Guest Blog by Thomas Schoenemeyer
Technology Solutions Professional – Microsoft
UberCloud offers SaaS for engineers and lets you run interactive analyses on Microsoft Azure. But getting started with UberCloud and running HPC applications in Azure is still new to many. Therefore, we have invited Thomas Schoenemeyer from Microsoft to write a guest blog for you about this. Here it is:
You will need an Azure account (subscription) for using Microsoft Azure. For this project you can use an existing account or you can also register for a free trial account on Azure, which is valid for 30 days. The free account can be activated within a few minutes, please visit this website https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/offers/ms-azr-0044p/.
Be aware that with a free account you are able to deploy virtual machines with up to 4 cores. VM types with more than 4 cores such as H16 will not appear in the selection list. If you wish to evaluate VMs with higher core counts or VMs with Nvidia GPUs, please contact Microsoft or UberCloud. As a best practice, please click on “show in dashboard” when you create the VM, it will help you to find your VM in seconds.
Once you have the Microsoft Azure subscription, login to the Azure portal https://azure.microsoft.com and follow the steps below:
Step 1 (Azure Portal)
The UberCloud Service can be purchased through the Azure Marketplace. Please click on "create resource" in the left bar. Enter UberCloud in the Search Field and click on the type of service you would like to select, for example STAR-CCM+.
Step 2 (Azure Portal)
Create and configure the Virtual Machine (VM) where you want to run your application using the UberCloud Service. You will have to specify the name for the VM, the disk type, the username and the size of the VM such main memory and number of cores. At the end click on the "Purchase" button. After a few minutes the VM will be available on your Azure dashboard.
Step 3 (Access UberCloud Service)
To access the UberCloud service, find the “Public IP Address” of the VM on the “Running Virtual Machine” page. Copy this IP Address in full and paste the IP Address into your browser in a new tab and go to this IP Address. You will land on the management page for the UberCloud service. Enter your email address and click on the “Submit” button to receive instructions on how to access the UberCloud service through your browser. Check your email inbox for instructions on how to use the UberCloud service. Keep this email for future reference and do not share it with others for the privacy of your data. Look for the password and copy it. Right below the password is the “Login” button, which will enable you to connect to the UberCloud service running in your new VM. With the click on the Login button you will land on the login page of the remote desktop connection to the UberCloud service. Look for the password box and paste the password you’ve received with the instructions email. You will see the desktop of the UberCloud service using a remote desktop connection through your browser.
Step 4 (Getting familiar with UberCloud Service)
UberCloud services contain an “Examples” desktop shortcut. Tutorials provide a great opportunity to discover how the UberCloud service works. Double click on the “Examples” shortcut to access sample data files and instructions on how to run them.
Step 5 (Shutdown or delete)
If your simulation is finished, you can shutdown the VM. Stopped VM’s preserve the files which have been saved and incur storage charges, however, you will not be charged for compute usage. Before deleting the VM make sure you copy all your data files. Azure Storage (e.g. Blob Storage) is a very reliable and cost-effective solution to store date in Azure. Microsoft also offers the Storage Explorer, a very useful tool to keep overview of your data https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/storage-explorer/. The tool is free and is available for Windows, Linux and MacOS. When deleting a VM, please remember that this step cannot be reversed and all the data you have in the VM and the UberCloud service will be deleted.