Unable to start Deadline license server

Deadline
1

Hey guys!
Recently had a machine restart of our license server machine (a mac mini) and after the restart, the Deadline license server does not seem to want to restart.

I’ve been trying to run the following command both as the logged-in user (which is the local admin) and as sudo to launch the license server, hopefully, I am not totally off the mark:
./lmgrd -c Thinkbox.lic
(Trying to run this command while cd’ed into the “/Applications/Thinkbox/License Server/” directory)

I’ve also tried to stop and start the launch daemon for the license server but seemingly to no avail using (both as logged in user and as sudo):
launchctl stop /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.thinkbox.licensing.plist

I also think that it for some reason has stopped printing to the .log file since the timestamp on the entries there does not seem to change. But if I am to believe the log is still representative of an issue I am having then I feel like I’m getting some conflicting messages, the log mentions that there is a problem with a lockfile it does not have permission to edit whilst the terminal only mentions a problem with a TCP port being closed which I don’t quite get since the server was running fine a few days ago and to my knowledge, no ports have been closed or opened in that time.

So, sorry about the little ramble there. I’ve felt a little lost since most of the documentation I’ve been able to find mentions folders and utilities that are either outdated or we don’t use.
What I’d greatly appreciate is some help with the very basics, am I even running the correct command to launch the license server? And if I am, what would you guys recommend I do next to troubleshoot?

I’ve attached a slice of both the thinkbox.log file as well as a printout of my terminal below incase it tells the story of my problem better than my rant above.

Thank you for your time!

2

8:57:50 (thinkbox) Cannot create lock file. Old lockfile exists. errno=13 (/var/tmp/lockthinkbox): Permission denied
8:57:50 (thinkbox) EXITING DUE TO SIGNAL 41 Exit reason 9
8:57:50 (lmgrd) thinkbox exited with status 41 (Exited because another server was running)
8:57:50 (lmgrd) MULTIPLE “thinkbox” license server systems running.
8:57:50 (lmgrd) Please kill, and run lmreread
8:57:50 (lmgrd) This error probably results from either:
8:57:50 (lmgrd) 1. Another copy of the license server manager (lmgrd) is running.
8:57:50 (lmgrd) 2. A prior license server manager (lmgrd) was killed with “kill -9”
8:57:50 (lmgrd) (which would leave the vendor daemon running).
8:57:50 (lmgrd) To correct this, do a “ps -ax | grep thinkbox”
8:57:50 (lmgrd) (or equivalent “ps” command)
8:57:50 (lmgrd) and kill the “thinkbox” process.

Kill the tasks, get up a terminal shell and type
sudo ps -ax | grep thinkbox

Then kill any commands will thinkbox and try again
sudo kill -9 123456
(where 123456 is the PID of the command)

maybe delete the lock file if there’s

did you upgrade the OS? has it put security restricitions on anything?

could always try re-installing

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Hmm, might try the reinstall. I tried to rename the lockfle, could try deleting it too I suppose, and the PID I get from running grep is apparently not valid. Cant be found using the terminal of seen anywhere in the activity monitor.

I don’t think there was an OS update but maybe the machine did update itself and restarted. Have seen that happen on other mac’s we have.

4

Sorry about bringing this old thread back to the top of the forum. Just wanted to post the solution I found when this was a problem. The solution seemed to be the lock file, renaming it was not enough, after deleting the lock file and trying to restart the license server it came back up immediately.

Hopefully, that can be helpful to someone who has a similar issue in the future.

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