I’m trying to setup deadline with 3DS Max and Vray but I’m running into a problem with the render output save location.
If I render through deadline using my local machine then the output is saved without issue but If I try to render on an AWS machine then I get an error message saying, “Failed to create output directory…The path may be invalid or permissions may not be sufficient”
I understand that the AWS machine doesn’t have access to save the file to my PC but how do I enable it to save onto my PC?
I have set ‘path to replace’ in Repository Options, the render completes successfully but this isn’t being copied to the original directory on my local drive.
Hi Alistair,
Are you using AWS Portal to render on AWS? If yes, then you should not have to define your own Path Mapping rules, but configure the Asset Server’s Root Directories to point at the local paths that the render nodes need to know about. When an AWS Portal Infrastructure is created, Path Mapping rules will be created for that Infrastructure’s region automatically to remap any local paths to their cloud versions, and the files will be moved to and from the cloud seamlessly.
If you are not using AWS Portal, please clarify what your setup is.
Hi Bobo,
Thanks for getting back to me!
I am currently test rendering on my local PC’s. I am rendering from my F drive. I have added this to the Asset Server as “F:/”, an entry was automatically created on the Mapped Paths as “E:\F3a581ba30d25676e4b797b1f96d53b45”
I changed this to be “C:\F3a581ba30d25676e4b797b1f96d53b45” so that the location would be valid on my other PC.
This now renders successfully onto the slaves drive but it does not copy to the original local location after it’s finished.
Is there a step that I am missing?
You may NOT change the path from E: to C:.
The Path Mapping rule created from the Asset Server Root Directory entry is valid ONLY in AWS and not on the local network. So changing it breaks the cloud portion of the Asset Server - E: is the EBS volume on AWS Portal render nodes responsible for the caching, and runs a FUSE file system with a callback informing the Asset Controller what files an application might be trying to load from it…
So the path mapping will not apply to any local render nodes because there is a “region” column that lists the AWS Portal Infrastructure’s ID and prevents the remapping to happen anywhere else.
Your local PCs would not be able to access the files, unless you have shared your F: drive to all of them, and have defined a Mapped Drive letter F: in Deadline Monitor > Tools > Configure Repository Options to define what UNC path to mount as F:…
Let me know if this makes any sense.
In general, I suggest you try to get the EC2 render nodes to work and return images before trying to get your local render nodes to work. Then look into Mapped Drives in the Deadline documentation and map F: for all render nodes.