Tim Saunders Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 I may never get Backburner to work. But I need to soon. My server and manager connect just fine, I even see the system(s) in my servers list when submitting the job. I'm just keeping things simple until I can figure out the issue. All I am doing is opeing the manager and server on one workstation, and rendering it on the same system, for batch rendering purposes. You know, so I can render several images while I go home at night. Once I click submit, the application starts working just for about a second, you'll see a max tab minimze really quick, then the manager shows the following issues: WRN Task error from ERR Job 'the job name' (Autodesk 3ds Max 2008) failed for ERR Error message: Unknown error while loading application. WRN Server flagged as failed for job 'the job name' Does anyone have any ideas to resolve this issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt McDonald Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Gosh, I think I've seen this one before but I'm trying to remember what fixed it. Do you have multiple versions of Max installed on your machine? It seems like I had some trouble when I was inadvertently opened the server application for Max 7 when I was submitting Max 9 jobs. Which version of Backburner are you using? I know that the first release of Backburner 2007 was a real stinker and AutoDesk has quietly offered a couple of service packs for it. Those are the two things that come to mind. If my feeble brain recalls anything else, I'll let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 I got the same error when i was building our farm....sounds to me like its opening max and then having trouble opening the scene. go into program files\autodesk\backburner\server jobs and see if there is any files for your job in there, and then see if you can delete them. Our systems where setup so certain logins can't edit content in the program folders drive, which meant backburner couldn't edit those files, let alone the backburner.xml file which caused my jobs to error out. what is the server window saying as all this happens? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Saunders Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Do you have multiple versions of Max installed on your machine? Which version of Backburner are you using? I know that the first release of Backburner 2007 was a real stinker and AutoDesk has quietly offered a couple of service packs for it. I'm only running Max 2008, no other versions. I'm not sure how to tell what version of BB I have. Whatever came with Max 2008. The only service pack for BB is for Max 9, nothing out for Max 2008 yet. I got the same error when i was building our farm....sounds to me like its opening max and then having trouble opening the scene. go into program files\autodesk\backburner\server jobs and see if there is any files for your job in there, and then see if you can delete them. Our systems where setup so certain logins can't edit content in the program folders drive, which meant backburner couldn't edit those files, let alone the backburner.xml file which caused my jobs to error out. what is the server window saying as all this happens? I'l try deleting the jobs in the ServerJob folder and see what happens. The server window doesn't have any new notes when the problems occur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt McDonald Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 which meant backburner couldn't edit those files, let alone the backburner.xml file which caused my jobs to error out. ooo that sounds familiar. Are you trying to run server or manager as a process? I know that causes issues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Saunders Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Hmm, no change Brian. And, the Server does say something; ERR Task error: Unknown error while uploading application ERR Unknown error while loading application Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt McDonald Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 I'm not sure how to tell what version of BB I have. Whatever came with Max 2008. Start Backburner manager and then click on "help" and then about backburner. I think that Max 2008 still uses backburner 2007 but I don't have an install handy to check. If it is backburner 2007 and its not service pack 2 I would install it from AutoDesk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 you know when I was trouble shooting my farm, I tried backburner 3.2, 2007.0.2, and finally 2007.1 and in the end it had nothing to do with the updates to backburner that was causing the headaches. and to illustrate that I know that there are a couple of the computers in my network with different versions of backburner, and its all fine now. The updates to backburner aren't really functionality issues such that it's going to fix your problems. The updates were more about error reporting and keeping the manager from crashing. I know that the majority of my machines now are loaded with the stock backburner off of the 3dsmax2008 install.... so I wouldn't even waste time looking for a fix out of upgrading BB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 just as a side note. make sure your scene is incredible simple. place a box on a plane with a liht and a camera, and send it to render. this will make sure that the problem is with backburner, and not with the way it is processing the file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Saunders Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 Brian, You mention your problems weren't with the BB install, but what were they? Travis, The scene is super simple as you suggested. But I have tried with several scenes with the same result--even on several workstations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Schroeder Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 The good old "unknown error". Obviously max knows what's going on, but it's not going to tell you. In my experiences, this error is usually file related. However, that's not always the case. I would try the recommendation of using a super simple scene with no textures and a box and plane. You might think your existing scene is super simple but if there is something in there that may have gone corrupted that could be causing your file to crash. Maybe it's texture related. For example I had a file that worked perfectly locally, but crashed every time on the farm. After some extensive looking into, a group head inside the file had gotten corrupted and for whatever reason as soon as the file was attempted to load over the network the thing crashed. What's the memory load when the scene crashes? Does it crash all the time, sometimes a file will crash 3-4 times in a row then render perfectly fine. If the server still crashes the file then it may be something on your machine and you'll have to look deeper into the backburner install. What happens if you run the manager on your machine then try to render your scene on another workstation connected to that manager? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince Paske Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 This may sound too simple and you probably have checked it already, but under the server settings, is the Server Name or IP Address set to the name of the machine it is on? Using the name, not the IP, works for me. Manager Name or IP works only with an IP address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 I had to battle through three things. First, I've only been with this company for just over four months, and not having worked with this IT group, I didn't know that some logins aren't given access to edit content in the program files directory. If backburner can't edit it's .xml file it can't hold it's server location data. Getting my credentials adjust fixed that one. Second problem, our computers have two....well actually three firewalls installed on them. Windows firewall (which doesn't count), a Cisco, and a Norton. I knew about the Cisco and put an exception in it for the systems I was using. The Norton program was running in a hidden mode and only on half the systems so it was real perplexing why I could ping half the systems one way, and the other half back but never all at each other. And the Third was that we have a large office (+200) computers, and it's running on two subnets. Backburner can only operate on one subnet. Since machines are on dynamic IP addresses and I have the manager set on 10.10.9.xxx subnet, if a machine reboots and comes up with an IP on the 10.10.10.xxx subnet then it won't work. The frustrating thing about that one is, it will find the manager, register with the manager but can't take a job from the wrong subnet, this one really confused the hell out of me and still bothers me. So I have about 60 machines on this floor available for rendering at night, but about 10 - 20 of them come up occasionally on the wrong subnet. I now have farms in three of our offices, Boston and Columbus were easy setups because they are smaller offices. But SanFran because of it's size threw a couple of kinks into how I am accustomed to doing it. (Or I should say how I learned from travis ) But I now have a really strong understanding of how backburner works..... so I guess it was worth beating my head against a wall for three weeks???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Saunders Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 Well, now I'm in a whole new battle. Last night, I tried updating the BB service pack as suggested by someone else. One of the steps Autodesk tells you to do is, uninstall the existing BB. I did that, but when I try to run the install, I get this: What does that mean, and how do I get past that? Because now I'm further away than I was, because I have NO BB now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Clementson Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Backburner can only operate on one subnet. Since machines are on dynamic IP addresses and I have the manager set on 10.10.9.xxx subnet, if a machine reboots and comes up with an IP on the 10.10.10.xxx subnet then it won't work. The frustrating thing about that one is, it will find the manager, register with the manager but can't take a job from the wrong subnet, this one really confused the hell out of me and still bothers me. So I have about 60 machines on this floor available for rendering at night, but about 10 - 20 of them come up occasionally on the wrong subnet. I'm pretty sure if you set BB to use subnet 255.255.0.0 it should be able to see and work across both your 10.10.9.x and 10.10.10.x addresses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 I'm pretty sure if you set BB to use subnet 255.255.0.0 it should be able to see and work across both your 10.10.9.x and 10.10.10.x addresses. I'll have to give it another go round. Initially I was doing it as you mentioned and it wasn't working so I switched off the search and manually entered the manager's IP (pretty dumb when IPs are dynamically allocated) but it seemed to work. Now that I have the two other problems sorted out.... now that I think about it I should go back and retest this one. I did find a post on an autodesk site that said backburner is limited to 255 machines because it can only work off of one subnet. http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=588482 maybe they are just assuming that guy specifically is only operating on one subnet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moshenko Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 There are two logs that you should be checking to see what information is displayed: Server Log: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\backburner\Network\backburnerServer.log This is the default install path - yours may be slightly different. This log file is present on all server machines. Manager Log: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Backburner\Network\backburner.log This is also the default install path. This log file resides only on your manager machine. Tell us what - if anything - these logs say. If there is no useful information you could try increasing the log level on both server and manager. This is done by going to the Edit -> Log Settings menu in either the Server or Manager application dialog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Clementson Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 I did find a post on an autodesk site that said backburner is limited to 255 machines because it can only work off of one subnet. It *is* limited to just one subnet BUT one subnet does not necessarily equate to only 255 addresses. The 255.255.0.0 subnet equates to 65536 uniquely addressable IPs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 It *is* limited to just one subnet BUT one subnet does not necessarily equate to only 255 addresses. The 255.255.0.0 subnet equates to 65536 uniquely addressable IPs. MATT you rock! good call.... up and running now thanks chief, I'm not sure I would have tried after I had it working, but you were right now I'm firing on all cylinders. THANKS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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