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Getting started with AWS - Computational Fluid Dynamics on AWS

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Getting started with AWS

To begin, you must create an AWS account and an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user. An IAM user is a user within your AWS account. The IAM user allows authentication and authorization to AWS resources. Multiple IAM users can be created if multiple people need access to the same AWS account.

During the first year after account activation, many AWS services are available for free with the AWS Free Tier. The free-tier program provides an opportunity to learn about AWS without incurring significant charges. It provides an offset to charges incurred while training on AWS. However, the compute-heavy nature of CFD means that charges are regularly not covered by the free tier. Training helps limit mistakes resulting in unnecessary charges. You can also set up AWS billing alarms to alert you of estimated charges.

After creating an AWS account, you are provided with what is referred to as your root user. It is recommended that you do not use this root user for anything other than billing. Instead, set up privileged users (through IAM) for day-to-day usage of AWS. IAM users are useful because they help you securely control access to AWS resources within your account. Use IAM to control authentication and authorization for resources. Create IAM users for everyone, including yourself, and preserve the root user for the required account and service management tasks.

By default, your account is limited on the number of instances that you can launch in a Region, which is a physical location around the world where AWS clusters data centers. These limits are initially set low to prevent unnecessary charges, but you can raise them to preferred values. CFD applications often require a large number of compute instances simultaneously. The ability and advantages of scaling horizontally are highly desirable for high performance computing (HPC) workloads. However, you may need to request an increase to the Amazon EC2 service limits before deploying a large workload to either one large cluster, or too many smaller clusters at once.

If you want to understand more about the underlying services, a few foundational tutorials can be helpful to get started on AWS:

  • Amazon EC2 is the Amazon Web Service you use to create and run compute nodes in the cloud. AWS calls these compute nodes “instances”. This Launch a Linux Virtual Machine with Amazon Lightsail tutorial will help you successfully launch a Linux compute node on Amazon EC2 within our AWS Free Tier.

  • Amazon S3 is a service that enables you to store your data (referred to as objects) at massive scale. This Store and Retrieve a File with Amazon S3 tutorial will help you store your files in the cloud using Amazon S3 by creating an Amazon S3 bucket, uploading a file, retrieving the file, and deleting the file.

  • AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) is a common programmatic tool for automating AWS resources. For example, you can use it to deploy AWS infrastructure or manage data in S3. In this AWS Command Line Interface tutorial, you learn how to use the AWS CLI to access Amazon S3. You can then easily build your own scripts for moving your files to the cloud and easily retrieving them as needed.

  • AWS Budgets gives you the ability to set custom budgets that alert you when your costs or usage exceed (or are forecasted to exceed) your budgeted amount. In the Control your AWS costs with the AWS Free Tier and AWS Budgets tutorial, you learn how to control your costs while exploring AWS service offerings using the AWS Free Tier, then using AWS Budgets to set up a cost budget to monitor any costs associated with your usage.

A dedicated Running CFD on AWS workshop has been created to guide you through the process of running your CFD codes on AWS. This workshop has step-by-step instructions for common codes like Simcenter STAR-CCM+, OpenFOAM, and ANSYS Fluent.

Additionally, the AWS Well-Architected Framework High Performance Computing (HPC) Lens covers common HPC scenarios and identifies key elements to ensure that your workloads are architected according to best practices. It focuses on how to design, deploy, and architect your HPC workloads on the AWS Cloud.