Backburner Win7 FirewallSetup

[jfharper]

Disclaimer: Duplicate post on CGtalk.

 

I have a ws and 3 render nodes running win 7 pro x64 on 3ds max 2016. I was wondering if you all use windows firewall, or how you have your network setup. I can't get consistency in my setup, the servers won't connect to the manager at times, etc.

 

Here's what I have:

Same user/password accross all four computers.

3ds max SP3 installed on all.

IPv6 disabled on all.

Backburner server as firewall exception, both public and private on all. (I've also tried combinations of this to no avail).

Servers as run as admin.

DHCP on all, I've tried static ip's but manager gives me an error saying it can't connect to a mutlcast socket or something like that.

I have a wake on lan batch file shortcut for the 3 nodes that I launch from the ws, the servers are in the startup folder and launch there automatically, I start manager before the nodes boot. I also use psshutdown to power them all down.

 

What do you all use? Does anyone see anything in my setup I can adjust? Should I just disable firewall altoghether? I've tried turning public off, private on...public on, private off...both off, both on. Nothing seems consistent.

 

EDIT: Actually, if I turn the firewall off on both private and public for all computers, everything works (I think, haven't given it time yet) but I'm concerned about security since I run no antivirus software since it messes up computers too much.

 

One more note, most of the scenarios above, if the servers and manager do not connect, I can open remote desktop, and restart the servers and they will connect, but that is a hassle and time delay when I'm working on a project. I'd like to get this streamlined.

 

EDIT2: Scratch that, had all firewalls turned off, public and private, and booted up ws first, launched manager, turned on nodes, servers and manager failed to connect. There are no issues in device manager on any system. Maybe I didn't have the ws on long enough before launching manager and nodes...I don't know of this is on the win 7 side or backburners side.

 

I remember a program called tcp view or something like that, that showed port connections and such, maybe I'll try to dig this up and see what I can see. My knowledge is limited, though.

 

EDIT [sOLVED]:

OK, I went back and simplified everything. DHCP on all computers, firewall on for all computers, all computers have same user and password. I put the bb servers in the Task Scheduler instead of the Startup folder, and set server as run as admin, set the trigger to when I log on for all users, left radio button on under general for only this user, and I have it all working well now. I can click an icon that WOL's my 3 nodes, the task scheduler launches the servers and they connect to the already open manager on the ws, I can click psshutdown to shut all the nodes down, and each server's window displays so if there is an error, I use remote desktop to see what errors if I can't determine in queue or manager. This is how my pipeline is setup and now works consistently. maybe this will help someone else out. whew!

Edited June 27, 2016 by jfharper