Q100655: Creating a Flix setup in the Cloud

Pete

Updated: February 03, 2026 00:20

Created: January 20, 2026 15:58

SUMMARY

Flix servers can be set up on a studio network or in the cloud. This article explains how Flix can be deployed in the cloud. The article assumes some knowledge of networking and Linux administration as each server created uses Linux.

MORE INFORMATION

This guide uses Amazon (AWS) services as an example, but Flix works equally well with other cloud providers such as Google and Microsoft. This article assumes common security practices, but please ensure compliance with any studio security policies. This example setup includes one VPN server, one server for Foundry licensing and MySQL, and two servers for Flix services.

The following steps guide you through setting up all required servers, so you can start using Flix in the cloud:

1. Create an AWS account (if you do not already have one) by going to https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup#/start/email and following the instructions.
2. Create a VPN server (it will help to keep your Flix data encrypted and secure) using the following guide: Q100656: Creating a VPN server for Flix cloud setup. 
   Take a note of the VPC and subnet used, you need them when creating the other servers.
3. Create a server for Foundry licensing and MySQL following this guide: Q100657: Creating a Foundry licensing and a MySQL server for Flix in the cloud
4. Create two or more Flix servers using this guide: Q100658: Creating a Flix instance in the Cloud
5. Give users access to the VPN server you created above. To do this, they need to:
   
   a. Download the VPN client from the VPN server.
   b. Connect to the OpenVPN client web interface https://IP:943/ where IP is the VPN server IP address.
   NOTE: Users need to download the VPN client from https://IP:943/, install it, and launch it before using Flix.
   c. Download a version of the Flix client that matches the Flix server version. It can be downloaded from: https://www.foundry.com/products/flix/download 
   d. Give your users the IP for one of the Flix servers you created as the Server Hostname. They need to use it as the hostname of the Flix server. The Flix server uses HTTP on port 8080, so the full Server Hostname will require http:// as a prefix and :8080 as a suffix.
   NOTE: In this example the Server Hostname is http://172.31.16.103:8080. Flix also requires a username and password. For more information on managing Flix users, see: Flix User Management

You can customize this Flix setup further to meet your needs. Here are a few examples of what can be changed:

1. The example above shows all Flix servers behind a VPN server using http://. This is the most common scenario, but some studios might want to use https:// instead of the VPN. In both cases all the network traffic is encrypted. Using https:// may be slightly faster, but it exposes the Flix servers to the internet. It is possible to use http:// without a VPN server between the Flix servers and the internet, but it is not recommended as the network traffic is not encrypted.
   
   
2. The example above shows all users connecting through the internet using a VPN client. You can extend your studio network to the cloud VPC and your users won’t need to use a VPN client.
   
   
3. The example shows how to set up OpenVPN. You can use almost any VPN service.
   
   
4. The example shows how to set up and use a MySQL server. You can use other MySQL 5.7 services such as Amazon RDS. Using RDS may cost a little less in the long run, if you move the Foundry Licensing server to run on one of the Flix servers.
   
   
5. Flix needs to use shared storage so all assets are accessible on all Flix servers, but don’t need to be accessible to end users. The example shows Elastic File System (EFS) as is the easiest to set up and you pay only for the amount of data you use. If you use more data than you expected, you don’t need to resize the storage. You can use other storage methods such as S3 (which is the cheapest AWS storage, but it might be slightly slower), or an NFS/SMB share from one of the servers. NOTE: In those cases, you need to predefine how much storage you use and pay for it if you use it or not.
   
   
6. The example above shows Flix using static IPs. It is done so to simplify the example. It is recommended to use DNS resolvable hostnames for the Flix servers that need to be configured by an IT Administrator, which is beyond the scope of this article.

FURTHER READING

You can find more information on the different ways studios can use cloud resources with Foundry software from the Working remote with Foundry tools page.

This article explains how to protect your Flix environment with a VPN server. If you prefer to use HTTPS  for security reasons, you can learn how to do that from the following documentation section: Install Flix server with HTTPS