Hi Guys,

i recently acquired houdini Indie and very happy with it.

Im trying to set up a farm of 4 pc's. All 4 have Windows 8.1 64 on it.

1 workstation (server and client)
3 farm pc's (client)
1 2TB NAS for shared folder (can this work in small farm setup?)

Everything is linked to a 5 port switch.

I put hqserver on my main workstation, and it only see's itself in hqueue web interface, no other clients. the other machines in the Hclient log files read:

“no connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it”

any suggestions? I installed all server and client stuff with default settings so i didn't customize the ports and names

i tried disabling as many firewall / defender / security centre stuff as i could but still no go.

Or should i just install linux on the client machines. I would still like to use windows on my main workstation but i dont mind dropping linux on the farm pc's if it will mean Hqueue will work.

Is it possible your switch is blocking communication between devices?

Have you gone in & adjusted your hqueuenode.ini files on each slave so that they use the IP of your server?

when i put 127.0.0.1 it says the same thing as just leaving it localhost.

“actively refuses it”

when i put network ip “169.254.7.134” it can't find the server and gives error
getaddrinfo failed
it gives this error when i put any random name.

Why am i actively refusing the client pc's, i wish i could speak to my computer

yaay got it working
i am a huge idiot ofcourse.

i did not set the right stuff in hqserver file.

i set it to right values:


use = eggaste#http
host = 169.254.7.134
port = 5000

and my client to right values in hqnode

server = 169.254.7.134
port = 5000

it now sees the thing. Next step getting a render out

just another update for anyone else having problems,

when hq render gives the error “indie does not support generating disk files” you must update to latest daily / production build. trying that now.

next problem

after failing the job this is the reason

“ERROR: Cannot open file //localhost/Htest_01_4.hiplc”

ok got it “all” working.



only issue i need to fix now is i get an error when i use $JOB but not when i use $HIP. Even if both variables point to the EXACT SAME location. So i am messaging support now to see if they can help me.

the error i get is it cannot save mantra renders when i use $JOB.

“Error: Failed to create file ”Z/project/blah.jpg : No such file or directory“.”

but when i use $HIP as the variable it can save that location no problem

here is the phenomenon

that problem is also now fixed. everything works as it should now,

thanks sidefx support

Hello Goddy,

Try setting $JOB to the UNC path version of Z: (i.e. //host_machine_name/share_name).

Windows services, like the HQueue Client service, have network limitations. Mapped network drive letters are not guaranteed to be accessible by services. However UNC paths will work.

And the reason why $HIP works is because HQueue opens the .hip file on the farm using a UNC path so Houdini internally sets $HIP to the UNC path.

Cheers,

Support

Goddy McRoodt
next problem

after failing the job this is the reason

“ERROR: Cannot open file //localhost/Htest_01_4.hiplc”

Hi Goddy,

Do you remember how you fixed this specific error? Thanks

Hey Paleo!

That is related to file paths. Make sure everything in your scene navigates through $JOB.

So make sure your pc, and the network render pc navigates through $JOB to the file path, be it your saved scene file, or texture path, anything.

So take this scenario,
you have a file server called “fileserver”
you have “fileserver”'s network drive mounted on YOUR pc as Z:
you have the same network drive mounted on your render pc as Y:

So lets say you saved your scene file on Zprojects/myscene/scene.hip , obviously when your hqueue pc opens the job, it fails fast because it does not see “Z”

So the best way to do it is to use network names instead. So instead of using “Zprojects/myscene/scene.hip”, use $JOB/projects/myscene/scene.hip

where $JOB is “\\fileserver”, which is your network pc's location

in houdini, click on the top tab “edit” then “aliases and variables”, click on the “variables” tab, click on “JOB” and insert your file path there. mine looks like this:


now that you have your LOCAL pc set up with this $JOB variable pointing to your file server, you have to do the same at HQUEU.

Go to your HQUEU node and add this variable there as well.


please note, i used 3 backslashes, middle mouse click on the text “variable value” and see what the code evaluates as, houdini has a small bug where the first slash goes away and you end up with 2 which is correct. (two “\\” means network path or domain name path)


now go middle mouse on one of your $JOB paths and see it evaluate correctly like this:


please inbox me if you need some more details or help over skype or something

Cool!

it also seems your LOCALHOST is not set up, maybe,

this is mine

Thank you for this lenghty reply, will try this tonight and report on how it goes!

Thank you, this is a perfect start to the weekend, this did it ! Again, thank you Goddy !

paleoPixels
Thank you, this is a perfect start to the weekend, this did it ! Again, thank you Goddy !

Goddy McRoodt
next problem

after failing the job this is the reason

“ERROR: Cannot open file //localhost/Htest_01_4.hiplc”

I have “ERROR: Cannot find file” did same as you suggest! Pls help!

Hi Alex,

Make sure your server computer also knows where this file, both your workstation and render node need to have access to the same files, in the same way. Firewalls / permissions can also hurt.

I can help with more information like - what operating systems between the nodes, are they looking at the same file server etc.

upload your scene as well then i can have a look

G

All pc and working on Windows. My server comp renders fine. Firewall are disabled, i have access to files on both computers. Maybe permissions are fault? Attach test scene and some screenshots. Thanks for your time!

Hi thanks for the files!

Ok the “cannot find fild” refers to your houdini scene, so the hqeue node cannot find your .HIP file.

i see your scene aliases and variables for $JOB is “//RFServer/hq/projects” but your ENV on the HQUEU node is “\\RFSERVER\HQ\PROJECTS\TEST”

Make these 2 the same, and be sure to navigate through the $JOB part of your save dialog box to have everything $JOB. If you use $HIP the render node might not understand where everything needs to go

G

Same thing. I'll try different variations of path but its doesn't work

Problem is solved. Its because i haven't permission to login in client machine.
But i have another problem with tile render. Mantra stitch tiles wrong

Warning: //RFServer/hq/projects/Test/Renders\box_test_tile03_1.jpg does not have a data or cropwindow