Backburner problem. Manager will only register one node at a time.

[Tommy L]

New install of Backburner 2019 on a W10 server. 3ds Max 2020 on all the nodes.

When I start the BB server on all the nodes, just one server shows in the Monitor. And the nodes sequentially kick each other off.

anyone had this? Obviously, its broken when I need it, so any help much appreciated.

Tom.

[James Vella]

Personally Ive never had backburner work with different versions of 3dsmax, have you tried using backburner 2020? Or is this the one bundled with it?

[Tommy L]

The servers have BB 2019 installed also. The max version should not matter. Ive not even submitted a job, so the max version is not yet relevant. Its been fine, but a bit buggy. We have a new server so thought Id install the manager there. So its a new install of Manager and we have zero network issues.

The Autodesk website is absolutely dreadful. I cant find any mention of BB let alone a place to download the latest version. Cant see it on my managmnet portal either.

EDIT: I think 2019 is the latest version for Backburner.

Edited July 18, 2019 by Tommy L

[James Vella]

if its the version bundled with 2020 then you may need to investigate further, you are right about the information on BB being dreadful. I did some thorough testing when updating 3dsmax on the workstations to 2016 and BB was on 2015, was all working perfect. When it came to rendering our animations it all fell down and started throwing errors everywhere. In the end we needed to reinstall everything to match the 3dsmax version. Just check that there is no backburner 2020 with 3dsmax 2020 otherwise I guarnatee you issues.

[Tommy L]

I dont think BB isntalls with Max anymore, thats a new thing as of 2020. It was always an option, then in 2019 it was a forced install, then in 2020 it is not even bundled....hahaha, crazy.

[James Vella]

Wow, just unbelievable. I was just checking on the Autodesk forums about this issue and your right it's not even included, what a mess. Hopefully they will address this soon.

[John Dollus]

Autodesk has been wanting to get rid of it for years and, apart form the basic updated recompile, pretty sure they stopped assigning staff to the Backburner component as far back as 2016. I'd suggest you look at RPManager for $200 or Deadline for $48 annually per node.

[James Vella]

Deadline is great but i do like backburner (when it works). I was under the impression RP manager was for render pass management, not render wrangling - or has this changed recently?

[Scott Dombrowski]

I remember having this problem a few years ago. Check the MAC address in the line in

C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Backburner\backburner.xml

 

It should be unique for each node, but if you've cloned your configuration to several nodes it might be the same one each one.

 

Further detail here: https://area.autodesk.com/blogs/max-station/n37_at_any_given_time_only_one_of_your_backburner_servers_can_connect_to_the_backburner_manager/