Using Deadline for a while and faced some troubles, while trying to use deadline launcher service mode.
Service installed properly and after rebooting the node, deadlinelauncherservice starts too, but there is a problem with deadlineslave - while NOT in service mode all works fine, you know, splashscreen, connecting to repository, some more messages, then getting a job and zak-zak.
But when in service mode, the process deadlineslave.exe starts, works for few seconds, then unexpectedly closes, leaving this in log:
Im having troubles starting slave, so I need run it as service, without logging in to node. For example, in case of power failure or something. Ive tried task sheduler and other stuff, that could start programs without logon, but still same.
Unfortunately, Deadline 5.0 wasn’t very good at printing out errors that occur during startup while in service mode. We’ve fixed this in 5.1, but I think we should still be able to figure out the problem.
First, what type of account is the service running as (ie: local system, network account, etc)?
Second, are you connecting to the repository using a UNC path or a mapped drive?
One more thing - i`ve downloaded a trial version of new deadline, installed it in the test environment and it works as service with the same user, that I used in the working environment.
I mean, launcherservice started and then slave started too. I cant shut slave down, however, even with deadlineslave -shutdown command, so cant post log.
Maybe that help.
Upd.1:
Oh, here is the log:
2012-05-18 18:14:56: BEGIN - BRAVO\Admin
2012-05-18 18:14:56: Start-up
2012-05-18 18:14:56: 2012-05-18 18:14:56
2012-05-18 18:14:56: Deadline Slave 5.1 [v5.1.0.47014 R]
2012-05-18 18:14:59: Auto Configuration: No auto configuration could be detected, using local configuration
2012-05-18 18:15:01: slave initialization beginning.
2012-05-18 18:15:02: Info Thread - Created.
2012-05-18 18:15:04: Trying to connect using license server ‘’
2012-05-18 18:15:04: Could not get license on first attempt because:
2012-05-18 18:15:04: Cannot find license file.
2012-05-18 18:15:04: Failed to checkout a license using saved configuration.
2012-05-18 18:15:04: Attempting auto discovery of license servers.
2012-05-18 18:15:04: Broadcasting on 192.168.12.242
2012-05-18 18:15:05: Unable to detect vendor daemons on local network(s)
2012-05-18 18:15:05: Thank you for trying Deadline!
2012-05-18 18:15:05: The Slave is running in LICENSE-FREE MODE because no valid license could be found. The Slave will continue to run in this mode as long as no more than two Slaves exist in the Deadline Repository.
2012-05-18 18:15:05: Purchasing a valid license will allow you to run more than two Slaves, and will prevent this message from being displayed. For more information, please email sales@thinkboxsoftware.com
2012-05-18 18:15:05: LICENSE-FREE MODE: Repository has two slaves or less - no license required.
2012-05-18 18:15:06: Checking repository integrity
Yeah, you should definitely stick with UNC paths for the service. A drive that is mapped for the desktop user is only mapped for that user, so the service account wouldn’t see the mapping. Using UNC paths avoids this problem.
That’s weird that you can’t shut the slave down. In your Repository Options, under Client Setup, do you have Remote Administration enabled? Normally, this shouldn’t be needed for communication on the same machine, but maybe it makes a difference if the slave is running as a service. thinkboxsoftware.com/deadlin … ient_Setup
Just talked with our lead modeller - we couldn`t move to UNC, because ALL projects made with mapped drives in paths. So, good bye, service mode, and hello disk mapping policies!
So your scene files can still refer to assets using mapped drives. It’s just the path that the slaves use to connect to the repository that should be UNC when it’s running as a service.
I`ve managed to start all applications as services, but there is a problem:
An error occurred in StartJob(): 3dsmax startup: Error getting connection from 3dsmax: Monitored managed process “3dsmaxProcess” has exited or been terminated.
Interesting, that if i stop the service and start Launcher manually, it works fine. User is the same in both variants. How to fix it?
I use Vista x64 and Max 2012 x64.
And one more question about drive mapping - if there will be power failure or something, that will cause network go down for a moment - will deadline remap drives or not?
Hmm, that’s strange. Usually 3dsmax runs just fine in service mode if it runs fine in normal mode. Can you post the full error report? To find the error report, right-click on the job and select Job Reports → View Error Reports.
Deadline remaps the drives at the beginning of each task. However, if the drive is dropped while the slave is in the middle of a task, that task’s output would get lost.
An error occurred in StartJob(): 3dsmax startup: Error getting connection from 3dsmax: Monitored managed process “3dsmaxProcess” has exited or been terminated.
2012/05/21 18:05:02 DBG: Starting network
2012/05/21 18:05:03 INF: [V-Ray] ============================================================
2012/05/21 18:05:03 INF: [V-Ray] Console created, V-Ray Adv 2.20.03 for x64 from Dec 22 2011, 20:52:08
2012/05/21 18:05:03 INF: [V-Ray] ============================================================
2012/05/21 18:05:03 INF: [V-Ray] Compiled with Intel C++ compiler, version 12
2012/05/21 18:05:03 INF: [V-Ray] Host is 3dsmax, version 14
2012/05/21 18:05:03 INF: [V-Ray] V-Ray DLL version is 2.00.01
2012/05/21 18:05:03 ERR: An unexpected exception has occurred in the network renderer and it is terminating.
0: Task timeout is disabled.
0: Loaded job: Bombardier CRJ200_Texturing_005 (999_050_999_74219528)
0: Successfully mapped Z: to \NAS-01\3d_Work
0: Successfully mapped Y: to \NAS-01\Work
0: INFO: StartJob: initializing script plugin 3dsmax
0: INFO: About: 3dsmax Plugin for Deadline
0: INFO: Start Job called - starting up 3dsmax plugin
0: INFO: Rendering with 3dsmax version: 2012
0: INFO: Build of 3dsmax to force: 64bit
0: INFO: Rendering with executable: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012\3dsmax.exe
0: INFO: Checking registry for 3dsmax language code
0: INFO: Found language code: 409
0: INFO: Language code string: enu
0: INFO: Fail on existing 3dsmax process: 0
0: INFO: Load 3dsmax timeout: 1000 seconds
0: INFO: Start job timeout: 1000 seconds
0: INFO: Progress update timeout: 8000 seconds
0: INFO: Progress update timout disabled: 0
0: INFO: Slave mode enabled: 1
0: INFO: Silent mode enabled: 0
0: INFO: Local rendering enabled: 1
0: INFO: Strict 3dsmax check enabled: 1
0: INFO: Verifying installation of 3dsmax 2012 at C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012
0: INFO: Version of core.dll: 14.2.0.375
0: INFO: Ensuring 3dsmax install is valid
0: INFO: Running 3dsmaxcmd workaround
0: INFO: 3dsmaxcmd.exe returned: P21.05.2012 18:04:41; Error opening scene file: “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012”
0: INFO: 3dsmax start up file: C:\Users\Cluster\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline\slave\plugins\deadlineStartupMax2012.max
0: INFO: Using user profiles: 1
0: INFO: Using 3dsmax ini file: C:\Users\Cluster\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsmax\2012 - 64bit\enu\3dsmax.ini
0: INFO: Network log file: C:\Users\Cluster\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsmax\2012 - 64bit\enu\Network\Max.log
0: INFO: Plugin ini file: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012\plugin.ini
0: INFO: Not including user profile plugin ini because it does not exist: C:\Users\Cluster\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsmax\2012 - 64bit\enu\Plugin.UserSettings.ini
0: INFO: Lightning connection plugin: C:\Users\Cluster\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline\slave\plugins\lightning64Max2012.dlx
0: INFO: 3dsmax socket connection port: 49292
0: INFO: Creating startup script: C:\Temp\lightning_startup.ms
0: INFO: Copying C:\Users\Cluster\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline\slave\plugins\lightning64Max2012.dlx to C:\Users\Cluster\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline\temp\lightning\lightning.dlx
0: INFO: Copying dl.ini to C:\Users\Cluster\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsmax\2012 - 64bit\enu to workaround a problem with version 2012
0: INFO: If this fails, make sure that the necessary permissions are set on this folder to allow for this copy to take place
0: INFO: Starting monitored managed process 3dsmaxProcess
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Brazil Console.” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.MSP Acceleration.” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.FumeFX:.” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.FumeFX Dynamics:.” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Maxwell Translation Window.” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.New updates are available - Craft Director Tools.” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “Hair Farm” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “Batch Render In Progress” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.VRay authorization.” will be handled by pressing “Cancel”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.V-Ray warning.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.File Load: Units Mismatch.” will be handled by pressing “Adopt the File’s Unit Scale?;OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.File Load: Gamma & LUT Settings Mismatch.” will be handled by pressing “Adopt the File’s Gamma and LUT Settings?;OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.3ds Max.” will be handled by pressing “Yes”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Frame Rate Change.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.MAXScript Auto-load Script Error.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Render history settings.” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Warning - the software has encountered a problem.” will be handled by pressing “Don’t show me this error again;Continue”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Frantic Films FPS Watchdog.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Missing Dlls.” will be handled by pressing “Cancel”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “Brazil r/s Rio Warning” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “3D Studio MAX” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.New updates are available - Craft Director Tools.” will be handled by pressing “Cancel”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Pop-up Note.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Tablet Version Mismatch.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Tablet Driver.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Gather error.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Image I/O Error.” will be handled by pressing “Retry”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Important nPower Plug-in Messages.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.glu3D.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.glu3D Warning!.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Bitmap Filter Error.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Maxwell Plug-in Update Notification.” will be handled by pressing “Don’t notify me about this version automatically;Close”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.RealFlow Plug-in Update Notification.” will be handled by pressing “Don’t notify me about this version automatically;Close”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Learning Movies.” will be handled by pressing “Show this dialog at startup;Close”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Obsolete File.” will be handled by pressing “Don’t display this message.;OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Error Loading.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.IO Error.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Error.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Loading of custom driver failed.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “Warning” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Welcome To Vue 8 xStream!.” will be handled by pressing “Don’t show this dialog again;Close”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Vue 8 xStream.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.3ds Max Performance Driver.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.* Autodesk Customer Involvement Program.*” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.nPower Software Plugin Product Selection Dialog.” will be handled by pressing “Solids Bundle (Solids + Translators);OK”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Exception.” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: Stdout Handling Enabled: False
0: INFO: Popup Handling Enabled: True
0: INFO: Using Process Tree: True
0: INFO: Hiding DOS Window: False
0: INFO: Creating New Console: False
0: INFO: Render Executable: “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012\3dsmax.exe”
0: INFO: Render Argument: -p “dl.ini” -q -s “C:\Users\Cluster\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline\slave\plugins\deadlineStartupMax2012.max”
0: INFO: Startup Directory: “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012”
0: INFO: Process Priority: BelowNormal
0: INFO: Process is now running
0: INFO: Waiting for connection from 3dsmax
0: STDOUT: Dark
0: WARNING: Monitored managed process 3dsmaxProcess is no longer running
=======================================================
Error Type
в Deadline.Plugins.ScriptPlugin.StartJob(Job job)
в Deadline.Plugins.Plugin.StartJob(Job job)
в Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.RenderCurrentTask(TaskLogWriter tlw)
Thanks for the log! Unfortunately, it looks like Max is crashing, and isn’t giving us any useful info to explain why:
I have no idea why it would crash like this in service mode, but not in normal mode, especially since they both run as the same user.
When the crash occurs, Max hasn’t even tried loading the scene file yet, so I don’t think it has anything to do with the type of scene file being submitted.