IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR ALL USERS:
Please read the following threads for important information regarding Deadline 6.1:
viewtopic.php?f=85&t=4484
viewtopic.php?f=85&t=4483
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What’s New In Deadline 6.1.52430 (Beta 2)
This release fixes some important bugs, and adds some new features (including Cinema 4D 15 support). See the highlighted list below for more information.
Slave Memory Consumption With 3dsmax Jobs
This release fixes a bug in Deadline’s 3dsmax plugin that could cause the Slave to consume large amounts of memory when rendering 3dsmax jobs.
Python Stability Improvements
This release fixes a Python bug that would cause Deadline’s Python engine to become unstable if an error occurs in a Python script. This should fix Python-related crashes in all Deadline applications, and in theory will also fix the problem where the Slave hangs while trying to execute a script.
Secondary Job Pool
This release adds a new Secondary Pool feature. Here’s how it works:
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By default, a job’s secondary pool is disabled, so Deadline’s default behavior won’t change. This ensures we don’t break backward compatibility with 6.0 jobs.
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A slave searches for jobs by first getting a list of jobs that it could pick up (based on pool and group), and then sorting them based on the slave’s pool order. So it would still do it’s initial pass like this based on the job’s primary pool.
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If the slave doesn’t find any jobs using their primary pool, it then makes a second pass using their secondary pool.
This system can allow a job to spread to a secondary pool as necessary. It can also ease the configuration of pools in the farm if there are lots of pools and slaves. For example, let’s say you have 5 pools and 10 slaves. You want each pool to have top priority on 2 machines, but then be able to spread to the rest of them if they are idle. Before the secondary pool system, you might have something like this:
Slaves 0-1: pool_1, pool_2, pool_3, pool_4, pool_5
Slaves 2-3: pool_2, pool_3, pool_4, pool_5, pool_1
Slaves 4-5: pool_3, pool_4, pool_5, pool_1, pool_2
Slaves 6-7: pool_4, pool_5, pool_1, pool_2, pool_3
Slaves 8-9: pool_5, pool_1, pool_2, pool_3, pool_4
This can be tricky to maintain. The new secondary pool system can make this easier:
Slaves 0-1: pool_1, pool_all
Slaves 2-3: pool_2, pool_all
Slaves 4-5: pool_3, pool_all
Slaves 6-7: pool_4, pool_all
Slaves 8-9: pool_5, pool_all
In this case, all jobs could have pool_all as their secondary pool, and will spread to the rest of the farm as necessary.
Note that while this system has been built into Deadline, it has NOT been built into the submission scripts. We may add it to the submission scripts if there is demand, but for now, custom submitters can set a secondary pool by adding the “SecondaryPool=…” entry to the job info file.
General Improvements
- Python script errors should no longer cause the Deadline applications to become unstable.
- Added a Secondary Pool system to Deadline.
- If the Deadline applications need to modify the current Python environment at startup, they will write a message to their log file.
- The MongoDB connection error message now mentions the Firewall as something to check.
- Fixed a bug where the JobStarted event wasn’t firing properly for event plugins.
Installer Improvements
- In the Repository Installer, the Linux and OSX bin.zip files now have their permissions set properly.
Launcher Improvements
- Submitting a job from the Launcher’s context menu no longer causes it to hang.
Monitor Improvements
- Fixed the “wrapped C/C++” error that would show up in the Console panel.
- Housecleaning now properly cleans up orphaned limit stubs for job machine limits.
- Double-clicking column headers in the job list now sizes them properly based on the column’s contents.
- Settings like Repository Options, pools, groups, etc, are now updated in the background on a more regular basis.
- The quick filters in the job panel are now updated properly when the pools, groups, users, etc, are updated in the background.
Slave Improvements
- Slaves no longer hold onto limit stubs when they shouldn’t be.
Command Improvements
- The deadlinecommand and deadlinecommandbg applications now suppress any python log messages. This ensures that python log messages don’t affect queries for information like pools, groups, slave names, etc.
3ds Max Improvements
- Fixed a bug that could cause the Slave to consume a lot of memory when rendering 3dsmax jobs.
- Fixed a problem with unicode characters in output paths.
- Fixed a bug getting the maximum priority in SMTD.
- Fixed a bug when adding a new region to the viewport in SMTD.
- Fixed a bug that prevented SMTD from launching if RPM was installed, even if Deadline was not selected as network manager in RPM.
Cinema 4D Improvements
- Added support for Cinema 4D 15.
Draft Improvements
- Fixed the output folder creation in the Draft event plugin to properly map paths between operating systems.
- Added concurrent tasks flag to the Draft plugin.
Fusion Improvements
- Fixed a bug that could prevent the integrated submitter from appearing if multiple comps are open.
Maya Improvements
- Fixed an error in the integrated submission script that occurs when there are multiple cameras in the scene file with the same name.
- Deadline no longer ignores a Mental Ray error that is printed when it can’t create a file.
Python Plugin Improvements
- Changed the Python Plugin to allow setting additional search paths.
Quicktime Improvements
- Fixed a syntax error in the Quicktime submitter.
Rhino Improvements
- The Rhino integrated submitter now uses DEADLINE_PATH to build up the path to deadlinecommand.