Fluent RSolve Service and Remote Simulation Facility (RSF) Frequently Asked Questions

General | Security | Pricing

General 

1. How fast should my data communication be to use Fluent RSolve? 

For typical usage, partial T1 or DSL speed is fine, and 56kb dialup connections are also usable. For a heavy volume of file downloads or uploads, a full T1 or faster is recommended.

2. How fast is the network connection to the RSF? 

The RSF is hosted at our headquarters in Lebanon, NH, USA. Currently, there are 8 T1 lines into this site providing an aggregate bandwidth in excess of 10 mbs. With rare exception, the slowest link in the network path is usually at the customer site.

3. What kinds of systems are on the Fluent RSolve service? 

Fluent RSolve uses hardware and software from many companies, including Dell, Intel, and CISCO, among others. Fluent RSolve currently runs on a 32 Processor, 3.4GHz, 64GB high performance cluster providing high speed, low latency interconnectivity.

4. Can dedicated systems be provided for my company? 

Yes. Dedicated systems can be made available for use. Please contact your local Fluent Sales Representative for specific details.

5. Can I host our internally developed applications on the RSF? 

Yes. The plan for this service is to include "customer developed" software as well as FLUENT. This functionality requires a special quote. Please contact your Fluent Sales Representative for details.

6. What kind of queue time is to be expected on average? 

As a policy, we monitor system utilization carefully, so that additional capacity is provisioned when usage reaches high levels. Users experiencing delays should report it to Technical Support. The plan is to keep queue time at or near zero.

7. Does the RSF have automatic load balancing to improve accessibility? 

Yes, various types of load balancing are used to improve the performance and accessibility of the RSF, including web server load balancing, queue management, and file storage balancing.

8. How easy is it to add users? 

Designated Customer Administrators can add a user when needed, if their chosen level of service permits additional users.

9. Does it cost extra to add users? 

The number of users is correlated to the amount of simulation capacity purchased. For exact details, please contact your Account Representative.

10. Can multiple users within one company share the same data and models across geographic boundaries? 

This functionality is currently not exposed to the user. If you are interested in this capability, special arrangements can be made until this feature is fully exposed.

Security

1. How secure is the Fluent RSolve infrastructure? 

Fluent handles all aspects of security directly and is dedicated to building and operating secure online capabilities. Both physical and online access is strictly controlled. As part of our security policy, we do not disclose all of the security steps that are taken. 

2. What kinds of security does Fluent RSolve use to protect confidentiality? 

Several security measures are used to protect confidentiality, including: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week physical protection, operating system file protection, encryption, port control and monitoring, account management protection, username and passwords, firewalls, application-level protection, and other methods.

3. How can Fluent RSolve work with my current corporate firewall? 

No additional effort by your internal IT staff should be required, provided access to secure sites is allowed. rsolve.fluent.com operates through port 443 of your corporate firewall. Slight adjustments in the "options" section of your personal browser may be required to increase the level of security. If there are additional problems, we can assist you and/or your IT department in taking advantage of the Fluent RSolve offerings.

4. What precautions are made to ensure other users of the Fluent RSolve service do not have access to my data? 

Customers do not have direct system access while using the Fluent RSolve service. Customer access is provided via a special portal interface. In addition, there is physical and online monitoring, operating system file protection, encryption, port control and monitoring, username and passwords, firewalls, application-level protection, and other methods.

5. What precautions are in place to prevent an online attack of the Fluent RSolve site? 

Routers, firewalls, and other monitoring software and hardware are used to deter, detect, and stop online attacks on a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week basis. In the event of a serious attack, first, corrective action is taken, then, as appropriate, a customer may be notified.

6. What security assessment and integrity tools do you use and how often do you use them? 

Regular as well as "unscheduled" assessments and audits are performed to ensure the integrity of the site.

7. How do you segregate clients sharing the same infrastructure? 

Each client is setup with a distinct directory, unique username and password, and account preferences and profile. All identifying information is strictly controlled. Users are required to change individual passwords upon initial login thus protecting the account from access.

8. What technical auditing and testing do you rely on? 

The RSF uses both internal and third party technical auditing and quality testing. Each phase of the Fluent RSolve service is beta-tested before its release for general availability.

9. What about obtaining a virtual private network (VPN) to the Fluent RSolve service?

A VPN is recommended where security is paramount and frequent, volumetric use is required.

10. What if I forget my password? 

Please contact Fluent Technical Support. You will be given a temporary password to log into the site. It is recommended that once you have logged in, you select a new password.

Pricing

1. How much does the Fluent RSolve service cost?

The price of this service starts at $6/CPU-hr to $3/CPU-hr, depending on volume. Please contact your Fluent Sales Representative for specific price schedules.

2. How can I keep this cost within a specified range? 

Fluent RSolve supports "Fixed Price" plans that allow the ability to "cap" the amount of simulation time, and cost. The system is "pre-set" with a total amount of CPU time available by user. When the user utilizes 80% of their total CPU time, an email notification will be sent. When the user reaches 100% of CPU time, access to Fluent RSolve will be gracefully terminated.

3. What services are included in the base Fluent RSolve subscription? 

Each user account includes 10 Gbytes of temporary storage, access from any browser, full accounting and reporting capability, all necessary licenses to operate, full security and monitoring, and an assortment of tools for executing FLUENT jobs.

4. How much does it cost to run a job in parallel? For example, how much does it cost to run a job that takes 5 hours on an 8-processor system?

The above example would equate to 40 CPU-hrs of time. The price per CPU-hr is a function of volume.

5. How does Fluent RSolve handle fractional hours of CPU time? 

All Fluent RSolve jobs are rounded to the nearest ¼ hour on a "per user" basis.

6. What happens to the left over hours if we do not use them all? 

Generally, unused CPU time is forfeited at the end of the usage cycle. However, CPU hours have been carried over in special situations.

7. What are the full details on the reporting capabilities? 

Fluent RSolve solution supports full reporting capabilities including project information, user information, job classification, job duration, disk utilization, and CPU utilization by job.

8. How do users track job usage against a specific project? 

To use Fluent RSolve reporting capabilities the user must initially set up a project name. When the simulation is run, the report identifies the project name such that all simulations for that specific project will be listed including details such as number of CPU-hrs per run, times of the runs, etc.

9. Are there specific instructions on how to create the usage reports? 

Yes, the reports are reviewed in the online help sections of rsolve.fluent.com. This online help section includes all information necessary to set up and monitor usage.

10. How many users can each customer account have at one time? 

The number of users is correlated to the amount of simulation purchased. Please contact your Fluent Sales Representative for specific details.