Guidance for Running Autodesk AutoCAD on Amazon AppStream 2.0
Overview
How it works
These technical details feature an architecture diagram to illustrate how to effectively use this solution. The architecture diagram shows the key components and their interactions, providing an overview of the architecture's structure and functionality step-by-step.
Well-Architected Pillars
The architecture diagram above is an example of a Solution created with Well-Architected best practices in mind. To be fully Well-Architected, you should follow as many Well-Architected best practices as possible.
Operational Excellence
Amazon CloudWatch captures metrics for the managed services in this architecture. You can monitor these metrics for errors.
Security
This Guidance provides a way to secure Amazon EC2 resources using public and private subnets and security groups to restrict traffic to the Bastion host. AppStream 2.0 provides built-in authentication capabilities. Review Amazon AppStream 2.0Integration with SAML 2.0 and Using Active Directory with AppStream 2.0 for information on setting up authentication with AppStream 2.0 .
Reliability
AppStream 2.0 offers two available fleet types. Always-On or On-Demand fleets automatically match the supply of available instances to user demand. Because one user requires one fleet instance, the size of your fleet determines the number of users who can stream concurrently. You can define scaling policies that adjust the size of your fleet automatically based on a variety of utilization metrics, and you can optimize the number of available instances to match user demand. This will need to be done in conjunction with the AutoCAD network license manager (NLM) license maximum allowed.
Performance Efficiency
AppStream 2.0 is built to support desktop software application workloads. Based on the application, AutoCAD user persona, and rendered file sizes, you can experiment with larger or smaller instance sizes to match the best performance and price for your workloads.
Cost Optimization
This Guidance uses AWS managed services that scale to match demand. Most of the services are also serverless, which reduces infrastructure management and idle resources so you don’t end up paying for resource you don’t use. The AutoCAD NLM does not provide a way to scale out on Amazon EC2 and will need to be manually handled using the Guidance’s recommendation of setting up an NLM and configuring the host file.
Sustainability
AppStream 2.0 is designed for on-demand usage of the application and is graphics hardware-dependent. Because the service can be provisioned on demand, resources are consumed only when needed, minimizing hardware usage. The Guidance uses only the minimal Amazon EC2 resources required for operations and to support AppStream 2.0 application license usage.
Disclaimer
The sample code; software libraries; command line tools; proofs of concept; templates; or other related technology (including any of the foregoing that are provided by our personnel) is provided to you as AWS Content under the AWS Customer Agreement, or the relevant written agreement between you and AWS (whichever applies). You should not use this AWS Content in your production accounts, or on production or other critical data. You are responsible for testing, securing, and optimizing the AWS Content, such as sample code, as appropriate for production grade use based on your specific quality control practices and standards. Deploying AWS Content may incur AWS charges for creating or using AWS chargeable resources, such as running Amazon EC2 instances or using Amazon S3 storage.
References to third-party services or organizations in this Guidance do not imply an endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation between Amazon or AWS and the third party. Guidance from AWS is a technical starting point, and you can customize your integration with third-party services when you deploy the architecture.
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