I’m wondering what i’m missing. Bought some render hours for redshift3D. Set up the repository configuration. There is only one machine out of 6 that does not have a permanent Redshift3D license. But when i add that client to the list of workers… Deadline just won’t assign it the Usage Based Licensing. Grrr… what a painful experience again. Why oh why does it have to be so hard.
Do i need to activate the service in the monitor? Log in somewhere i may not know about? I already put the URL and activation code in the rep config. What else needs to be done please?
First question - is the Deadline License Forwarder application running?
I can see a console window to the left of the Worker, but it could be a Remote Connection Server, and it is not seen in the screenshot, so I had to ask.
it is indeed the RCS that you see. License Forwarder? If it’s not starting autommatically then it’s probably not running. I did not see that in the tutorial video for the UBL.
Before you can start using 3rd Party Usage-Based Licensing, you must do the following:
Purchase 3rd Party render time from the Thinkbox Marketplace.
Download the 3rd Party Licencing Certificates.
Install and configure the Deadline License Forwarder application to use the Certificates.
Set up Deadline Limits to use Third Party Usage-Based Licensing, and configure your render jobs to use these Limits.
The License Forwarder is the application that connects your local network to the cloud license servers containing the 3rd party Usage Based Licensing. When you launch it for the first time, it asks you for the folder containing the PFX certificates downloaded from the Thinkbox customer portal (thinkbox.flexnetoperations.com). Here is the License Forwarder documentation: License Forwarder — Deadline 10.1.23.6 documentation
The tutorial videos for UBL that I am aware of are for rendering with AWS Portal where the License Forwarder is part of the AWS Portal Gateway instance and is started automatically when a cloud infrastructure is created. If you meant some other videos, please let me know what you watched.
When running on the local network without cloud, you must launch the License Forwarder yourself. To be fair, I sometimes forget to start it too
You cannot have UBL licensing without the UBL certificates. The Workers need to communicate securely with the cloud license server that provides the licenses. The PFX certificates (called according to the product, e.g. vray.pfx, maya.pfx, redshift.pfx, etc.) are used to encrypt the communication. As the documentation says, you must
Launch and configure the License Forwarder to know where the certificates are, and connect to the cloud license server
Configure Limits to fall back to UBL for each product you have purchased, and assign the Limits to the Jobs that need those licenses.
If you skip ANY of these steps, UBL will not work. Because the topic of your thread is “UBL not working”, from the beginning my guess was that you must have skipped a step. It sounds like you have skipped both the second and third steps. I am not sure how else I can help…
THanks Bobo, you make it sound so easy. Unfortunately the part about downloading certificates isn’t mentioned anywhere in the email i received after the purchase. The relevant parts in your documentation isn’t mentioned or linked anywhere in the emails either. Even the link you shared above is very vague and leads to nothing obvious. I see nowhere on that page anything related to those certificates, nor any log in possiblity to use any of the credentials that i was granted when purchasing those Redshift3d hours… I know we should all RTFM but unfortunately i don’t always have time to investigate those matters in depth. I feel this should be exposed to customers right away in a clear email with steps to follow (all steps… not just some of them), i shouldn’t have to goo dig into the Deadline documentation which i must say isn’t the most user friendly or fun read…
Anyways, it takes too much time to set up, we don’t have that time to dedicate to figure things out, so we just going to do without the UBL.
That is not how it is supposed to work, I have received those emails before.
First you get an email welcoming you to the Marketplace.
Then you receive an email from Marketplace when you buy your first product. See this video.
Then you receive a separate email from the Thinkbox Portal telling you the URL, Activation Code, and a link for resetting your password in the Thinkbox Portal. It usually takes up to 30 minutes, when I recorded the video below, it took only 6. I assume you never got the URL and Activation Code to enter in the Tools > Configure Repository Options > Usage Based Licensing?
I received all that, but at no point did it mention downloading any kind of certificates or even setting up the license forrwarder or even needing it at the first place.
Again, i understand that all that mmust be in the manual, but like i said, if those are the required steps i feel they should be exposed in the same place upon purchasing the product in the samme email. I even had to google myself to find the tutorial to do the repository coonfiguration with the activation url and code. (no biggy of course, but potential liability if i don’t find the correct most recent video covering the topic).
