From the Hqueue web interface, it seems everything is working?!

I've got two machines- my workstation and another machine. I can see both from Hqueue.

Tests earlier today were just with my workstation- and everything worked fine. I could submit a job, ifds generate, frames rendered perfectly. All of this on our network drive too!

So, I've tried adding another machine to start integrating Houdini into a farm. At first the render node couldn't see the location of HqueueServer (###.##.###.###:5000) but after opening up the in/out bound port in Windows Firewall the second machine has popped up in the interface… only now when I try submit I get an error saying it can't connect!?

What's really strange is that I can select the clients to assign the job to… so it can obviously connect.
Anyone face a similar issue?

Here's the error report from the HQ rop (#'s replacing my IP address)



Error

Failed to save output to file “Traceback (most recent call last):

File ”CProgram Files/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.571/houdini/soho/python2.7/HQrender.py“, line 343, in

render()

File ”CProgram Files/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.571/houdini/soho/python2.7/HQrender.py“, line 148, in render

hqrop.submitJob(parms, _submitRenderJob)

File ”CProgram Files/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.571/houdini/python2.7libs\hqrop.py“, line 32, in submitJob

submit_function(parms)

File ”CProgram Files/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.571/houdini/soho/python2.7/HQrender.py", line 228, in _submitRenderJob

parms, hip_file)

File “CProgram Files/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.571/houdini/soho/python2.7/HQrender.py”, line 332, in _getProjectName

hqrop.getHQueueServerMachineFromURL(hq_server_url))

File “CProgram Files/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.571/houdini/python2.7libs\rendertracker.py”, line 44, in getConnection

_render_tracker_connection.isRunning()

File “CProgram Files/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.571/houdini/python2.7libs\hjsonrpc.py”, line 90, in __call__

response_code, response_data))

RPCException: Server returned error 502:


Could Not Connect


Description: Could not connect to the server “###.##.###.###”

Alright- I think it may have something to with our office's insane security/proxy settings.
It works when I only have my workstation talking with the Hqueue service but the minute I have an outside connection (even if it is behind our firewall… literally just a cubical over) it won't connect at all.

So- is there a way to generate ifds without rendering right away?

My thought is this:
1) Use my workstation to generate ifds (which is surprisingly pretty quick if I bake as much as possible to bgeos!)
2) Move ifds to a render farm on a different, less restrictive network, and process the frames
3) Move frames back to workstation for compositing

This does raise a few questions though…

I think if I have an NAS that's a clone one my workstation's standard assets (textures, models, etc) and map it with the same drive letters as my workstation it should work..? (I've done something similar with my home setup and Houdini Indie) Then, anything project specific would live the in HIP directory (sim, geo, etc) that would get cloned to an external drive then copied to that NAS.

Is there a way to execute the ifds without having to open Houdini?

Seems like a lot of leg work, but there's no way I'm going to talk the powers-that-be at work to make an exception just for me.

Yep you can write out IFDs from the Mantra ROP (http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/out/ifd.html#driver_tab [www.sidefx.com]) and they can be rendered from the command line using Mantra directly.

This thread shows how to render them: https://forums.odforce.net/topic/31580-rendering-ifd-files/ [forums.odforce.net]

Hope that helps

Thanks! That's really helpful!

Digging through the documentation now (not sure how I missed it).

It looks like it's just Houdini itself that can't cross the local machine barrier. Hqueue sees both machines and was able to do that initial upgrade process when they first joined.

Is there a way to submit the ifds for processing on both machines? Can I use Hqueue to process them without having to go through Houdini?

(Keep forgetting to mention we're on windows 7)

Thanks again!

Okay, found the bit about using multiple machines to process a single frame- is there a way to submit the whole frame range worth of ifds? And would the progress be visible from hqueue?