Backburner server can't find the manager - doesn't respond

[liorsturlesi]

Hi,

 

My backburner server can't find the manager-which works fine.

 

What to do ?

 

I'm really desperate, your help will be very appreciated.

A snapshot attached...

 

 

Thx.

[Morne Erasmus]

Your BB server is looking for the manager in the wrong ip range. It should pick it up by default, but it could be that somebody changed your settings along the way.

 

In BB server on the menu go to "Edit" > "General Settings"

On the right there is a box you can tick for automatic search. That works 95% of the time.

If for some reason you fall into the 5% of the time that it doesnt work, then untick that and enter the manager's name or ip in there.

It appears like your manager's address is 192.168.0.100 so you can use that for now

 

There's other things to consider if you use the IP like static vs dynamic, therefore it may be better to add the name of the pc the manager is on here

 

Hope that helps

 

P.S.

What version of max and backburner is this for?

[liorsturlesi]

Thx Morne for the help but it didn't work.

I already tried the automatic search but and putting i.p manually.

It still can't find the manager.

I'm using Max2012...

Any other ideas ? it's really annoying being without a server...

 

Thx.

 

Attached a Screen shot.

Edited April 30, 2014 by liorsturlesi

[Morne Erasmus]

OK your manager is getting its ip dynamically which means its not always the same ip. In your 1st screenshot, your manager has an ip of 192.168.0.100 and in the 2nd screenshot its ip is 192.168.0.102.

 

You have to see what ip your manager is returrning, and then add that ip into the server. In the server, untick "automatic search" and then add the ip that was returned from the manager into there.

 

You have to make sure that the server is on the same ip range and subnet as the manager. (in laymen terms that just means they should be in the same neighborhood or group)

 

So on your manager to make sure what ip it has you can hold the "flag/start" button in on your keyboard and at the same time press the "r" key. This will bring up the "run" window. Type "cmd" here (without the "") and press enter. You will now be in a dos prompt or command prompt. Type "ipconfig" and press enter.

 

Now look for something that ssays IPv4 Address. In your case it should be something like 192.168.0.(0-255?)

Below that should be Subnet Mask which should be 255.255.255.0

 

Now do the same on the server. If you ip doesnt start with 192.168.0 and your subnet is not also 255.255.255.0 then it means your server is on the wrong ip group and wont "see" the manager anyways. If it is not correct you can manually type it in (will leave that for next time if it still doesnt work)

 

Other things to consider

If you have max 2012 you have to make sure you have BackBurner version 2008.1 (at some point there were issues with the backburner that shipped with max. Backburner 2008.1 was the most stable until the update for the 2013 version came around (or the 2014 version can't remember now) Anyways, you can't go wrong with Backburner 2008.1 just download it from the autodesk site (it will also be on the 2011 dvd)

You can't just reinstall the 2008.1 version. You have to uninstall whichever version you have and make sure that any backburner folders on your computers are deleted before installing the 2008.1 version.

Next

If you don't have that version, then UNINSTALL backburner from the manager and also from the server. Install the correct version.

 

Now, also make sure that the server can actually see the manager in the 1st place without backburner. You can "flag/start +r" and type \\192.168.0.(manager last digit here) which in your latest screenshot will be \\192.168.0.102

 

If you get an error then it could be that a firewall(s) is blocking the 2 computers from seeing each other.

If they are on the same ip range then they will see each other except if a firewall is blocking it

 

You can also close the server backburner and rerun the server. I've noticed sometimes that if the server is set to load on startup, that it searches the wrong ip range. However in most cases that is because the server is on a different range than the manager.

 

OK a bit of a long winded post with lots of repeats, but hopefully this will give you an idea of where the problem is.

If the ip's are correct, then another thing to try is to make the other computer the manager and the 1st one the slave (just to test)

[liorsturlesi]

Morne,

First of all thank you very much for you great explanation.

I got it and the server is fixed now.

i have 2 computers with two different i.p and i just had the wrong i.p written in the i.p window.

 

Maybe you can help me with another problem which prevents me from using the distribute render mode.

i have a screen shot here showing the log window : "no connection was made because the target machine actively refused it"

 

why can't i see the Pc1 giving it's buckets to the Pc2 render job.

 

Thank you for you help anyway.

[Morne Erasmus]

Did you run the spawner on the slave pc manually or as a service? For now run it manually so you can see what it does. It will launch max with vray dummy scene on the taskbar. If it sees the license (your dongle), this max will stay here on the taskbar idling until you render. If the max loads and unloads the whole time, there is a problem. It can be either you're pointing it to the wrong location for the license, or the machine the license is on is blocking the connection. Once you start a render and the slave is "happy" then you will notice that this max on the taskbar changes and now instead of vray dummy it will say something like vray scene.

 

You have to run as administrator "Change V-Ray license settings" on the slave

In the window that comes up, in the Primary license server, add the name of the computer that the dongle is plugged into. (Typically this is your main workstation) Don't use ip's here because you are using dynamic ip in your network.

The default connection port of 30304 can be left as deafault. You can leave blank the other stuff in this window. (The other stuff is only useful if you have more dongles on other computers)

Press OK

Note that you had to run it as administrator otherwise the settings wont take affect.

 

Restart all computers.

 

If you still get problems, then disable the windows firewall or any 3rd party firewall you may have. (Although a lot of people always mention the firewall, I never had problems with it. I use a 3rd party firewall - much better than the default windows one - and I never had problems with firewalls)

 

Also make sure that you have the exact same version of max and service packs on all computers. The same goes for V-Ray, if you miss a service pack or update on one of your slaves, it can cause various headaches for you.

 

Good Luck and happy rendering :-)

[liorsturlesi]

Hi Morne,

i did run the spawner on both the computers - the main and the server. Nothing happened. what do you mean it will launch 3dmax with dummy...

Anyway i did try to run it always as an Admin.

And i tried to to put the name in the settings but no success...

 

I will keep tying but if you have some other diagnose you are more then welcome to tell me.

 

Thx Again.

[Morne Erasmus]

When you minimize an application, it "sits" on your taskbar.

So when you run the spawner, it launches max (in server mode) and minimizes it. You can't maximise this max because it is running in server mode, it will just always sit on the taskbar untill you kill spawner. Even if you end task this max, the spawner will just launch it again.

 

If it's not even launching max in the 1st place, you may have a problem.

 

Maybe try my Distributed Rendering tutorial here: (it's a bit old, but still relevant)

http://vray.info/tutorials/vray_distributed_rendering_and_backburner/

 

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