Network Rendering with Backburner on a Rack Server

[theory7]

in desperate need of help, I have just purchased a dell rack system with 22 Dell Power R200 servers, each Intel Quad core 2.4ghz, I have installed Win XP 64Bit on each as well as 3D Studio Max 9 64Bit with Vray RC4.

 

Problem is they dont seem to hold there connection to the manager after a short period I get the error:

 

WRN server has not received an update from the manager and has timed out; asuming the manager is down

WRN Manager is not respondong

 

As well as this only 1 server will show up at a time in the Backburner Monitor application, then that 1 connection will randomly switch to a different server replacing the previous one, and subsequently taking over its assigned tasks.

 

I have 10 other standard desktop PC's all with XP64bit and Max9 64bit, and I have no problems with these, they are connected to the same dell 48 port switch and they all keep there connection and show up in the monitor fine.

 

I thought it may be because the Dell power edge servers have dual network cards so I tried disabling the second network connection that is automatically created but didnt make any difference, as each of the cards has its own ip address assigned.

 

Can anyone please help me, I been playing with this for about a week now getting nowhere

[Dave Buchhofer]

I'm assuming you installed max/backburner before you cloned the disks.

 

Go into the ini file for backburner and change the MAC Addresses for each server to match the actual server. Backburner keeps track of different systems by way of network MAC addresses, but it only checks to GET the mac when you first install it.

 

Had the same problem here

[jkletzien]

weird...just was wrestling with this too but didn't see anything on the problem anywhere so we tried a few different avenues of inquiry.

 

I think it is working now, and our operating theory at this stage is the same as Dave's, if you set up your blades by imaging the hard drives than backburner doesn't work. What we did was uninstall backburner AND delete the folder that it was in, then re install (make sure you have administrative privileges).

 

And I think you'll be good to go.

[theory7]

I changed the mac addresses to match each server and now everything works perfect, really wish I had posted this thread several days ago, thanks, saved me a huge amount of hassle and now I can render the new projects without letting my cleints down

[BrianKitts]

Go into the ini file for backburner and change the MAC Addresses for each server to match the actual server. Backburner keeps track of different systems by way of network MAC addresses, but it only checks to GET the mac when you first install it.

 

sounds like my new problem..... but I'm not finding an .ini for backburner.

 

Is it in the program files for 3dsmax or the backburner folder? One would assume backburner, but I'm not finding it in either

 

thx - bk

[BrianKitts]

update: never found the .ini but jon's method worked well. I had tried reinstalling backburner before but to no avail. The key was in deleting the folder after the uninstall before reinstalling it.

 

note: if anyone wasn't aware there is an update to backburner available on autodesk's site. The 3dsmax 2008 disc I believe installs backburner 2007.1.1 the updated version is 2007.0.2

 

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8388951&linkID=9241178

[theory7]

there was no need to delete any folders, the backburner file that you need to edit is in the Backburner > Network > Backburner.xml

 

well on my systems it shows as an xml file, so I just opened with notepad and you will see the mac address in there, edit, save and will work perfect after that.