AWS Deadline Cloud UBL for Deadline 10 on AWS

Amazon Web Services has launched AWS Deadline Cloud, a fully managed service designed to streamline render management for teams involved in creating computer-generated 2D/3D graphics and visual effects across various industries, including film, TV, gaming, and industrial design. One of the key components of Deadline Cloud is its Usage Based Licensing (UBL) service, known as Deadline Cloud UBL, hosted on AWS. With Deadline Cloud UBL, you can swiftly setup licensing for your preferred digital content creation tools and render engines without the need to purchase licenses upfront, eliminating the risk of investing in unused licenses.

Furthermore, Deadline Cloud UBL seamlessly integrates with AWS Thinkbox Deadline 10 running on AWS, allowing users to forego the upfront purchase of licenses and instead pay for usage as they go. Billing for the licensing occurs directly through AWS, providing users with transparency and control over their costs through the AWS billing dashboard. This guide offers step-by-step instructions on configuring AWS Deadline Cloud UBL with Thinkbox Deadline 10 on AWS, simplifying the setup process for users.

For detailed pricing information on Deadline Cloud UBLs, please refer to the pricing page on the AWS website. Additionally, a comprehensive list of compatible applications and render engines that can be used with Deadline Cloud UBLs is available in the documentation provided. The Deadline Cloud UBL is available to use in the AWS regions listed in Service endpoint documentation. We are actively expanding our support for additional applications and regions.

To Setup Deadline Cloud UBL with Deadline 10 on AWS

To start with the setup follow this Deadline Cloud UBL’s documentation page, the first and second step in the documentation will set up the Licensing endpoint for the applications you need. There is a service quota of a maximum 500 license sessions per endpoint. So if you need to use more than 500 machine per license endpoint, you would need to apply for an increase in service quota. If you are using the AWS Portal, follow the “To Setup Deadline Cloud UBL for AWS Portal” section of the article below for the Licensing endpoint setup.

Now follow the Step 3 of the documentation above which will connect your Digital Content Creation (DCC) and renderer application to the licensing endpoint. You can also create a ‘deadlineclientubl.sh’ file on Linux to set the Foundry and Autodesk license environment variables and place it under the “/etc/profile.d/” folder. It will execute the file at every login:

#!/bin/sh
Endpoint_DNS=%VPC_Endpoint_DNS_Name%
export foundry_LICENSE=6101@$Endpoint_DNS
export ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE=2702@$Endpoint_DNS:2701@$Endpoint_DNS

You will have to replace the %VPC_Endpoint_DNS_Name% name with the license endpoint DNS name. To get the license endpoint DNS name, use the following AWS CLI command.

aws deadline get-license-endpoint --license-endpoint-id LICENSE_ENDPOINT_ID

Or you can use the Amazon VPC Console (https://console.aws.amazon.com/vpc/) to identify the VPC endpoint created by the Deadline Cloud API in the previous step.

You will need to make the ‘deadlineclientubl.sh’ to have executable permission:

sudo chmod +x deadlineclientubl.sh

To Setup Deadline Cloud UBL for AWS Portal

The setup steps for the Deadline Cloud UBL with AWS Portal application is a bit different as AWS Portal creates and manages VPC and networking components. We will need to tweak some of the components to support the Deadline Cloud UBL with AWS Portal setup. If you are not using AWS Portal, you can skip reading this now and the documentation above is all you need.
Note: This setup needs to be performed after every restart of the Portal Infrastructure.

To start with the setup start an infrastructure on AWS Portal using Monitor and wait for it to complete successfully. Now, navigate to AWS Management console and go to the AWS CloudFormation dashboard. You will see a stack created for Portal Infrastructure, which matches the stackname with the infrastructure entry in the Monitor AWS Portal panel.

From the Stack details under the Resources tab, note the Physical ID of each of the Logical IDs below:

ReverseDashVPC
PublicSubnet
ReverseSlaveSG

Go to the ReverseSlaveSG security group under the Services > EC2 > Security Group, and add the below inbound rules:

• Autodesk Maya and Arnold – 2701 - 2702, TCP, IPv4
• Foundry Nuke – 6101, TCP, IPv4
• SideFX Houdini, Mantra, and Karma – 1715 - 1717, TCP, IPv4

The source for each inbound rule will be the same security group (ReverseSlaveSG).

You can now run through the steps defined in the documentation to create the Licensing Endpoint. Make sure you provide the values to the vpc, subnet and security group parameters gathered above.

As an example, these are the value collected from the CloudFormation stack resources tab while testing:

ReverseDashVPC = vpc-0ab9634a0f3beb047 
PublicSubnet = subnet-0b0489f452bd2ba5f
ReverseSlaveSG = sg-0a45e8a7dabd13d35 

I will run the below command to create a Deadline Cloud UBL license endpoint on an AWS Cloudshell:

aws deadline create-license-endpoint --security-group-id sg-0a45e8a7dabd13d35 --subnet-ids subnet-0b0489f452bd2ba5f --vpc-id vpc-0ab9634a0f3beb047

This will return the License Endpoint in json, make a note of this as it will be used in several places while following this setup documentation.

{
    "licenseEndpointId": "le-4c3bb9831fbf4246a0f239ad2f47d392"
}

After following the above setup documentation and added the product to the Licensing endpoint, you can view the list of licenses added to the endpoint to verify:

aws deadline list-metered-products --license-endpoint-id LICENSE_ENDPOINT_ID

Now can follow the Step 3 of this documentation which will connect your application to the licensing endpoint. It is recommended to set the required Licensing environment variable for the whole AWS Portal spot fleet under Monitor AWS Portal panel > ⚙️> Advanced > Environment Variables.

Now you would have AWS Deadline Cloud UBL working with Deadline 10 running on AWS. If you encountered any issues following the instructions and need help, reach out to Thinkbox Support for help by opening a ticket.