Error starting Remote Asset Server: SOLVED

Deadline
1

Deadline 10.0.21.5
Windows 7 Pro

I had a trial setup of Deadline connecting to AWS and creating infrastructure and slaves. Now that I’ve moved to the production machines (new installs everywhere), I have an error starting the Remote Asset Server. I’ve been able to capture this from the CLI launch:

Exception Details
DeadlineConfigException – An error occurred while trying to load the specified server certificate:
The provided Server Certificate (‘{0}’) does not have an associated private key. In order to serve TLS connections, a PKCS#12 file (*.pfx, *.p12) containing a certificate and private key must be speci
fied.
Exception.Data: ( )
Exception.TargetSite: Deadline.Configuration.HttpsServerSettings ParseSettings(FranticX.Applications.Consoles.CommandLineParser, Int32, Boolean)
Exception.Source: deadline
Exception.HResult: -2146233088
Exception.StackTrace:
at Deadline.Configuration.HttpsServerSettings.ParseSettings(CommandLineParser parser, Int32 previousListenPort, Boolean ignoreConfig)
at DeadlineRCS.DeadlineRCSApp.Main(String args)

My current install is working fine for local rendering (thanks, Edwin).
Not sure where to update (?) the Server Cert. Certs have been generated and installed in the /certs and /mongodb/certs directories.

2

Solved by a bit of RTFM.
The Remote Connection Server was (probably) using values from an old install to try and find the proper certificates. Here’s how I fixed it (RCS on Windows):

Made backup of %ProgramData%\Thinkbox\Deadline10\deadline.ini

Edited 2 lines in the INI file:
1: changed TlsServerCert=\myDeadlineInstallDir\mongoDB\certs\old.server.domain.com.pem
to TlsServerCert=\myDeadlineInstallDir\certs\myRCSworkstation.pfx

2: changed TlsServerCert=\myDeadlineInstallDir\certs\ca.cert
to TlsCaCert=\myDeadlineInstallDir\certs\DeadlineWebForwardingCA.crt

If you happen to have ended up here searching for a similar problem, the certificates above were generated by the linux utility – my Deadline repository and MongoDB are running on our linux fileserver. Your situation may differ, but the main thing is to check your deadline.ini file vis-a-vis the certificates you actually have :>)
Hope it helps.

Relevant manual pages:
RCS: https://docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/products/deadline/10.0/1_User%20Manual/manual/remote-connection-server.html
Client Config (*.ini): https://docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/products/deadline/10.0/1_User%20Manual/manual/client-config.html#client-config-conn-server-ref-label

3 Likes