Helping users to configure Workbench on their Windows workstations for connection to a shared SLC Server
Altair Employee1. The Administrator should carry out the following steps in preparation.
1.1. Install and configure SLC on the server. Apply the licence.
1.2. Install the Altair Analytics Workbench Windows MSI installer on one typical Windows workstation. Be sure to de-select the Altair SLC Server part of the installation when prompted by the installer wizard.
1.3. In the Link Explorer subwindow, choose New Host Connection, create an SSH connection to your Altair SLC server host.
- The "Connection name" can be anything you like that the users will understand. "SLC" is fine.
- Use your own username at this stage. (Note that every user must be able to log into the SLC server host using SSH.)
- SFTP Filename Encoding defaults to UTF-8 in all recent SFTP servers so this only needs to be set if you are using an old SFTP server or one that serves up non-UTF-8 filenames.
- Leave the other settings at their default values.
1.4. One the Link is open, the next step is also carried out in the Link Explorer subwindow. Use the mouse-button-3 drop-down menu on the link name to select "New Altair SLC Server".
- The "Server name" by default is set to the Link name plus the word "Server", so "Altair SLC Server" is a good name, but any name will do. It's what the users will see.
- Click the Browse button and navigate to the location of the Altair SLC installation on the remote server. Select the main installation folder/directory (not the "bin" directory inside it).
- Complete the wizard with default settings and make sure it starts okay.
1.5. Click on the Link name and use the mouse-button-3 drop-down menu to Export the Altair SLC Link definition to a .cdx file. For example call it slclink.cdx.
1.6 Edit the CDX file using a text editor and replace your own username with %USERNAME% ... this will be substituted when a user imports the CDX file. You need to substitute it in two places ... the username for the login and the home directory path for Altair SLC intermediate files on the server filesystem.
1.7 Distribute the CDX file to your users with instructions for how to use it as follows.
2. The End-User should carry out the following steps:
2.1. Install the Altair Analytics Workbench Windows MSI installer. Be sure to de-select the SLC Server part of the installation when prompted by the installer wizard. No licence is required for this configuration.
2.2. The first time they use Workbench only, the user should find the "Link Explorer" subwindow and using mouse-button-3 drop-down menu to choose "Import Host Connection". Import the provided CDX file.
2.3. The SLC Link and SLC Server entries appear in the Link Explorer subwindow. Use mouse-button-3 drop-down menu to Start the SLC Server. Workbench will prompt for the user's password and log them into the SLC server host machine.
2.4. When the run Workbench in future, the connection will be opened (and the password must be supplied) automatically.
Full details of SLC Link can be found in our documentation "Altair-SLC-Link-User-Guide-and-Reference-en.pdf"