Hi all,

I think I know the answer already. Just checking how HQueue deals with different operating systems. Sorry if this is one of those questions that gets asked a lot… The results from my searches were somewhat close to what I was looking for.

With HQueue, I can have this kind of setup right?:

2 machines

1 is the main Houdini workstation, as well as the HQueue Server, which sends jobs to the HQueue Client running on this machine as well as the other 1
- Operating System: Ubuntu Linux

The other 1 gets to have an HQueue Client running on it, so it can accept render/sim jobs.
- Operating System: Windows 7 Professional

I can do that? Yes?

I would have tried it by now, except I am still in the process of purchasing some hardware and then a Houdini Indie license.

Thank you.

Hello,

Yes. That is a perfectly fine setup that you've described.

The tricky part of the setup will be establishing a network folder that is accessible by both machines so that they can share files with each other. But that's a general networking/farm problem independent of HQueue.

Once you have a network folder established, you just need to register it with the HQueue Server's configuration file, /opt/hqueue/hqserver.ini. Since you have a mix of Windows and Linux then you would need to set at least these configuration values:
- hqserver.sharedNetwork.host => name of machine hosting the network folder
- hqserver.sharedNetwork.mount.linux => Linux mount point to network folder
- hqserver.sharedNetwork.path.windows => UNC network path to network folder (i.e. \\host_machine\shared_folder)
- hqserver.sharedNetwork.mount.windows => Network drive letter mapped to network folder

If everything is configured correctly, then that will cause the $HQROOT job variable to translate to the mount point path on Linux and the UNC network path on Windows.

You would also have to install a Linux copy of Houdini into the network folder as well as a Windows copy:
- http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hqueue16.0/help/faqs#how-do-i-install-houdini-onto-the-shared-folder-for-my-linux-client-machines [www.sidefx.com]
- http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hqueue16.0/help/faqs#how-do-i-install-houdini-onto-the-shared-folder-for-my-windows-client-machines [www.sidefx.com]

Then you should be good to go.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Rob

Great thank you for the comprehensive reply Rob

I figured HQueue would be designed to handle this sort of thing.

I reckon that sounds easy enough as long as I do my partitioning right. The new PC is coming next week. Then I'll be getting everything up and running, and purchasing my indie license once I've figured my way around Linux.

Thanks again. Cheers