Learning Forum

[Maximilian Pochapski]

Hello Ansys Community,

I want to connect to my Ansys Licensing server remotely. The server sits on a subnet of my univerisity's network that I can access through a VPN. I have setup port forwarding on the router the server is connected to, and I can connect to the server through telnet via a different computer that is also connected to my university's network. The problem is when I install Ansys, it asks for a servername. However, since I am using my port forwarding on the router, I can only access the server via the router instead of the server itself. This IP address is different from the server name in my Ansys licensing file.

I am fairly new to networking and our IT department has long lead times. Any advice on how to resolve this issue I would be most grateful.

[George Karnos]

If you open a DOS Command prompt and type in the following:
ping servername

(where servername is the hostname of the license server)
Do you get a reply?
Is it the correct IPADDRESS?
Have you tried adding the ip address and hostname to the hosts file on your machine?
c:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Also:

Please open a CMD and run these three commands:

powershell -Command "Test-NetConnection servername -Port 1055"

powershell -Command "Test-NetConnection servername -Port 1056"

powershell -Command "Test-NetConnection servername -Port 2325"

 

 

Share the outputs.

 

note: I am looking for "TcpTestSucceeded : True" for each port.

[Maximilian Pochapski]

Ok, I tested all the commands both on the subnet and on the larger university network. This is the results from each:

Subnet (where the licensing server is connected to directly):

• ping works with the licensing servers hostname, no need for port forwarding to the router as both the macbook Im working from and the licensing server are on the same network. 
• Since Im on macbook, I have to use the 'Test-Connection' command instead of 'Test-NetConnection'. I ran the following command for each port using powershell, installed via brew:

• Test-Connection -ComputerName servername -TcpPort 1056

• 1056 was False, 1055 and 2325 returned True. 

University Network (above the subnet):

• Test-Connection fails when I use the same commands when I use the same '-ComputerName servername' parameter (ie. does not even return a True/False statement)
• Using the IP address of the router for the subnet instead (as listed in the router settings), 2325, 1055 both fail but 1056 returns True. This makes sense since I have only port-forwarded 1056.  

Additonally, while I am debugging the network connection through mac, I have a windows machine running a linux VM that I will be remoting into that has Ansys Maxwell installed. 

Sorry for the late reply, I'll be responding around weekends as that's usually when my schedule is the least busy.

[Maximilian Pochapski]

Just an update, brought over my windows machine and connected it directly to the subnet. Ansys 2022R2 works. Looking forward our issue remains connecting to the network remotely. If you have any suggestions as to potential solutions please advise. 

[Maximilian Pochapski]

Another update; our org managed to connect to the licensing server completely remotely using Tailscale. Posting here for posterity.