Distributed rendering issue, Max 2008

[mcbatman]

Hi Everyone,

 

We have 2 PCs with Max 2008 upgraded from 9 & a lot of regular CAD stations.

I can get MR to use both the machines with Max installed & authorised, but it refuses to use any other computer in the office.

Max has been installed on 2 CAD stations (not authorised as per the instructions) and another, I've tried just running the raysat exe.

Regular scanline rendering using Backburner works fine accross the network to those machines with Max installed.

Doesn't matter if I use the IP addresses or the PC name, if any machines other than those with the authorised installations are included in the distribution list, nothing happens. Not just for a few minutes either, I've left a simple scene with a couple of cubes and a plane with no materials for 2 hours with no result.

 

Does anyone have any idea what's going on? (I've scanned the forum & can't find an answer.)

 

Cheers

Sam

[mcbatman]

No idea why this popped up twice.

Sorry about that.

[CarlAhearne]

OK, I've managed to get this to work on about 6 machines here in our office, so I'll run through the way I got it to work...

 

1. I have MAX 2008 installed and authorised on 1 machine and I use that machine as the manager. This is the machine from which I will start any render jobs. On this machine, turn on Backburner server, monitor and manager. Make a note of the manager IP address. In the server, set the Server name or IP address to the IP address of that computer. The manager will be the same in this case, so enter that too. Set the server port to 3233 and the manager port to 3234. Open up the manager, and set the Manager port to 3234 and server port to 3233. Open up the Monitor, and hit the connect icon. Enter the Manager IP when prompted.

 

2. Install MAX 2008 on other machines, and do not authorise. Open up the Backburner server on each machine, and enter the IP address as with the manager machine. You shouldn't need to anything else with these machines now...

 

3. Go back to the manager machine, and go to the Monitor. Hit refresh, and you should see your other machines in the Show All list at the bottom. The status will likely say Idle.

 

In theory, you should now be able to go to MAX and hit the netwrok render, and submit the job to the queue. Once you've started the job, it will appear in the Monitor. Click on it, and you may notice the icons for the servers change.. The icon will show which servers are assigned to the job. The thing that I have found to work is to select each server, hit the Remover server icon (All within the Monitor) and then hit the Assign Server to make sure it is assigned. Do this for each of the server nodes, and you should have lots of servers rendering for you.

 

Things to remember...

 

1. Get the latest Backburner, and it will work better if all of the servers have the same version.

2. Make sure that if you need any plugins, they are all installed on all of the machines.

3. Remember to check to see if the servers are assigned to the current job in the Monitor.

 

Anyway, sorry for the long post, and I hope it's of some use... Let me know how you get on... Maybe I should put a guide together and get a few people to check it for me, there really does need to be more documentation on this..

 

Carl

[mcbatman]

I'll give that a go, but I'm not sure it will fix the MR distributed rendering though, but it's worth a try. Just need to wait for this CDP to finish...

I'll let you know how I get on.

 

Cheers

Sam

[mcbatman]

No luck with that I'm afraid.

For some reason, either Max or our network doesn't want me to use distributed rendering on anything other than activated versions.

 

The firewalls are off and exceptions have been made for the appropriate files & ports.

 

If I input a non-existant PC name, I get the same result as I get when I use one of the non-authenticated computer's name.

 

Could it be a network domain issue?

[mcbatman]

Ok, this partially answers my own question, but I figure posting the findings to my problem may assist others in a similar fix. (Although it probably makes me look like an escaped mental patient.)

 

We recently moved office & had a new server installed as well as new CAD stations. I've just plugged in one of the old CAD machines & it works fine through distributed rendering. So it's possibly something to do with the domain/server not allowing MR access to the new PCs. The Max ones came from the old set-up.

 

Anyone got any idea as to how to get around this?

 

Cheers

Sam

[Justin Hunt]

check the firewalls on all machines, you may need to add the .exe files in the mentalray saterlite folder to the exception lists.

 

I too had many problems setting up DBR. I set up everything according to the help files with no luck. It wasnt until I tried the firewall that it decided to work.

 

JHV

[mcbatman]

I've quadruple checked the firewalls & they are off on the local machines. The exe's from the satellite folder are also included as exceptions.

 

The fact that the old PC's which aren't included in the new domain work fine with DBR is what leads me to conclude that it's something to do with the security levels on the server which controls access to the workstations. However, since I know next to bugger all about SBS, Max or Mental Ray, I'm probably talking utter nonsense.

 

I can't help but feel that I've somehow thrown myself in at the deep end with the wave machine on. Undoubtably in a month's time I'll go back and realise I'm doing something stupid. On that note, I'm off to check the firewalls again...

 

Cheers.

Sam