Best practices when working with SimSpace Weaver
We recommend the following best practices when working with SimSpace Weaver.
Topics
Set up billing alarms
It's easy to provision resources in AWS and leave them running all the time, even when they aren't needed anymore. This can result in runaway costs that can be a surprise when you get your bill. You can configure an alarm in Amazon CloudWatch that will trigger and notify you when your costs exceed a threshold that you set. You can examine your costs using cost management tools. For more information, see:
Use SimSpace Weaver Local
We recommend that you use SimSpace Weaver Local to develop and test your simulations before uploading them to the SimSpace Weaver service in the AWS Cloud. The benefits of developing with SimSpace Weaver Local include:
No need to wait for large uploads
No limit on the number of local simulations you can create
You aren't charged for the compute time on your local computer
Direct access to console output from your apps
Modify, rebuild, and restart your local simulation without having to recreate it in the AWS Cloud
Stop simulations that you don't need
You get billing charges for a simulation while it is running. You must stop a simulation to stop getting charges for it. Running simulations also count towards your quota for the maximum number of simulations. A running simulation that has logging configured can also generate large amounts of logs, which you also get billing charges for. You should stop any simulation that you don't need in order to stop getting additional charges.
Important
Stopping the simulation clock doesn't stop the simulation, the clock just stops publishing ticks to your apps. You can't restart a simulation after you stop it.
Delete resources that you don't need
Each simulation that you create in SimSpace Weaver also creates resources in other AWS services. You can get billing charges for resources and data in these other services. Running and failed simulations count towards your quota for the maximum number of simulations. You should delete unneeded failed simulations so that you can start new simulations. When you delete a simulation, resources for your simulation that exist in other AWS services might not be deleted. For example, any simulation log data in Amazon CloudWatch Logs will remain there until you delete it. You will get billing charges for that log data. You should cleanup all the associated resources for your simulations if you don't need them anymore.
Have backups
It's a good idea to have backups and backup plans for everything. You shouldn’t assume that just because your data is in AWS that you don't have to back it up. You must create your own system if you need to back up your simulation state. Consider using multiple AWS Regions and having a plan in place to be able to quickly switch your production workload to another AWS Region if you need to. For more information about AWS Regions that support SimSpace Weaver, see SimSpace Weaver endpoints and quotas.
