Fundamental Question

[anon40202148]

Hi there,

This is my first post here and hope someone kindly answers my questions.

1- Assume I have a machine that has the “repository folder shared” and has the licenses for maya and 3dsmax installed on it. This machine also contains my main project folder where I want all final images being rendered to be saved.
Now, let’s say I submit a job from 3dsmax on this machine. Do other slave machines need to have the maya or 3dsmax installed on them?

2-Is this correct if I say that only the machine that has the repository folder install on it , should have access the Deadline Monitor and start/stop other slaves?

Sorry, my questions may seem stupid , but I would appreciate if someone corrects me.

Thanks.

[rrussell]

1. Maya and 3dsmax needs to be installed on each machine in your render farm that you plan to render on. This is because Deadline isn’t a renderer itself, so the software that is required to render must be available on each machine. Note that whether or not your render nodes need licensed installations of the software depends on the software itself.

For example, if you’re rendering Maya jobs using the mayaSoftware renderer, then you don’t need to have Maya licensed on each render node. However, if you’re rendering mentalRay jobs with Maya, you will need additional mentalRay licenses (I think 5 licenses ship with each Maya workstation license). If you’re unsure of how your software needs to be licensed, it’s best to contact the support team for those software packages (Autodesk in this case).

2. Deadline is broken up into 2 components - the Repository and the Client. The Client software is used to submit, monitor, and render Deadline jobs. So you should install the Client on any machine that you wish to perform one or more of these tasks on (note that only the Slave application actually requires a Deadline license). The Repository is a shared storage location that simply stores the jobs (and other data).

So to answer your question, the Repository doesn’t have to be on the same machine that you plan to run the Monitor on.

Hope this helps!

• Ryan

[anon40202148]

Hi Ryan,

Thank you so much for your respond. It helped a lot. I tried to render a scene using deadline and maya. It worked just fine and I got all my renders. Great…
This machine had both clinet/repository installed on it. Maya was also able to see both “InitDeadlineSubmitter.mel” and “SubmitMayatoDeadline.mel” from the repository.

Now, I am trying to simulate a very simple renderfarm setup at home using two machines but I found some problems.

First, please look at attachment for a graphic diagram of what I have setup at home so everything makes for sense. Thanks.
I have also made two users on the repository machine 1- admin (power) 2-user (normal).So user can only submit the job and monitor with rest of limitations……

Now, I sometime see following problems which some of them doesn’t make sense:

Problems and questions:

1- Maya script (InitDeadlineSubmitter.mel) won’t work anymore since the “client 1 user” machine doesn’t have repository install on it. So, it wouldn’t know where to “-getrepositoryroot” which gives me following error and it makes sense. I am using Maya 2010.

source "InitDeadlineSubmitter.mel"; running deadline command: -getrepositoryroot // Result: 0 //

Also, sometimes “Toshiba-user” gives me the same error, even though repository is shared and install on it. Weird…… Shouldn’t it happen?

Q: How can I tell maya to point to the repository on “Toshiba-user” Machine? Should I modify the “InitDeadlineSubmitter.mel” and force it to look at “Toshiba-user” machine?
I tried the following command on both machines and it took less than a sec to run which means there is no problem.

deadlinecommandbg.exe -getrepositoryroot

Also I have made sure my repository and maya project folder on “Toshiba-user” have all the access. Everyone (Full control) and all machines can see them.

2- When I installed the Clinet on “Client user 1” machine, I chose “start launcher on startup” instead of install launcher as service. I don’t think it really matters in my case. Am I correct?

3- “Last status update”

In my “deadline Monitor on Client User1”, I see sometimes “Last status updates” is equal 1.93s or 1.67m “UOSL09-C59A8A81”.

Now, In “deadline Monitor on Toshiba-user” I see sometimes “Last status updates” = 14.12hours in future or 12.98 hours in future “UOSL09-C59A8A81”

Q: What does it mean? Why is 14 hours in future? I guess something is wrong?

4- I also had to set “Enable Remote Admin” to TRUE because I was getting “no response” message. Why is it a “security risk”? Only me as an admin can start/stop slaves.
Enable Automatic Updates is set to false by default. Why?

Again, I would appreciate for your time in advanced. Sorry for the long email, I have only about 5 hours of experience with deadline and I know my questions are frustrating. Please bear with me.
Also, I found Deadline a solid renderfarm with a great GUI for users. Keep up the good work.

Thanks,

[rrussell]

1- Maya script (InitDeadlineSubmitter.mel) won’t work anymore since the “client 1 user” machine doesn’t have repository install on it.

InitDeadlineSubmitter.mel needs to be copied from the repository and installed locally on the workstation(s) you want to submit from. The steps for installing the script are explained here:
software.primefocusworld.com/sof … ript_Setup

So, it wouldn’t know where to “-getrepositoryroot” which gives me following error and it makes sense. I am using Maya 2010.

Q: How can I tell maya to point to the repository on “Toshiba-user” Machine? Should I modify the “InitDeadlineSubmitter.mel” and force it to look at “Toshiba-user” machine?
I tried the following command on both machines and it took less than a sec to run which means there is no problem.

If -getrepositoryroot is returning nothing (which seems to be the case here), that means that the Deadline Client hasn’t been configured for the current user to know where the repository path is. On the machine, while logged in as the current user, start the Deadline Launcher from the start menu (if it’s not already running), then right-click on the Launcher in the system tray and select Change Repository. Here, you need to specify the path to the repository (\Toshiba-user\DeadlineRepository).

2- When I installed the Clinet on “Client user 1” machine, I chose “start launcher on startup” instead of install launcher as service. I don’t think it really matters in my case. Am I correct?

That’s fine. The only situation where installing as a service comes in handy is if you don’t want to leave your machines logged in to render.

3- “Last status update”

In my “deadline Monitor on Client User1”, I see sometimes “Last status updates” is equal 1.93s or 1.67m “UOSL09-C59A8A81”.

Now, In “deadline Monitor on Toshiba-user” I see sometimes “Last status updates” = 14.12hours in future or 12.98 hours in future “UOSL09-C59A8A81”

Q: What does it mean? Why is 14 hours in future? I guess something is wrong?

Check that the date and time of both machines are synched up (and that they are using the same time zone). If not, that would explain the problem.

4- I also had to set “Enable Remote Admin” to TRUE because I was getting “no response” message. Why is it a “security risk”? Only me as an admin can start/stop slaves.

The Deadline Launcher can be told to run arbitrary commands (for example, anything you can run from a DOS prompt, you could probably run by sending a remote command to the Launcher). This is why we disable it by default. As long as you’re protected by a firewall or other security software, then enabling it shouldn’t be a problem.

Enable Automatic Updates is set to false by default. Why?

When automatic updates is enabled, it is necessary for the Deadline client software to copy files to the Deadline bin folder. In many cases, the current logged in user doesn’t have permissions to do this, so the automatic update fails. This is why we disable it by default.

Hope this helps!

• Ryan

[anon40202148]

Hi Ryan,

Thank you so much… Everything works just fine now… I appreciate it…