Connecting to a running fluent instance using gRCP

[philipp-tty]

I have a number of remote machines and workstations that I wanna use for solving and meshing my problems.

They are connected using a VPN (Tailscale/Wireguard)

I have started the gRPC server using the following command
fluent.exe 3d -g -t16 -grpc-port 5000

import ansys.fluent.core as pyfluent
fluent = pyfluent.connect_to_fluent(
    ip="localhost",
    port=5000,
)

I have tried:

• localhost
• the private ip
• 127.0.0.1

When trying to connect to it (no matter if on the same host or another machine) I always get an error.

InvalidIpPort: Provide a valid 'ip' and 'port'.

As far as I understand the stack trace, this just means no connection could be established.

Using netcat I can't see anything running on port 5000 either.

Auto-Transcript Start Time:  16:48:15, 27 May 2025 W. Europe Summer Time

              Welcome to ANSYS Fluent 2025 R1.01

              Copyright 1987-2025 ANSYS, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
              Unauthorized use, distribution or duplication is prohibited.
              This product is subject to U.S. laws governing export and re-export.
              For full Legal Notice, see documentation.

Build Time: Jan  9 2025 12:44:08 EST  Build Id: 10211

Connected License Server List:  1055@server

     --------------------------------------------------------------
     This is an academic version of ANSYS FLUENT. Usage of this product
     license is limited to the terms and conditions specified in your ANSYS
     license form, additional terms section.
     --------------------------------------------------------------
Host spawning Node 0 on machine "GAZELLE" (win64).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ID    Hostname  Core   O.S.         PID    Vendor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
n15   GAZELLE   16/40  Windows-x64  3620   Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n14   GAZELLE   15/40  Windows-x64  13924  Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n13   GAZELLE   14/40  Windows-x64  17240  Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n12   GAZELLE   13/40  Windows-x64  6712   Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n11   GAZELLE   12/40  Windows-x64  6508   Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n10   GAZELLE   11/40  Windows-x64  14188  Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n9    GAZELLE   10/40  Windows-x64  8440   Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n8    GAZELLE   9/40   Windows-x64  1368   Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n7    GAZELLE   8/40   Windows-x64  14004  Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n6    GAZELLE   7/40   Windows-x64  6480   Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n5    GAZELLE   6/40   Windows-x64  16312  Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n4    GAZELLE   5/40   Windows-x64  14640  Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n3    GAZELLE   4/40   Windows-x64  7636   Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n2    GAZELLE   3/40   Windows-x64  12584  Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n1    GAZELLE   2/40   Windows-x64  13184  Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
n0*   GAZELLE   1/40   Windows-x64  5296   Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2
host  GAZELLE          Windows-x64  13864  Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2680 v2

MPI Option Selected: intel
Selected system interconnect: default
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cleanup script file is C:\\Users\\User\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\cleanup-fluent-GAZELLE-13864.bat```

Ansys: 2025R1
py_fluent: 0.30.5

[philipp-tty]

Stacktrace of the client:

InvalidIpPort                             Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[12], line 1
----> 1 fluent = pyfluent.connect_to_fluent(
      2     ip="localhost",
      3     port=5000,
      4 )

File /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniconda/base/envs/splines/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansys/fluent/core/launcher/launcher.py:396, in connect_to_fluent(ip, port, cleanup_on_exit, start_transcript, server_info_file_name, password, start_watchdog)
    345 def connect_to_fluent(
    346     ip: str | None = None,
    347     port: int | None = None,
   (...)    352     start_watchdog: bool | None = None,
    353 ) -> Meshing | PureMeshing | Solver | SolverIcing:
    354     """Connect to an existing Fluent server instance.
    355 
    356     Parameters
   (...)    394         Session object.
    395     """
--> 396     ip, port, password = _get_server_info(server_info_file_name, ip, port, password)
    397     fluent_connection = FluentConnection(
    398         ip=ip,
    399         port=port,
    400         password=password,
    401         cleanup_on_exit=cleanup_on_exit,
    402     )
    403     new_session = _get_running_session_mode(fluent_connection)

File /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniconda/base/envs/splines/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansys/fluent/core/launcher/server_info.py:111, in _get_server_info(server_info_file_name, ip, port, password)
    108     ip = ip or os.getenv("PYFLUENT_FLUENT_IP", "127.0.0.1")
    109     port = port or os.getenv("PYFLUENT_FLUENT_PORT")
--> 111 _check_ip_port(ip=ip, port=port)
    113 return ip, port, password

File /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniconda/base/envs/splines/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansys/fluent/core/launcher/server_info.py:86, in _check_ip_port(ip, port)
     84     result = sock.connect_ex((ip, port))
     85     if result != 0:
---> 86         raise InvalidIpPort()
     87 finally:
     88     sock.close()

InvalidIpPort: Provide a valid 'ip' and 'port'.

[mkundu1]

@Cerberus-ik Please use the following environment variables to specify the ip address and port for Fluent's gRPC server.

REMOTING_SERVER_ADDRESS=12.34.567.89
REMOTING_PORTS=5000/portspan=2

With the above settings, Fluent will listen for gRPC conenction at ip address 12.34.567.89 and port 5000.

[philipp-tty]

I tried setting the env, but I still see the same issue

Reading out the env vars in powershell:

Write-Host "REMOTING_SERVER_ADRESS = $env:REMOTING_SERVER_ADRESS"
REMOTING_SERVER_ADRESS = 192.168.10.12

Write-Host "REMOTING_PORTS = $env:REMOTING_PORTS"
REMOTING_PORTS = 5000/portspan=2