Houdini - $HIP replaced with a "Houdini 18.5.563" folder when submitting to Deadline

Deadline
1

Hello there,

I am working with Houdini 18.5.532 and Deadline 10.1.18.4. There’s a strange behaviour when submitting a dsitributed simulation to deadline :

The $HIP variable is replaced with “C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 18.5.563” in some nodes, which causes job failure. Also, it creates an empty folder in “C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 18.5.563”.

There’s two issues here :

  • $HIP corresponds to the .hip file’s directory, not to Houdini’s installation folder. $HFS variable is intented to have this value.
  • I never worked with Houdini 18.5.563. I have Houdini 18.5.532 installed.

Here’s an extract from log file :

2021-11-22 16:49:49:  0: STDOUT: Detected Houdini version: (18, 5, 532)
2021-11-22 16:49:49:  0: STDOUT: ['C:\\ProgramData\\Thinkbox\\Deadline10\\workers\\ws18\\plugins\\619bbbf29e251b1b60d82d7a\\hrender_dl.py', '-s', '0', '', '8000', '-g', '-d', '/out/distributedsim_pyro', '-tempdir', 'C:\\ProgramData\\Thinkbox\\Deadline10\\workers\\ws18\\jobsData\\619bbbf29e251b1b60d82d7a\\0_tempBXix10', '-arnoldAbortOnLicenseFail', '1', 'C:/ProgramData/Thinkbox/Deadline10/workers/ws18/jobsData/619bbbf29e251b1b60d82d7a/clustering_deadline.hip']
2021-11-22 16:49:49:  0: STDOUT: Ignore Inputs: True
2021-11-22 16:49:49:  0: STDOUT: No output specified. Output will be handled by the driver
2021-11-22 16:49:49:  0: STDOUT: Driver: /out/distributedsim_pyro
2021-11-22 16:49:49:  0: STDOUT: Input File: C:/ProgramData/Thinkbox/Deadline10/workers/ws18/jobsData/619bbbf29e251b1b60d82d7a/clustering_deadline.hip
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: Sim control node: 
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: Sim cluster: 0
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: Begin Path Mapping
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: Updating Parm "/obj/pyro_import/loadclusters/file" from "$HIP/geo/$HIPNAME.pyro.$CLUSTER.$F.bgeo.sc" to "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 18.5.563/geo/C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 18.5.563NAME.pyro.$CLUSTER.$F.bgeo.sc"
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: Updating Parm "/out/distributedsim_pyro/directory_path0" from "$HIP/geo" to "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 18.5.563/geo"
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: Updating Parm "/tasks/topnet1/taskgraphfile" from "R:/XX_TESTS/00_PIPELINE/Test_Obeida/houdini_distributed_simulation/$HIPNAME.taskgraph.$F.py" to "R:/XX_TESTS/00_PIPELINE/Test_Obeida/houdini_distributed_simulation/C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 18.5.563NAME.taskgraph.$F.py"
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: Updating Parm "/tasks/topnet1/localscheduler/pdg_workingdir" from "$HIP" to "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 18.5.563"
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: End Path Mapping
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: ROP type: rop_geometry
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: Rendering frame 1 to 240
2021-11-22 16:49:55:  0: STDOUT: ALF_PROGRESS 0%
2021-11-22 16:49:56:  0: STDOUT: ALF_PROGRESS 0%
2021-11-22 16:49:56:  0: STDOUT: Traceback (most recent call last):
2021-11-22 16:49:56:  0: STDOUT:   File "C:\ProgramData\Thinkbox\Deadline10\workers\ws18\plugins\619bbbf29e251b1b60d82d7a\hrender_dl.py", line 875, in <module>
2021-11-22 16:49:56:  0: Done executing plugin command of type 'Render Task'
1 Like
2

it seems to replace the “$HIP” string by that path, not the $HIP variable, because it does the same thing with $HIPNAME :

$HIPNAME → C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 18.5.563NAME

3

Using the absolute value of $HIP and $HIPNAME seems to let the jobs finish without error on Deadline.

But this variable remapping is still a strange behaviour and it would be helpful to find why it occures.

4

it turned out that the ‘$HIP’ was set to be remapped in “Mapped Paths”, removing the mapping rule solved the issue