render farm workers.

  4. Enter the AMI ID for this Render Worker fleet.

    1. Select the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) to be used for your render workers. The AMI contains the software configuration that will be used for your workers.

    2. For new studios, we recommend leaving this at the default value specified by StudioBuilder, but you can enter your own custom worker AMI, if you like.

  5. Enter the EC2 instance type to use for the render workers.

    1. Use the arrow keys to choose the instance type that you would like to use for your render worker fleet and press the enter (or return) key. To start, we recommend choosing the default value of m5.4xlarge, which should be sufficient for testing purposes. You can change the instance type later, depending on your particular render needs.

    2. If you choose Other, you will be prompted to Enter the exact instance type (or types separated by spaces) that you would like to use. This way, you can create a render fleet consisting of multiple instance types.

      Note

      If you chose to create a fleet with On-Demand instances, your fleet will only be created with the first instance type that you list.

    3. For more information about the differences in Spot Instance pricing and specifications, see Amazon EC2 Spot Instances Pricing.

  6. Enter the Max number of render workers to have running.

    1. Choose the maximum number of render workers that you want to have running on your farm and press the enter (or return) key. You can change this value later if you want a different number.

      Note

      Make sure that the maximum number of render workers that you specify doesn’t exceed your quota value. For details, see Check your Spot Instance quota.

  7. Would you like to add another fleet?

    1. If you would like to add another fleet at this time, you can. However, you can always add another fleet later, so we recommend pressing N here.

Review

  1. Would you like to generate a studio configuration with your selections?

    1. If you're happy with all of the selections that you have made in the preceding steps, enter Y and press the enter (or return) key to proceed. If not, press N to go back and make changes.

Ready to deploy your studio build

  1. Type BUILD MY STUDIO and then press enter (or return) to continue, or type QUIT and then press enter (or return) to exit.

    1. Enter BUILD MY STUDIO and press the enter (or return) key to continue.

      StudioBuilder command line interface with command: Build My Studio.

    2. After pressing the enter (or return) key, StudioBuilder will run the deploy to build all of the components for your studio.

Step 5: Deploy studio with StudioBuilder

StudioBuilder will continue to run in the terminal window until all of the components for your studio are built. This process will take approximately one hour.

Note

If you get disconnected from your StudioBuilder instance, or if the deploy fails, consult the Troubleshooting section at the end of this tutorial.

As the StudioBuilder app runs, you will see various outputs. At times, the output screen might go completely blank. This is normal. You can scroll up in the window to see the current progress of your deploy.

StudioBuilder deploy running in the command line interface.

Monitoring using CloudFormation

In addition to watching the output in the EC2InstanceConnect window, you can also monitor the deployment in the AWS Management Console.

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

    StudioBuilder CloudFormation stacks running in the CloudFormation console.

  2. As the deploy runs, it will create new AWS CloudFormation stacks and show you the status of each one. Over the course of the one-hour deploy time, it will create four stacks:

    1. <your-studio-name>Network

    2. <your-studio-name>Data

    3. <your-studio-name>Service

    4. <your-studio-name>Compute

Your deploy has finished once the status of the Compute stack changes to CREATE_COMPLETE.

After your deploy is complete

After StudioBuilder is finished running, you will be asked what you want to do next. After that has happened, you can close the StudioBuilder browser tab and then terminate your StudioBuilder instance by using the following instructions.

  1. Close the EC2 Instance Connect tab that was connected to StudioBuilder.

  2. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the EC2 console.

  3. In the left navigation pane, choose Instances.

  4. Select your NimbleStudioBuilder instance from the list of instances.

  5. Open the context menu (right-click) for the instance and choose Terminate Instance.

    Note

    When you're actively deploying a studio, modifying it, or terminating it, we recommend that you run a StudioBuilder instance only. This reduces costs and prevents others from accessing and impacting your studio.

Step 6: Link AWS Managed Microsoft AD as an AWS SSO identity source

During the StudioBuilder process, an AWS Managed Microsoft AD is automatically created. This will be the directory that stores your studio users. In this step, you will link that directory to AWS SSO so that you can assign roles, such as administrator, to each of your users in Nimble Studio.

To update AWS SSO to look at AWS Managed Microsoft AD

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

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

  3. Choose Go to Studio manager.

  4. Under Studio setup, go to Step 5: Allow studio access and choose Allow.

    Nimble Studio console, Studio manager page. Step 5: Allow studio access.

    1. This takes you to the Set up user access page. Step 1 should already be completed, with a green message saying Active Directory detected.

  5. At the bottom of Step 2, select your studio’s Active Directory from the dropdown.

  6. Open the AWS SSO console in a new tab.

  7. Select Choose your identity source.

  8. Select Change identity source.

  9. Select Active Directory and choose Next.

  10. Choose the desired Active Directory and choose Next.

  11. Enter ACCEPT and select Change identity source.

  12. Wait until the identity source has been changed and the Settings page opens.

  13. Select Enable sync.

    1. Read the terms and conditions at the bottom of the page and if you agree, select the check box next to I have read the information above and confirm that I want to enable configurable AD sync.

    Two console banners for Single Sign-On: 1. New Settings experience. 2. New A.D. sync.

  14. Choose Users from the left navigation pane.

    1. If you successfully enabled sync, you will see a green banner with Start guided setup.

    Banner stating Active Directory connected to AWS SSO successfully. Button says Start guided setup.

  15. Select Manage sync.

  16. Select Add users and groups.

  17. Choose the Users tab. Under User, enter the exact user name and choose Add.

    The Configure sync scope page. Search bar text says Enter exact match user to add to sync scope.

  18. When all of the users have been added, select Submit.

  19. Wait for the users to appear in the AWS SSO user pool.

    1. It can take 10–20 minutes for users to appear.

  20. Return to the Nimble Studio tab. On the Select administrators page, you will choose which of your users have administrator access to Nimble Studio. Administrators are able to share launch profiles to your studio users later in the Creating launch profiles tutorial.

    1. In the Search text field, enter Admin and choose Search.

  21. Select Admin.

    1. Make sure to select Admin (not Administrator). Admin is the administrator from your AWS Managed Microsoft AD, so that is what you want to choose here.

      Nimble Studio console select administrators.

  22. Scroll to the bottom of the page and choose Next.

  23. On the Select users page, since you don’t have any users yet, scroll to the bottom of the page, and choose Next.

  24. On the Review page, verify that your Selected admins is set to Admin. Then scroll down and choose Save.

    Nimble Studio console review user access.

Step 7: Confirm subscription to burst alert emails

During the deploy, a message will be sent to the email address that you provide. The message asks you to confirm a subscription to a Burst Alert email topic. You must confirm this subscription in order to receive important notification messages when the burst credits are low for the Amazon EFS file system that stores your render farm’s Deadline Repository. Failure to receive and take action based on these emails could result in your render farm being unable to function.

  1. Check the inbox for the email address that you provided when you configured your studio with StudioBuilder.

  2. Open the email message with the subject AWS Notification - Subscription Confirmation.

    1. This email gets sent during the deploy process.

  3. Choose the Confirm subscription link.

    1. A new browser tab will open with a message confirming that you have successfully subscribed.

    2. For more information about Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) performance, see Amazon EFS performance.

    3. StudioBuilder deploys an Amazon EFS in bursting throughput mode for Deadline’s Repository file storage.

      1. The baseline throughput of the Amazon EFS is 50 KiB/s per 1 GiB stored in the file system. StudioBuilder ensures there is at least 40 GiB of data in this file system during deployment, which provides 2 MiB/s of baseline throughput.

      2. In bursting throughput mode, this file system can burst up to 100 MiB/s, with reads counting as 1/3 of their actual throughput for this purpose. Bursting consumes bursting credits from the file system, and those burst credits replenish when not bursting.

      3. The alarms configured by StudioBuilder will alert you when your burst credits are on a downward trajectory so that you can take action to increase the baseline throughput of the Amazon EFS by adding additional data to it.

You have completed deploying Amazon Nimble Studio using StudioBuilder in your AWS account. Your new studio is now ready for you to customize. We recommend that you continue with the Adding studio users tutorial, next.

Troubleshooting

Restarting StudioBuilder

StudioBuilder failed to start or I exited StudioBuilder before completing my configuration.

  1. Run the following commands to start StudioBuilder

    cd /home/ec2-user

    studio_builder/bin/studio_builder

  2. Return to the Configure your studio section of this tutorial to continue your deploy.

Continuing deployment after disconnection

I accidentally got disconnected from my StudioBuilder’s EC2 Instance Connect session before completion.

  1. If you were in the process of choosing options for your studio and have not yet entered BUILD MY STUDIO:

    1. Follow these instructions to reconnect to your StudioBuilder instance: Step 4: Configure studio with StudioBuilder.

    2. After reconnecting, find the last configuration question that you answered to continue.

  2. If you already entered BUILD MY STUDIO and your deploy is running, you don’t need to reconnect to your StudioBuilder instance in order for the deploy to complete. Instead, you can monitor your deploy progress from CloudFormation in the AWS Management Console. For more information, see Monitoring using CloudFormation.

    1. If you prefer to monitor progress using EC2 Instance Connect, you can reconnect to your StudioBuilder instance using the instructions in Connect to the instance with EC2 Instance Connect.

Rerunning a deployment after error and failure

My deploy failed with an error on creating the AWS Managed Microsoft AD.

If your deploy fails on a step related to AWS Managed Microsoft AD, follow the steps below to remove the affected services from your account, and rerun the deploy:

  1. Wait for the deploy process to stop.

    1. If you're still connected to your StudioBuilder instance, wait for the deploy to finish failing.

      1. After it finishes, return either to the command line prompt or the StudioBuilder prompt that states Welcome to StudioBuilder! What would you like to do?

    2. If you're monitoring the deploy in CloudFormation, wait until the status of the <name>Data stack has changed to ROLLBACK_FAILED. The <name> portion of the status refers to the name that you chose for your studio during the StudioBuilder configuration questions.

  2. Go to Services and open Amazon DocumentDB

  3. Select Clusters in the left navigation pane.

  4. If there are no clusters listed, skip to the next step. If you see clusters listed, you must delete each one individually by following these steps:

    1. Under Clusters, select the cluster’s name, which will take you to its details page.

    2. On the cluster’s details page, choose Events & tags.

    3. Scroll down to the Tags section.

    4. If you see a tag key that contains StudioBuilder, return to the list of clusters by choosing Clusters in the left navigation pane. Follow the next steps to delete the cluster.

    5. Select the cluster that you need to delete by choosing the check box next to its name.

      1. You only need to select the entry with the role Cluster and it will automatically delete the entry with the role Primary.

    6. Choose Actions and then choose Delete.

    7. Select No in the section where you're asked to create a final cluster snapshot and select the check box below it to acknowledge your choice.

    8. Enter delete entire cluster and then choose Delete.

    9. Repeat this step (step 4, a – h) for any other clusters that have StudioBuilder tags.

  5. After the clusters have been deleted, select Subnet groups in the left navigation pane.

  6. If there are no subnet groups listed, skip to the next step. If you see subnets listed, you must delete each one individually by following these steps:

    1. Under Subnet groups, select the subnet’s name, which will take you to its details page.

    2. On the subnet’s details page, scroll down to the Tags section.

    3. If you see a tag key that contains StudioBuilder, return to the list of subnet groups by choosing Subnet groups in the left navigation pane. Follow the next steps to delete the subnet group.

    4. Select the subnet group that you need to delete from the list.

    5. Choose Actions and then choose Delete.

    6. Repeat for each subnet group that has a StudioBuilder tag.

  7. Go to Services and open CloudFormation .

  8. Select the <name>Data stack from the list of stacks, and then choose Delete.

    1. If you're asked to edit the termination protection, select Disabled, then choose Save and try the delete process again.

    2. The status of the stack will change to DELETE_IN_PROGRESS. When the <name>Data stack disappears from the list of stacks, or its status changes to DELETE_COMPLETE, it has been deleted and you can rerun your deploy.

  9. If you're no longer connected to your StudioBuilder instance, follow the instructions in Step 4: Connect to the instance with EC2 Instance Connect.

  10. Return to Step 4: Configure studio with StudioBuilder and repeat the instructions to configure your studio.

Updating deployment with a new version of StudioBuilder

How do I update my studio deployment using a new version of StudioBuilder?

  1. Go to Services and open AWS Marketplace Subscriptions .

  2. Choose Manage for Nimble Studio StudioBuilder.

  3. On the Nimble Studio StudioBuilder page, choose Launch new instance.

  4. Select the latest version from the Software version dropdown menu.

  5. Select the Region that your studio is deployed in from the Region dropdown menu.

  6. Choose Continue to launch through EC2.

  7. Return to Step 3: Step 3: Launch the StudioBuilder EC2 instance to finish launching and connect to your new StudioBuilder instance.

Important

After connecting to your StudioBuilder instance, choose Update and/or edit your studio and follow the prompts to update your studio.