I was given a white paper detailing the steps for setting up an Amazon EC2 cloud setup. I feel that I’ve followed it fairly well. I was able to get my VM connected to Deadline through a VPN connection. But I’m kind of confused on how to proceed next. I’m unsure how the VMs establish connection to the repository or the license servers. Whenever I log onto the main VM instance remotely I have to reestablish the VPN, then make sure all the mountings reestablish. This is probably why I’m not seeing any instances appear in Deadline. I also lose my main VM slave whenever I log off. So I feel like I’m missing some steps here.
The big issue here sounds like you may need to copy the OpenVPN config into “C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenVPN\config”. If the config file is in that folder, and the OpenVPN service is set to start up automatically, the VPN is supposed to come up as soon as the instance boots.
The issue with EC2 instances is that logging in is done via remote desktop. With that, any applications you start in that instance will end when you log out so that’s annoying. The only way I’ve found to get it to work was to install Deadline as a service. There’s a bit of a bug there, so you may need to either update the password under ‘services’, or grab a copy of 6.1 beta.
Any chance you could test one or both of those if you haven’t yet?
Hey Edwin, well the one problem I see right now is that we’re using the Cisco VPN here. I’ll have to check with my IT department as I’m sure there is a way to get it to automatically log on.
As for the beta I’m already on. I have it installed on a separate repository from my main one and I have it on the VM instance.
I think the stumbling block may be the services issue. I followed your instructions in my previous thread and I thought I had the Deadline service running. But now I’m not seeing it in the list of services.
Hmm… There’s two ways to get the launcher service going.
- Re-run the client installer
- Use DeadlineCommand
DeadlineCommand is fairly easy, you should just need to run the following but change the username and password:
c:\program files\Thinkbox\Deadline6\bin\DeadlineCommand InstallLauncherServiceLogOn true
The other advantage with #2 is that it will set the password properly on the first run.
You can remove it for fun by running:
c:\program files\Thinkbox\Deadline6\bin\DeadlineCommand UninstallLauncherService
I tried #2. it worked once I figured out that I needed to do <hostname\username>
The service shows up in the list now but it says that it’s stopped and I can’t get it to start. Everything in the properties seems to be grayed out.
Oh right! I forgot the hostname part as well. The wonders of Active Directory naming schemes. And that you need to run the command prompt with administrator privileges.
I’ve had problems while playing with Windows services in the past where things would get a bit stuck. Usually a reboot helps. I’m not exactly sure how it gets itself stuck in the first place…
Hmm, I haven’t tried rebooting. it can be a bit of a pain with the Amazon VM. Let me try that now.
So I got the service working. But I can’t get the slave to launch, neither from the VM itself or from the Monitor. This setup is starting to feel a bit overwhelming.
It’s certainly not easy yet. We’re taking our first steps into this as well, so we’re kind of all in this together. I think the logs for the Slave should give a hint as to why they’re having issues.
We can have a hands-on session to sort this stuff out. I’m here from Monday to Friday, 9-5 central standard.
Feel free to call 1-866-419-0283 or e-mail edwinamsler@thinkboxsoftware.com if you want to go that route.
Will do Edwin. Thanks for all of the help so far. I’m going to take a break from this for the rest of the day. I’ll certainly be in touch later in the week.