Net Render Manager Crash

[Iain McFadzen]

We had too many instances of the ManagerApp crashing out at night when there was no-one here to baby-sit it (it usually crashed about 30 seconds after the last artist left, go figure). In the end we got one of the programmers to write a little watcher program that checks the manager every ten minutes and restarts it in the event of a crash.

Not much help to you really, but if we did it someone then else may have had to do it too, so it might be worth having a search for something similar (or find yourself a sympathetic programer).

If it's been working fine until recently I'd suggest trying to run the manager from a different workstation for a day or two. If it keeps crashing you've probably got a network problem, not a Max problem. If it stops crashing you know the manager machine is screwed.

[Dougy]

Try running the manager as a service under W2k. With this you can set it so that if it crashes/fails it can reload and even set it to reboot the system if it crashes/fails upto 3 times. You can find out how to in the Max help file.

[s2a-adamk]

Thanks guys.
The last place I worked a few years ago did set up manger and server as a service that launched when the machine booted. I would like to do this again. Any tips on how to set that up? (I'll try the help files - but we all know how that goes.)

I do think it is a router/network problem (win2k). Seems there are DNS errors and other things going on all of a sudden. Could this be a win2k server (lack of) issue? This is the first month we are running 10 or so machines on the workgroup and the "server" is just a win2k pro.

Thanks again,
a

[gaggle]

Sorry I can't help with your crashing-problem, just wanted to ask if you're aware of the whole 10-user limitation Windows Pro editions has? It can generate a whole host of odd-looking network-error timeouts when more than 10 computers are trying to do the network-manager-dance :)
Just wanted to mention it in case it's not an issue you're aware of, to catch it before you upgrade to the 11th machine :o)

[Dougy]

Sounds like you've hit the maximum connection/licence issue. If you are using more than 10 machines -[in fact can be less depending on what else you are running] you will need to use Windows Server.

[Iain McFadzen]

The 10 machine limit surely only applies when all the machines are networked using only 2KPro? I have to ask because our farm has 20+ machines and they all run on 2KPro (in application mode) without any problems. This is on a large already-existing network though (which I know absolutely nothing about, not being in the least bit techy), so I'm assuming our network must be running 2KServer somewhere.

Anyone care to enlighten me/ clarify this?

[Dougy]

Only when using an MS operating system.And even then the problem is just with the machine thats accepts the rendered frames because of the connection limit when using W2kPro or XPPro.

You could set that machine up to use linux purely for depositing the frames on which would get around the connection issues:thumbsup: but you couldnt then use that machine for Max rendering:thumbsdow

[Iain McFadzen]

Ahhh I get it now. Our frames aren't sent to any local drive, they are sent to the common network drive.

Thanks for clearing that up, you learn something new every day.

[s2a-adamk]

Hey thanks again.
10 limit... no didn't know - I thought it was 20 - wasn't that the magic number for NT? That would be it. I think we had the 11th machine on the other day.

Guess it is server time... errrr... windows.

Can someone help we with the "service" stuff? I got the MMC - but can't figure out how to add software applications? Want to make net server / manger start on boot.

thanks again,
a

[Dougy]

To run the 3d Max manager as an NT service in W2k press the 'Start' button on the task bar and select 'Run'.

press the 'browse' button and find the root of your 3dsmax4 installation - ie.. C:\3dsmax4\

Select the file called ManagerSvc.exe so the line looks like:
C:\3dsmax4\ManagerSvc.exe

Now to this line add at the end -i. The i is for install :-). If you want to remove the manager do all of the above except add -r instead of -i for remove. It should look like:
C:\3dsmax4\ManagerSvc.exe -i and press OK.A Dos box should appear briefly and that's all - its installed.

To set it up to restart on failure go Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services and find the manager service youve just installed. Double-click it and choose the Recovery tab and the rest should be self-explanatory.

Depending on your setup you may also need to change the log on settngs.

Hope that helps.

[s2a-adamk]

Thanks Dougy. It took me a few tries but I finally figured it out. Right about the log on settings - had to change.

Now to answer the first quesiton = yes it is the drive connection limit. It is finally telling me so - now that the service is set up.

Thanks for all of yous help.
I see if I can find a bigger problem next.

a

[Dougy]

No problem - glad it worked:thumbsup:

[ErickG]

The crash problem might be related to a conflecting service. We had the same problem after we installed an NFS application on our server.

BTW as long as you are running win2000 server on the machine you are writing the frames to you sould not have any problem. We are running 50+ machine farm and they are all win2K with only one box running server that collects all the files.

-Erick

p.s. What version of Max, windows (service pack), etc are you running?

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