AWS Thinkbox Discussion Forums

Houdini job erroring on one machine

Hi,

we have a single machine in our farm that is causing errors, and I’m not sure what’s different on that machine.
A sample task report is shown below.

Any ideas as to what might be causing this?

Thanks!

=======================================================
Error

Error: No module named site
at Deadline.Plugins.PluginWrapper.RenderTasks(String taskId, Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame, String& outMessage, AbortLevel& abortLevel)

=======================================================
Type

RenderPluginException

=======================================================
Stack Trace

at Deadline.Plugins.SandboxedPlugin.a(DeadlineMessage A_0)
at Deadline.Plugins.SandboxedPlugin.RenderTask(String taskId, Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame)
at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.a(TaskLogWriter A_0)

=======================================================
Log

2017-10-29 21:22:45: 0: Loading Job’s Plugin timeout is Disabled
2017-10-29 21:22:47: 0: Executing plugin command of type ‘Sync Files for Job’
2017-10-29 21:22:47: 0: All job files are already synchronized
2017-10-29 21:22:47: 0: Plugin Houdini was already synchronized.
2017-10-29 21:22:47: 0: Done executing plugin command of type ‘Sync Files for Job’
2017-10-29 21:22:47: 0: Executing plugin command of type ‘Initialize Plugin’
2017-10-29 21:22:47: 0: INFO: Executing plugin script ‘C:\Users\svc-cgdev-render\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline9\slave\lax1-cgnode-01\plugins\59f5699fea82895f100cdd0a\Houdini.py’
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: About: Houdini Plugin for Deadline
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Render Job As User disabled, running as current user ‘svc-cgdev-render’
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: The job’s environment will be merged with the current environment before rendering
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: Done executing plugin command of type ‘Initialize Plugin’
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: Start Job timeout is disabled.
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: Task timeout is 25200 seconds (Regular Task Timeout)
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: Loaded job: remix_v050.hip - /obj/biff_stomp1/sandVolume1_Full_fxCache1/fxCache/render (59f5699fea82895f100cdd0a)
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: Executing plugin command of type ‘Start Job’
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: Done executing plugin command of type ‘Start Job’
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: Plugin rendering frame(s): 128
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: Executing plugin command of type ‘Render Task’
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Starting Houdini Job
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Stdout Redirection Enabled: True
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Stdout Handling Enabled: True
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Popup Handling Enabled: True
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: QT Popup Handling Enabled: False
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.* Popup Handling Enabled: False
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Using Process Tree: True
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Hiding DOS Window: True
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Creating New Console: False
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Running as user: svc-cgdev-render
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Enforcing 64 bit build
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Executable: “C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.0.504.20\bin\Hython.exe”
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Argument: “C:\Users\svc-cgdev-render\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline9\slave\lax1-cgnode-01\plugins\59f5699fea82895f100cdd0a\hrender_dl.py” -f 128 128 1 -d /obj/biff_stomp1/sandVolume1_Full_fxCache1/fxCache/render “C:/Users/svc-cgdev-render/AppData/Local/Thinkbox/Deadline9/slave/lax1-cgnode-01/jobsData/59f5699fea82895f100cdd0a/remix_v050.hip”
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Full Command: “C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.0.504.20\bin\Hython.exe” “C:\Users\svc-cgdev-render\AppData\Local\Thinkbox\Deadline9\slave\lax1-cgnode-01\plugins\59f5699fea82895f100cdd0a\hrender_dl.py” -f 128 128 1 -d /obj/biff_stomp1/sandVolume1_Full_fxCache1/fxCache/render “C:/Users/svc-cgdev-render/AppData/Local/Thinkbox/Deadline9/slave/lax1-cgnode-01/jobsData/59f5699fea82895f100cdd0a/remix_v050.hip”
2017-10-29 21:22:48: 0: INFO: Startup Directory: “C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.0.504.20\bin”
2017-10-29 21:22:49: 0: INFO: Process Priority: BelowNormal
2017-10-29 21:22:49: 0: INFO: Process Affinity: default
2017-10-29 21:22:49: 0: INFO: Process is now running
2017-10-29 21:22:49: 0: STDOUT: ImportError: No module named site
2017-10-29 21:22:50: 0: Done executing plugin command of type ‘Render Task’

=======================================================
Details

Date: 10/29/2017 21:22:52
Frames: 128
Elapsed Time: 00:00:00:07
Job Submit Date: 10/28/2017 22:39:43
Job User: kurt.williams
Average RAM Usage: 9719640064 (15%)
Peak RAM Usage: 9719640064 (15%)
Average CPU Usage: 5%
Peak CPU Usage: 10%
Used CPU Clocks (x10^6 cycles): 10418
Total CPU Clocks (x10^6 cycles): 208351

=======================================================
Slave Information

Slave Name: lax1-cgnode-01
Version: v9.0.1.1 Release (16886394d)
Operating System: Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
Running As Service: Yes
Machine User: svc-cgdev-render
IP Address: 10.202.61.2
MAC Address: F4:E9:D4:8A:A3:A0
CPU Architecture: x64
CPUs: 32
CPU Usage: 5%
Memory Usage: 9.1 GB / 63.8 GB (14%)
Free Disk Space: 149.866 GB
Video Card: Microsoft Basic Display Adapter

Hey smeet,

This line in the log is showing where the plugin is going awry:

For whatever reason only this one machine doesn’t have access to the site module. Logging on as the same user as the slave, can you verify that you can “import site” in Houdini’s python, Hython (“C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.0.504.20\bin\Hython.exe”)?

* File should exist here: "C:\\PROGRA~1\\SIDEEF~1\\HOUDIN~2\\python27\\lib\\site.pyc"

The file/lib folder might be missing for Houdini since python implicitly imports the site module and it’s the first line of the Houdini subprocess that spits out this error. If they don’t exist it, a re-install of Houdini would be worth trying for this one machine.

If I remove the lib/libs folder in Houdini’s python27 folder and try to run hython.exe I get that error:

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16\bin\hython.exe ImportError: No module named site

As an aside. Are you doing any environment variable overrides?

Cheers

Ah, that was it, thanks!
It was running Houdini 16.0.504.20, but that folder was incomplete on this machine - the bin was there but python27/lib was missing.
Somebody installed 16.0.705 on the machine and partially removed the older version as far as I can tell.

Speaking of which, is there a way we can force a subversion to run? We would like to run 705 instead of 504.

We are not doing anything to env variables on the farm machines, other than adding a directory to PYTHONPATH.

Thanks!

No problem, glad to help :slight_smile:!

Here’s a link to the docs regarding Houdini plugin configuration.

With Houdini releasing nightly builds in the MAJOR.MINOR.BUILD format, what we’ve chosen to do is just support the major/minor versions in the plugin configuration. What this means for studios is that you have to specify the exact path to the executable you want (which includes the build version in the path). If there are multiple paths in the plugin configuration, then it’ll search those paths from top to bottom.

With you switching to a different version of Houdini 16.0, I’d probably recommend just removing “C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.0.504.20\bin\Hython.exe” from the Houdini 16.0 Hython executable list and replace it with the new studio/project-wide accepted version (ie. 16.0.705). This lets you install the version of Houdini you want across all machines and only switch to using the new version when you’re ready by changing the plugin configuration.

Note: if you decide to rename “16.0.504.20” to “16.0” across all slaves, you run the risk of having slaves running different versions of Houdini which is prone to causing rendering issues. This becomes harder to track down what version you’re actually running on each machine in the farm until it’s actually rendered something (and printed its information in the log).

I’m sure others have tackled this so, if you’re browsing this, feel free to chime in if you’ve got a solution that works for you!

Cheers

Thanks a lot, I think that gives us what we need!

Privacy | Site terms | Cookie preferences