Houdini PDGDeadline plugin issues

jake0 · July 15, 2023, 4:05pm

Hello,

I’m running into issues when launching PDG tasks to deadline via the Deadline Scheduler.

The error, to my unexperienced eyes, seems to be with the plugin not being set or found.
It appears to be an issue with copying the plugin to the working director, however I have tried with and without the copy setting on the Deadline Scheduler node.

I’ve done the $HFS path mapping, and have DEADLINE_PATH in my env vars and as much as I can see suggested on the Houdini docs for this.

Here’s an example of an error log:

2023-07-15 16:58:40:  ERROR: Encountered the following error while initializing the Plugin Sandbox: 'Value cannot be null. (Parameter 'input')'.
2023-07-15 16:58:40:   Cannot render the current job [ID:"64b2c22f4364ca6e70264bdc" / Name:"PDG TASKS"]. Contact Thinkbox Support for more information.
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  Scheduler Thread - Render Thread 0 threw a major error: 
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  Exception Details
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  RenderPluginException -- Failed to load the plugin because: Could not initialize the plugin sandbox (Deadline.Plugins.PluginException)
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  RenderPluginException.Cause: PluginLoadError (0)
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  RenderPluginException.Level: Major (1)
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  RenderPluginException.HasSlaveLog: True
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  RenderPluginException.SlaveLogFileName: C:\ProgramData\Thinkbox\Deadline10\logs\deadlineslave_renderthread_0-ThreadRipper-3960X-0000.log
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  Exception.TargetSite: Boolean e(System.String, Deadline.Jobs.Job, System.Threading.CancellationToken)
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  Exception.Data: ( )
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  Exception.Source: deadline
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  Exception.HResult: -2146233088
2023-07-15 16:58:41:    Exception.StackTrace: 
2023-07-15 16:58:41:     at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.e(String ajx, Job ajy, CancellationToken ajz)
2023-07-15 16:58:41:     at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.b(TaskLogWriter ajt, CancellationToken aju)
2023-07-15 16:58:41:  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
2023-07-15 16:58:44:  Another pending job scan process is already in progress
2023-07-15 16:58:44:  Another repository repair process is already in progress
2023-07-15 16:58:44:  Another house cleaning process is already in progress
2023-07-15 16:58:44:  Scheduler Thread - Job's Limit Groups:

Has anyone encountered a similar issue?
If anyone is able shed some light on what this error could potentially be would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

kskovbo · July 16, 2023, 9:50am

Hi,

I have the same issue. No matter what I do the plugin is not found and I get the “Could not initialize the plugin sandbox (Deadline.Plugins.PluginException)” and the plugin does not get loaded when using the deadliner scheduler in TOPs/PDG.

I am on 19.5.640 and Deadline version 10.2.1.1.

Thanks

Justin_B · July 18, 2023, 2:45pm

Are you running Deadline 10.1.18.4 or later? We broke the CustomPluginDirectory feature that the PDG plugin relies on and fixed the issue in 10.1.18.4.

Justin_B · July 18, 2023, 2:45pm

Given you’re on 10.2.1.1 this can still fail if the Worker isn’t able to copy the application plugin files from the directory described in CustomPluginDirectory in the JobInfo.

This may be due to the job being submitted on Windows and the Worker running on Linux so the path to the plugin code doesn’t match. Make sure you have set up the necessary path mapping rules per SideFX’s instructions - Deadline Scheduler

jake0 · July 18, 2023, 2:59pm

Thanks for the replies Justin

It’s all windows for this setup. But with that in mind:

It took me a while to confirm, but it looks like this issue was cause as I had:
“Use unicode utf-8 for worldwide language support” on the region settings in my windows 11

Switching that off seems to work.
So a bit of an edge case I think.

Thanks again.