Mantra doesn't work using windows slaves

Deadline
1

Hi there,
we have a small renderfarm and we’re trying to make it work with houdini using deadline. We’re exporting IFDs from houdini and then rendering out with mantra standalone. It works fine using mac machines as slaves, but when we try to use windows slaves (the renderfarm) it gives us this weird error:

Exception during render: An error occurred in RenderTasks(): Error in RenderExecutable(): Mantra 12 render executable was not found in the semicolon separated list “C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 12.0.000\bin\mantra.exe;C:\Program Files (x86)\Side Effects Software\Houdini 12.0.000\bin\mantra.exe;/Library/Frameworks/Houdini.framework/Resources/bin/mantra;/usr/local/Houdini/bin/mantra”. The path to the render executable can be configured from the Plugin Configuration in the Deadline Monitor.
at Deadline.Plugins.ScriptPlugin.RenderTasks(String taskId, Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame, String& outMessage)

=======================================================
Slave Log

0: Task timeout is disabled.
0: Loaded job: nodeB_test (999_050_999_6df3e762)
0: INFO: StartJob: initializing script plugin Mantra
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression “ALF_PROGRESS ([0-9]+)” will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression “Error:(.*)” will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Houdini DSO Error.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: About: Mantra Plugin for Deadline
0: Plugin rendering frame(s): 1
0: INFO: Starting Mantra Task
0: INFO: Stdout Handling Enabled: True
0: INFO: Popup Handling Enabled: True
0: INFO: Using Process Tree: True
0: INFO: Hiding DOS Window: True
0: INFO: Creating New Console: False

=======================================================
Error Type

RenderPluginException

=======================================================
Error Stack Trace

at Deadline.Plugins.Plugin.RenderTask(String taskId, Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame)
at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.RenderCurrentTask(TaskLogWriter tlw)

The “mantra.exe” is actually where it has to be and the firewall allows to run it. So what’s the problem??? Help please!
Thanks in advance

2

Hi,
Has the version of your Houdini changed and hence, the Windows path is no longer valid to where Houdini is installed to on the rendernode(s) in question? - “Houdini 12.0.000” is in the path.
You can update the plugin path by going to “Tools…Configure Plugins…” [whilst superuser]
Mike

3

Updating the path it doesn’t give the first part of the error but still gives me this:

Error Message

Exception during render: An error occurred in RenderTasks(): Error in CheckExitCode(): Renderer returned non-zero error code, 1. Check the log for more information.
at Deadline.Plugins.ScriptPlugin.RenderTasks(String taskId, Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame, String& outMessage)

And in the slave log I can see this line which looks a bit weird:

0: STDOUT: mantra: Unable to open IFD file ‘\Volumes\ifs\TESTA\backup\projects\IFD01\test_1.ifd’

4

Good, we are making progress! Next error…
So, it looks like Houdini is now executing, but is failing as it can’t find this file:

“\Volumes\ifs\TESTA\backup\projects\IFD01\test_1.ifd”

On the render slave that is failing; can you manually try and browse to this path? Does it work?

Can you provide the FULL slave log report and then we will be able to see this in context better.
Mike

5

Problem apparently solved!! Basically we’re using a shared drive (/ifs) and we are trying to submit jobs from a mac machine where the path for the ifd file is:
/Volumes/ifs/TESTA/backup/projects/IFD01/test_1.ifd

but on the windows slaves the path is :
I:\TESTA\backup\projects\IFD01\test_1.ifd

By submitting the job from the slave it actually works, is there a way to submit it from a mac to windows slaves? If I specify the windows path on the mac machine it obviously gives me error.

6

Problem definitely solved! I red the documenation about cross platform rendering wich solved my problem. Thanks very much for your help!!!