cm5708-connecting the dots implementing autodesk® revit® server for multi-firm collaboration

CM5708 Connecting the Dots: Implementing Autodesk® Revit® Server for Multi-Firm Collaboration Speaker(s) Nauman Mysorewala – GBBN Architects

Autodesk Revit Server provides much faster access to project data for local and remote users but it has been somewhat of a challenge to implement in your organization. It is far more of a challenge to implement Revit Server with other consultants. Issues of security and access control are at the top of the list of challenges. This class will cover procedures and techniques for a successful implementation of Revit Server between consultants for a true integrated project delivery (IPD) collaboration scenario. After this class, you will be able to install Revit Server within your organization and create easily distributable virtual Revit Servers for remote sites. You will learn to connect the sites via VPN for secure communications without exposing your internal networks to other consultants.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this class, you will be able to:

• Create and distribute virtual Revit Server machines using VMware

• Set up central and local Revit Servers

• Deploy Revit Server in a VMware® virtual environment

• Describe workflows and technical requirements for multi-firm collaboration with Revit Server

• Create a Soft-VPN network using LogMeIn Hamachi

About the Speaker Nauman has more than 21 years of experience with the Autodesk® family of products including AutoCAD®, AutoCAD Architecture, Revit® Architecture, Navisworks® and 3ds Max®. He is the CAD/BIM manager for GBBN Architects Inc., a multinational architectural firm. He has a bachelor of architecture degree, and has extensive experience working as an architect and CAD/BIM manager. He is an Autodesk AutoCAD Architecture/Revit Architecture 2011 certified professional and LEED® AP. Nauman also teaches CAD applications at College of Mount St. Joseph as an adjunct faculty for the Interior Design program. email: [email protected]

CM5708 Connecting the Dots: Implementing Autodesk® Revit® Server for Multi-Firm Collaboration

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Class Summary: This class will cover implementing Autodesk Revit Server in a multi-firm collaboration scenario. The implementation techniques described in this class may not be the ideal in a real scenario but due to some limitations of Revit Server it at least gets closer for using Revit Server for multi-firm collaboration.

The class is divided into two sections:

1. Discussion of advantages and challenges of using Autodesk Revit Server in a multi-firm collaboration scenario

2. Demonstration of creating a Virtual machine, Installing Windows 2008 Server, Revit Server and installing and configuring LogMeIn Hamachi.

The video will go in more depth for section 1 and section 2 but the hand-out will mostly cover section 2 and will supplement the video.

Revit Server Revit Server is the server application for Revit Architecture, Revit Structure, and Revit MEP. and it allows server-based worksharing for Revit projects across a wide area network (WAN). A workshared project is a Revit building model that multiple team members can access and modify at the same time. Revit Server uses a central server and multiple local servers for optimal project collaboration across a wide area network (WAN). The arrangement is similar to a spokes and a hub for a bicycle wheel.


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Revit Server terminology: Central server: A server that hosts the central model of a workshared project. There is only one central server. All Local Server(s) and (clients) connect directly to it. Central Server must be always available for smooth operation of Revit Server implementation.

Local server: A server that is accessible to all team members in a local area network (LAN) and connected via WAN to the central server. The local server hosts a local, up-to-date copy of the central model.

There are many advantages of using Revit Server, but nothing is without its challenges. This class will discuss how to overcome some of the challenges with using Revit Server in a Multi-firm scenario. Some of the advantages are it can host any size, any complexity, can accommodate multiple project members, and can be at any geographical location (For latency <100ms). Some other benefits include Speed benefit for WAN users, always current model for all team members, and this all results in better collaboration.

Some of the challenges include need of a secure sharable connection between firms across WAN. Corporate privacy and security can be an issue as Revit Server has no granular control. Revit Server also fails in high latency situations and becomes unusable when there is no internet connection. It also requires an expert to lead the implementation and usage of Revit Server. Another challenge is that it can only host Revit Files.

For a detailed discussion of the above topic please refer to fist part of the video.

Creating a Virtual Machine for Revit Server 2012: General requirements:

• Virtualization software License* to create virtual machine VMware (officially supported), Oracle Vbox, Hyper-V, etc.

• Windows 2008 Server License (Standard or Enterprise) • Hardware assisted virtualization support (req. to host 64bit OS) • Preferably a dedicated network card for VM to use (or in Bridged mode) • Windows 2008 Server 64bit DVD or ISO • Autodesk Revit 2012 DVD or extracted download file

System Requirements for Revit Server 2012: The supported operating system for Revit Server2012 is Windows Server 2008(& R2) 64-bit.

2GHz processor or better with at least 2 cores of processing power (keep 2 cores in mind when creating a virtual machine)

8GB of memory minimum (Lower amounts can be used as well in case of Virtual Machine)

Hard drive with a spindle speed of at least 7200 rpm and at least 3.0 Gb/s transfer speed

Server-class (gigabit Ethernet or better) network (Dedicated network card preferably)


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System Requirements for Virtual Machine/VMware: Running a 64bit virtualized Windows 2008 Server on any machine, the host CPU must be a supported 64-bit processor. In most cases Intel™ EM64T VT-capable processors and AMD 64 processors are capable of supporting 64bit guest OSes. Download the Processor Check Utility for 64-Bit Compatibility from VMware at http://goo.gl/3eJfE. Note that even with CPU support, you may not be able to host 64bit guests if the bios is not configured to support virtualization. This restriction is also true for other virtualization technologies including Vbox.

You will also need ample hard drive space and a NTFS formatted hard drive to host large file sizes of the virtual hard drives.

Installation process:

This document will cover the whole process of creating an operational Revit Server. It is broken up in sections

1. Create a New Windows Server 2008 R2 VM using VMware 2. Configure Windows Server 2008 as an application server to run Revit Server 3. Install Revit Server 4. Create a Soft-VPN using LogMeIn Hamachi

Create a New Windows Server 2008 R2 VM using VMware: Per the requirements of Revit Server, Windows Server 2008 (R2) 64bit needs to be installed and configured correctly as an application server. Since we may not have servers that have Windows Server 2008 64bit installed this class will cover how to create a Virtual Machine(VM) and host Windows Server 2008 inside it. Starting Revit 2012 VMware is officially supported and this class will cover creating a Virtual Machine using VMware Player which now allows creating virtual machines and is free.

VMware Player is intended for your own personal non-commercial use only. Player may only be used commercially or be re-distributed with written agreement from VMware. Requests should be submitted online at http://www.vmware.com/go/playerdistribution.

It is recommended to use VMware Workstation as it gives lot more options to create a distributable VMs to be used as Revit Local Servers.

Downloading and Installing VMware Player Visit http://www.vmware.com/products/player/ to download VMware Player installer. You will need to register to download and get a free key to activate VMware Player.


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Creating a New Virtual Machine 1. After installing/launching VMware Player click on

Create a New Virtual Machine.

2. Insert Windows 2008 Server 64bit DVD in DVD drive and select Installer disc or point to an ISO image file downloaded from Microsoft using the Browse button. It is recommended that VMware Easy Install process is used to save time and effort.

3. Next type in the Windows Server License key (typing the key is not mandatory as you can always activate windows later. It is advisable to leave it blank especially if you are creating a distributable Revit Server. This way you can decide who purchases the license and uses it. Click yes on the product key warning. Leave the password blank and Log on automatically unchecked. You need to login as Administrator once Windows boots up.


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4. Enter the name of the Virtual Machine and browse to a location where there is fast and ample space available on the local hard drive. This volume must be formatted using NTFS to be able to host large virtual hard drive file.

5. This section deals with how much space is allocated and how VMware stores the virtual hard drive. Windows Server 2008 with application server & Revit Server Application installed needs about 10GB. You will need to plan for project storage and temporary file cache storage space. Remember that you are only storing RVT files. Revit Server needs to store all the cache files for different users that connect. You can budget for 3-4 times the size of the project. The nice thing about VMware is that it does not allocate the whole space when you create the virtual machine, rather it dynamically grows depending on demand up to the capacity specified. In the figure I have used a 40GB space allocation. This gives me 30GB worth of expansion.

6. Before clicking finish we need to Customize Hardware of the Virtual Machine. Most of these settings can be tweaked after VM has been created and in a powered down state. Click the Customize Hardware button. In the next dialog set the -Memory: to 8GB if you have a machine that can support that much capacity. You can start with 2GB and increase it if running out of memory by shutting down the VM and changing its setting. -Processors: Set to 2 per the requirement. It would be beneficial to have a quad core processor on the host machine. -Network Adapter to Bridged (refer to guidelines on how to tweak the VM network configuration if you are using VMware Player) . It is recommended that you have a dedicated network card to use in Bridged mode. This is especially critical for a Revit Central Server. Avoid using NAT as it will cause high latency and will result in errors on Revit Server. - Leave the other options as default.

7. Click Close and Click Finish and wait.


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8. After VMware Easy Install is done VMware Player will start the VM and log into Windows Server 2008. Every time Windows Server 2008 boots up it brings up the “Initial Configuration Tasks” window. We will use this to setup Windows Server 2008.

9. Click on Activate windows to enter the correct Windows product key and activate Windows. I

prefer to wait till everything is configured and running before performing activation, in case you make a mistake and have to start over and loose your activation count.

10. VMware will automatically set the time zone to match your local machine time zone. 11. Follow your company guidelines machine naming, creating usernames and passwords

and attaching this machine to the domain. This document will not cover those. 12. Shut Down Windows Server 2008. Next we will configure the Bridged Network

Configuring VMware Networking Components: There is a good possibility that the guest OS that was installed will have problems connecting to a network. This happens when you have multiple networking components installed, especially VPNs. To rectify the situation we need to use Virtual Network Editor to specify which Network cards VMware uses, or you can specify which adapters to exclude. If you are


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using VMware workstation go to Home Tab and click on Virtual Network Editor. If you are using VMware Player the application VMNETCFG.EXE is not installed. It is included in the Player installer distribution. To extract vmnetcfg.exe from the installer do the following: 1. Run the installer with /e option. For example: VMware-player-4.0.0-471780.exe /e .\extract Contents will be extracted to “extract” folder. 2. Open “network.cab” and copy vmnetcfg.exe to your installation folder, typically “C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Player\”. Now you can run vmnetcfg.exe to exclude network adapters from binding or specify exactly which network card VMware uses. Click on VMnet0 adapter and by default it is set to Bridged to Automatic. You can leave it on Automatic as long as you click on Automatic Settings and only select Physical Network cards. You can also point VMware to a specific hardware network card by clicking on Automatic and selecting the network card to use from the dropdown. (You may not see all the Networking components listed below as it depends on your machine and what is installed on that machine).


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Configure Windows Server 2008 as an application server to run Revit Server Windows Server 2008 needs to be configured as an Application Server to be able to run Revit Server. If you have installed windows Server 2008 on a physical machine you can follow from this point onwards.

Click on “Add roles” in the Initial Configuration Tasks window. Add Roles Wizard will start. Click Next on the Before You Begin window.

1. Select Server Roles: Click Application Server and press Add Required Features at the required pop-up dialog. Then click Next

2. Select Role Services: .NET Framework 3.5.1 should already be checked. Click on Web Server (IIS) Support, TCP Port Sharing, HTTP Activation, TCP Activation. If prompted for Adding any required features click Add Required Features


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button. Click Next to continue. 3. Select Role Services: Most of the options will

already be checked in this dialog. The ones that needs to be checked are: Application Development: ASP, CGI and Server Side Includes. Under Management Tools -> IIS 6 Management Compatibility check IIS 6 Scripting Tools. This will trigger an Add Required Role Services and automatically check the first two options in this section. Click Next.

4. Under Confirm Installation Selections click Install and wait for Windows Server to configure itself as an aplication server. Click close. You can configure the windows update following the warning in the summary dialog.

Installing Autodesk Revit Server You will either need Autodesk Revit Arch/MEP/Structure DVD or Extract the files from the downloaded installation file.

If you have the DVD clock on Virtual Machine Menu > Removable Devices > CD/DVD (IDE) > Settings…and point to your physical DVD drive.

To use the downloaded installer extract the files on your host machine and it will by default expand the files to C:\Autodesk. You can point to another location as needed. Once the extraction is finished and the installer starts, cancel the install. The files are left in the location specified.


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On the top of the Virtual Machine click on Virtual Machine menu and select Virtual Machine Settings. On the popup dialog click on Options > and highlight Shared Folders on the left side. On the right side select: Enabled until power off, check Map a network drive in Windows guests and then click Add at the bottom. In the Add Shared Folders Wizard dialog, point to the extracted folder location, click next and select Enable this share.

-Once you click OK Switch to the Virtual Machine and use Windows explorer. There should now be a mapped shared drive pointing to the Revit Installer. Click on Setup.exe to start the installer. It is very important that you do not use the RevitServer.MSI file found in the sub-directories to install Revit Server as the install will be incomplete. Always use the Setup.exe and then Click on Install Tools & Utilities within the full installer. Accept the License agreement click next.

-Deselect all other options and select Revit Server.

-Click on the drop down arrow to change the Revit Server install options.


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-Here you can decide whether this install is a Central Server or Local Server. If you are creating a Local Server you will need to specify the name/IP of the Central Server. You will also need to specify the location of the Project files and Cache files. Currently Revit Server does not support mapped drives. It has to save it to a local disk.

-Click on the arrow again to minimize the options

. Then click Install and Finish when done.

-Once the installation has finished Revit Server installer does not create any Links in Program Menu or on the Desktop. Open Internet Explorer and browse to http://REVITSERVERNAME/RevitserverAdmin

This will result in some security warnings. In Internet Explorer Click on Tools > Internet options > Security Tab > Trusted sites and click Sites. Add REVITSERVERNAME to the Trusted sites list. While you are at this screen also add *.miscrosoft.com and *,logmein.com (if you are planning to use LogMeIn Hamachi). This will aloe easy install for the Silverlight plugin and LogMeIn Hamachi VPN.


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Once the sites have been added, press F5 in Internet Explorer to refresh the browser. This time there should not be any warnings.

-Click on Install Microsoft Silverlight the required plugin to administer Revit Server. If you have added *.microsoft.com in the above step then it should give the option to Run or Save the file. Click Run. After installing Silverlight, Revit Server Administrator should start.

Here you can perform the administrative tasks needed to manage a Revit Server.

Creating a Distributable Revit Local Server Since there is only one Central Server all other servers are going to be installed as Local Servers. Follow the directions above to create a new Virtual Machine and install and configure Windows Server 2008 as an Application Server. Install Revit Server as a Local Server and enter the name of the Central Server.

Power down the virtual machine.

If you have VMware workstation you can right click on the Virtual Machine name and select Manage then Clone. Make sure to create a Full Clone as you want to move it to another location. If you are using VMware Player copy the whole folder and relocate it to another machine.

Running the Distributed Virtual Machine On the machine that will be hosting the Revit Local Server virtual machine preform the following steps:

• Run the 64bit compatibility check and verify the BIOS settings.

• Copy the cloned machine on the local drive of the host.


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• Install VMware Player and activate it (you only need VMware Workstation on one machine to create)

• Fix the Network configuration using VMNETCFG.exe as described on previous pages (copy this file from our previous extraction or VMware Workstation folder)

• Click Open a Virtual Machine and browse to the copied folder and select the vmx file. This will be added to the left side of VMware Player.

• Click Edit virtual machine settings, select Network Adapter and click Advanced. Next click Generate to get a new MAC address for the machine.

• Play the virtual machine. Once it boots into window rename the server so it is different and unique from other servers.

• Connect the virtual machine via VPN to the site hosting Central Server and it should see the Central Server. You can verify this by launching http://revitserverlocal1\revitserveradmin. If you see the tree of the project files then the connection is successful.

• Go to a machine that is in the local server network and launch Revit 2012. Under Collaboration Tab change the Revit Server to the newly deployed Revit Server Local. If the Revit Server can talk to Central Server, this connection will be successful.

• Open a Revit project file from the Revit Server which initiates the caching of the Central files for that RVT file. The Cold open will take long as the Local Server has to download all the files from the Central Server. Subsequent opens and save to central’s will be much faster.

This basically concludes the whole setup of creating a Virtual Machine, Installing Windows Server 2008 64bit, Configuring Windows Server 2008 as an application server, and Installing Revit Server.


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Other Tasks Security It is recommended that some authentication methods are used to protect the server from accidental/intentional deletion or locking. From the Autodesk help site wikihelp, you can use the following method to setup basic permissions on a local or central server:

1 Click Start > Administration Tools > Server Manager.

2 In the Server Manager, in the left pane, expand the Roles tree node. Select the Internet Services (IIS) Manager node.

3 In the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, expand the tree node corresponding to the name of the server, and then expand the Sites node and the Default Web Site node.

4 Select the RevitServerAdmin node.

5 In the Features View pane, double-click the Authentication icon. (If you have followed the guide you already have installed basic and Windows Authentication under Web Server role service).

a. Verify that the Basic Authentication and the Windows Authentication are set to Enabled.

b. Verify that Anonymous Authentication is set to Disabled.

6 Re-select the RevitServerAdmin node.

7 In the Features pane, double-click the Authorization Rules icon.

8 In the Authorization Rules pane, select and remove the All Users rule. This restricts access to all users.

9 In the Actions pane, click Add Allow Rule.

10 Now you will specify the group or user to grant access permission to.

11 In the Add Allowed Authorization Rule dialog, do one of the following:

• To add access for a role/group, select Specified roles or user groups and enter the role/group.

• To add access for only a specific user, select Specified users and enter the user.

• NOTE: Authorization rules don't exist if you don't install the URL Authorization feature which was installed when we first setup the server as an Application Server

It is a best practice to create a group and then set each server to use that group for access control, so that it is only necessary to modify the group in a single location.

Firewall Windows firewall is turned on by default on the server. If it is running there needs to be some accommodation made to allow Revit Server


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traffic. If you are also using Hamachi then you will need to exclude 5.0.0.0 networks from the firewall as well. You must allow ICMP requests through the firewall for the local and central Revit servers.

Using Revit Server with Project Bluestreak (From wikihelp: http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Revit/enu/2011/Help/Revit_Server/Large_Team_Workflow/Using_Revit_Server_with_Project_Bluestreak

Revit Worksharing Monitor works great if you are not using Revit Server. With Revit Server, even using within your office Worksharing Monitor does not work. To monitor team activity, when using Revit Server, Project Bluestreak Desktop App and the Revit Activity Stream App combine and provide up to date status of your project files on Revit Server.

Before using Project Bluestreak make sure:

• Team members need to be signed up for Project Bluestreak

• Team members are assigned to a project on Project Bluestreak

• Autodesk Bluestreak Desktop App is installed and user logged in

• Autodesk Revit Activity Stream App has been installed on the workstations (not Servers)

• Users are connected to Revit Server (Local or Central)

After the above steps have been performs, the first time an STC event occurs, the user will be given the opportunity to connect this file to a Bluestreak project, create a new project on Bluestreak or not connect at all. In case of Multi-firm scenario the Team Technical Guru should have the responsibility for creating and managing members in the Bluestreak group.

Once you choose to connect to a project, you will get a pop-up in the bottom right corner of your screen like this.

Provided others are part of this group, they will see the same notifications.


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Create a Soft-VPN using LogMeIn Hamachi LogMeIn Hamachi is a zero-configuration secure virtual private network (VPN) shareware application that is capable of establishing direct links between computers that are behind NAT firewalls without requiring reconfiguration. This tool is extensively used for gaming and can be utilized to create a centrally web-managed VPN connection for Multi-firm collaboration. In the video I mentioned that configuring routers and creating VPN groups on hardware routers can be challenging within your own network, let alone trying to convince all team members to update their hardware. This is where Hamachi can help.

In our case we will setup a Hamachi VPN Network for Revit Server. Few things to keep in mind:

a. Technical Liaison needs to have a paid account with LogMeIn Hamachi (Free version is for non-commercial use. Paid version gives commercial license and compression which we will need to speed data transfers).

b. Create a VPN group and configure it as a Hub and Spoke Network

c. Install Hamachi on all servers and workstations.

d. Configure the Revit Central Server as the Hub, all other Local Servers and workstations are configured as spokes.

e. All workstations and a Local Server within a network communicate via their internal LAN. Hamachi is used to connect all machines to Central Server.

Creating a New Network 1. Browse to http://www.logmein.com

and create an account and login.

2. Click on NETWORK on the right side and open My Networks

3. Click Add Network


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a. Enter the name of the Network and description. Select Hub-and-spoke as network type. This setting prevents workstations from connecting to each other. These workstations can only connect with the Central Server (Hub) and connect to the Local Server via their own LAN network.

b. Set Join Requests to be manually approved and check the box for password requirement and type a password. This will create a much secure network where the administrator can monitor the VPN.

c. Click Continue to create a new network.

d. Next option is to create a deployment of the

network where you can send a link to users. Click Deployment on the right side menu. Select Add New Link.

e. Type the name of the Deployment for your reference. Type the number of installations you want from the generated link, Set the expiration for the link and Select which networks get automatically installed using the link. An important note about this link is that the user will not need any username/password or your authorization to join the network. So plan the number of installs and the expiration of the link. You can always generate more links to send to team members. Click Continue and send the link to team members.


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f. Once you have the link you can install Hamachi on every machine including the Revit Central Server and Local Servers. This can be accomplished by opening an internet browser window and copy pasting the link or clicking directly from an email. Administrative rights are required to install Hamachi. This will require coordination with IT departments of other firms. Remember that you will need to install Hamachi on all machines transacting with the Revit Server. This is needed for smooth operation of the Revit Server. This will also allow users to directly connect to the Central Server in case there is some issue with the Local Server.

For more detailed installation steps watch the class video

References: 1. http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Revit/enu/2012/Help/Revit_Administration_Guide/0002-

Revit_Se2

2. http://revitclinic.typepad.com/

3. http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Revit/enu/2012/Help/Revit_Installation_and_Licensing/0000-Revit_In0/0076-Revit_Se76

4. http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Revit/enu/2011/Help/Revit_Server/Large_Team_Workflow/Test_page_format

cm5708-connecting the dots implementing autodesk® revit® server for multi-firm collaboration

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