Houdini 20.0 HQueue

Managing jobs

How to view and manage jobs on the farm.

On this page

How to

In a web browser, connect to the HQueue server (http://hostname:5000/). Click the Jobs icon at the top-right corner of the web interface to go to the jobs page.

To...Do this

Submit a job from Houdini

See how to submit a job.

Submit a job using the XML/RPC API

You can create jobs using the API, query information about running jobs, and manage jobs. See the API documentation for more information.

View job details, including its child jobs

Click the Job ID in the job table.

Reschedule any failed, abandoned, or canceled jobs

Click Reschedule failed jobs below the Completed Jobs table.

Pause, Cancel, or Reschedule a job

“Rescheduling” a job places the job back on the scheduling queue where it waits for an available client. Rescheduling a job also reschedules its parent jobs and any failed child jobs.

  1. On the Jobs page, find the job in the list. Check the box at the start of the job row.

    (You can check multiple boxes to affect multiple jobs at once.)

  2. Click the Reschedule button below the Completed Jobs table.

Pause or resume a job

  1. On the Jobs page, find the job you want to cancel in the list. Check the box at the start of the job row.

    (You can check multiple boxes to cancel multiple jobs at once.)

  2. Click the Pause button below the Running Jobs table.

When a job is paused, it is halted on the assigned client machine. The job remains in the scheduling queue where it waits for the user to either resume or cancel the job. Pausing a job also pauses its child jobs.

To resume a job, turn on the checkbox next to the paused job and then click the Resume button below the Running Jobs table.

Cancel a job

  1. On the Jobs page, find the job you want to cancel in the list. Check the box at the start of the job row.

    (You can check multiple boxes to cancel multiple jobs at once.)

  2. Click the Cancel button below the Running Jobs table.

Delete any failed, abandoned, or canceled jobs

Click Delete Failed Jobs below the job table.

Delete an arbitrary job

When a job is deleted, it is permanently removed from the system. Deleting a job also deletes its child jobs. You cannot delete jobs that have not been completed.

  1. On the Jobs page, find the job you want to delete in the list. Check the box at the start of the job row.

    (You can check multiple boxes to delete multiple jobs at once.)

  2. Click the Delete button below the Completed Jobs table.

Job tables

  • The top of the jobs page lists active and running jobs. Active jobs include running jobs, as well as their child jobs. Running jobs do not include the top-level jobs that are just wrappers for child jobs and that do not run on any clients.

  • Jobs are sorted into separate tables for running jobs and completed jobs.

Column Name

Description

checkboxes

Allows you to select a job. You can apply actions to selected job(s) using the buttons below the list.

Job Id

The job’s unique identifier. Click on the id to view the job’s details.

Name

The job name and description.

Submitted By

The user account that submitted the job.

Priority

The job’s priority. Jobs with higher priorities are assigned to clients before jobs with lower priorities. 0 is the lowest priority.

Status

The job’s status. See Job Statuses.

Progress

The amount of work completed specified as a percentage.

Tasks

The status of child jobs. The first number in the column displays the number of finished child jobs while the second shows the number of total child jobs. If there are any failed/cancelled/abandoned child jobs, the column will add a message at the end saying “n failed” where n is the number of failed child jobs.

Time

The elapsed time for running jobs and the time to complete for completed jobs.

Elapsed time: the duration of time that the job has been running.

Time to Complete: the amount of time for the job to complete.

ETA

The estimated amount of time left until the job finishes.

Submission Time

The time when the job was submitted to the farm.

note icons

Indicates whether the job has a note attached to it or not.

Note exists. Hover over the icon to view the note. Click the icon to view the note’s full thread.

No note. Click the icon to add a note.

Job details

Click a Job ID in the job table to view the job’s details.

  • You can manage child jobs using a job table interface like the one on the top-level job page.

  • Click the Grid view link (to the right of the Job Details header) to switch the child job table to a compact view that shows the status and run times of all child jobs.

    Click Table view to return to the default view.

Field

Description

Name

The job name and description.

Submitted By

The user account that submitted the job.

Id

The job’s unique identifier.

Parent Job(s)

The jobs that depend on this job. Click on a parent job’s id to view its details. This field is hidden if the job has no parents.

Clients

The clients assigned to process the job. This field is hidden if there are no clients assigned to the job.

Status

The job’s status. See Job Statuses.

Overall Progress

The amount of work completed by this job and its child job specified as a percentage.

ETA

The estimated amount of time left until the job finishes.

Properties

Click the View link to see a list of the job’s properties.

Status Log

Click the View link to see a log of the status changes. This field is hidden if there are no status changes.

Cleanup

The script that is executed after the job finishes regardless of whether it succeeded or failed. This field is hidden if no such script has been assigned to the job.

Command

The commands that the job executes if the job is assigned to a client machine. This field is hidden if the job has no commands or if the job contains multiple sets of platform-specific commands.

Output Log

The combined STDOUT and STDERR outputs of the job’s command set execution. This field is hidden if the job has no commands.

Download Output Log

Click to download the job’s full output log. This button is hidden if the has no commands.

Download Diagnostics Information

Click to download the job’s full diagnostics details. Useful for debugging failed jobs.

Job properties

Click the View link next to Properties on the job details page to view these properties.

See Job Properties for more information.

Property

Description

Description

Optional description attached to the job.

Tries left

The number of attempts left for the job if the job fails. If tries left is greater than zero, then HQueue will automatically reschedule the job after failure and decrement the tries left property by one.

Priority

The job’s priority. Jobs with higher priorities are assigned to clients before jobs with lower priorities. 0 is the lowest priority.

Min Hosts

The minimum number of hosts required to run the job.

Max Hosts

The maximum number of hosts that can run the job.

Tags

The optional tags attached to the job. See Job Tags for more information.

Queue time

The time when the job was added to the server queue.

Runnable time

The time when the job was marked as available for assignment to a client machine.

Command start time

The time when the job began execution of its command set. This field is empty if the job has no commands.

Command end time

The time when the job finished execution of its command set. This field is empty if the job has no commands.

Start time

The time when the job started running on the assigned client machine.

End time

The time when the job finished.

Time to complete

The amount of time for the job to complete.

Time in queue

The amount of time that the job spent waiting before it started execution on a client machine. This field is hidden if the job has not started.

Time to run command

The amount of time that the job took to finish execution. This field is hidden if the job has not finished.

Requirements

A set of client conditions with every two lines corresponding to a condition. A client machine must match the conditions in order to be eligible for processing the job. See Job Conditions for more information. This field does not appear if the job has no conditions.

Resources

A set of global farm resources required by the job before it can execute. See Resources for more information.

Environment

A set of client’s environment variables. This field does not appear if no environment variable is set.

HQueue

Getting started

  • About HQueue

    HQueue is a general-purpose job scheduling system. You can use it to distribute renders, simulations, and other work to remote clients.

  • Installation

    How to set up a basic HQueue farm.

  • Configuration

    How to set configuration options for the HQueue server and clients.

  • How to submit jobs

    How to put work on the farm.

Managing the farm

  • Managing jobs

    How to view and manage jobs on the farm.

  • Managing clients

    How to use the web interface or local logins to add, remove, restart, and manage client machines.

  • Managing client groups

    How to use the web interface or local logins to create and manage groups of client machines.

  • Network Folders

    How to use the Network Folder management page.

  • Resources

    You can specify what resources (such as licenses) are available on each client, so jobs can be scheduled on clients where they can run.

  • Notes

    Each client and job can have informational notes attached.

Next steps

  • Logging

    HQueue stores separate logs for server errors and scheduling events, and each client also generates a log.

  • Uninstalling

    How to uninstall the HQueue server or client software.

  • FAQs

    Answers to frequently asked questions.

Guru level

  • Remote API

    You can connect to the HQueue server over the network and call functions to manipulate and query jobs and other information.

  • Jobs specification details

    More detail on the internals of a job specification for users who want to submit custom jobs.

  • Multiple clients, single machine

    A guide on how to run multiple HQueue clients on a single machine.