Connect to the head node through NICE DCV

NICE DCV is a remote visualization technology that enables users to securely connect to graphic-intensive 3D applications that are hosted on a remote high-performance server. For more information, see NICE DCV.

The NICE DCV software is automatically installed on the head node and can be enabled by using the Dcv section from the HeadNode configuration.

HeadNode:
  Dcv:
    Enabled: true

This way, Amazon ParallelCluster sets /home/<DEFAULT_AMI_USER> in the head node to the DCV server storage folder. For more information about NICE DCV configuration parameters, see HeadNode / Dcv. To connect to the NICE DCV session, use the pcluster dcv-connect command.

NICE DCV HTTPS certificate

NICE DCV automatically generates a self-signed certificate to secure traffic between the NICE DCV client and NICE DCV server.

To replace the default self-signed NICE DCV certificate with another certificate, first connect to the head node. Then, copy both the certificate and key to the /etc/dcv folder before running the pcluster dcv-connect command.

For more information, see Changing the TLS certificate in the NICE DCV Administrator Guide.

Licensing NICE DCV

The NICE DCV server doesn't require a license server when running on Amazon EC2 instances. However, the NICE DCV server must periodically connect to an Amazon S3 bucket to determine if a valid license is available.

Amazon ParallelCluster automatically adds the required permissions to the head node IAM policy. When using a custom IAM Instance Policy, use the permissions described in NICE DCV on Amazon EC2 in the NICE DCV Administrator Guide.

For troubleshooting tips, see Troubleshooting issues in NICE DCV.