Amazon Workspaces is a VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) that allows a user to securely connect to a cloud compute instance. SEAS Computing has bundled Solidworks and Comsol as applications which authorized SEAS users may utilize, and have opened up the SEAS licensing servers to these instances.
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Please note that workspaces auto-stop after 1 being disconnected. This means when you re-connect to your workspace, you will see that it is resuming, and you will have to wait a minute or less for the workspace to resume. You will automatically be connected to your workspace when it is ready.
Fig. 3: Workspace resuming message after successful logon
Once connected to your workspace, use it as you would any other computer. Solidworks and Comsol shortcuts are in the desktop and also in the start menu. No setup is required.
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Use your Google Drive/OneDrive from your Harvard account, as it is the simplest way for you to utilize file transfers (depending on which platform your Harvard email is on).
VPN:
You so do NOT have to be on VPN to access any license servers for Solidworks/Comsol. We built the VDI infrastructure to already have access to the license servers. Use your workspace as you would any lab machine.
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