BuzzLightyear Posted February 13, 2014 Report Share Posted February 13, 2014 This same problem was posted by bwcc in August, 2011. (See: http://www.eias3d.com/forums/topic/771-help-renderama-slave-not-launching/?hl=%2Brenderama+%2Bslave) His Renderama Slaves wouldn't launch, and it seems like they "magically" fixed themselves, after he disconnected, and reconnected, his Ethernet cable. Unfortunately, that's not working for me. (I tried pulling the cable, and re-booting. No change.) The Slave Apps appear to begin to launch (zooms out and becomes transparent), but it never appears in the dock. I can't set the address on the slaves, because they never get to the desktop. Anyone else ever had this problem?? It's never happened to me before, and it only occurred when I installed a newly purchased copy (new serial number) of EI 9.1, on an 8-core running 10.8. Thanks for any input..., I'm kinda out of options. Chip (P.S. Rama works just fine on another 8-core I'm running, and always has.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomo Posted February 13, 2014 Report Share Posted February 13, 2014 Sorry wrong post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwcc Posted February 14, 2014 Report Share Posted February 14, 2014 very frustrating I know - did you try launching the slaves while the computer is disconnected from the network / internet? are you computers connected by a DSL/Cable router or switch? - kind of a obvious answer, try repair permissions? I think the problem I was having was when the slaves open they look for their set IP address and port number. I think if that port number is already in use or is blocked by the router (for whatever reason) the slave just gets confused and can't see the network. - If I remember correctly, I think I may have shut down the dsl router - disconnected everything, except for the phone line. Let it start up and establish a DSL connection. I was able to open the slaves while the computer was unplugged from the network and reset the port numbers. then connect only the computer to the dsl router. let it establish an ethernet connection. then plug in everything else to the router. not sure what fixed it - might have been just restarting the modem - but it did finally work. good luck! brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzLightyear Posted February 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 Thanks Brian - I'll try your approach; all good ideas. I think my real problem is that I'm on a massive network at a large corporation, with lots of security measures. Running stand-alone with a single cable connection (at home) is no problem. Who knows what kind of traps they have in their network. (My only attempt to get around it - so far - was to disconnect the Ethernet cable, and do a re-boot. But the slaves still wouldn't launch...) I appreciate your input, and was actually relieved to see your original post. At least I'm not losing my mind, and imagining the whole problem! ;-) Many thanks- Chip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomas Egger Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 Ola Chip, My guess, they have firewall enabled in their network, even in the Mac Pro you are using in the company, need to take a look in system preferences / network control panel of your Mac Pro. Thanks Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzLightyear Posted February 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 Thanks Tomas- I'll get back to the problem when I have some time, and let you know if I get it fixed. I'm using my own 8-core MacPro at work as well (not connected to the network), so I can use Rama on that machine for now. Thanks for all your input :-) Chip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supernovavfx Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 i don't know if EI will post this… but I've had similar issues with renderama…. it was not 'supposed' to happen but then i just found MY workaround. for example… as i switch between projects and situations I've literally went back into renderama and renamed my slaves brand NEW numbers like 1705 - 1706 - 1707 etc…. "THEN" they re - connected" with the 'render' I'm not sure why. I'm so used to troubleshooting and finding my own work arounds that its not worth sharing. Bottom Line…. I had to spend about an extra 5 minutes prepping new slaves for renders that averaged 6-12 hours…. once i get a set up to work i seem to have about 95% success… but i have to admit… going to NEW files on occasion makes the slaves nutty… but be patient and re entering brand new numbers takes only a few seconds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomo Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 I have found the new Rama to be exceptionally robust. I use it over Amazon elastic computing with many numbers of slaves on a regular basis and it just works! Ans that to me is a huge test. Local farm works easily as well. What is your setup supernovax? MAc to Mac slaves? Mac to PC slaves, PC to PC slaves?? Input as to how you solve your own problems is always appreciated. If you have to rename your slaves, what are those numbers? Ports or names. IMHO if your network is setup right rama just works. Before the changeover ( to V9.0) Rama was a nightmare. It is not now. I find. And yes they did post it!! Even if it is not worth sharing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzLightyear Posted February 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2014 Thanks for the input - I've been swamped and haven't had a chance to try your suggestions, but they are appreciated and I'll try them. (I'm running two 8-cores, and the one not connected to the work network runs slave camera's fine.) Quite honestly, my Rama has been bomb proof for years. I've never had to change anything, after I first set it up. I use it as a local farm on my 8-core, and it never lets me down (and cuts through frames like mad). And people are amazed to see it in action, and I always tell them how stable it is. Once I get back to finding out what the conflict is, I'll definitely post the solution. :-) Chip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzLightyear Posted March 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 For those interested parties, I _just_ got all 16 Rama Slaves to launch, and they're happily crunching frames as I type. (I'm using an "old" 8 core Tower with 16 threads.) I wish I had some magic bullet that I could say fixed my problem. But after trying everything I could think of to get the slaves to launch, I finally installed Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on a secondary internal drive, and had to re-install EI. Just to be safe, I did the install unplugged from the net, and launched Rama and a slave to see if they ran. No problems, so I connected the network, re-set the IP addresses on 16 slaves, and let it fly. It's working perfectly. So I can't really say if the problem was OSX 10.8, or the company network I'm running on (with LOTS of security measures). But I'd put my money on the security here, and whatever other software the company installed to protect their assets. (If anyone is running Rama on a multi-core machine on 10.8 or Maverics, I'd like to hear if it works.) Clearly there's no way EI can account for the infinite ways to configure a large corporations network, with many layers of security measures in place. I've always found Rama to be bomb-proof, and it seems to be back online for me :-))) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwcc Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 Running Renderama on Mavericks and Mountain Lion without any problems so far - but with Camera 9 using all the memory and all 8 cores I've have just been running 1 slave. I also have a Mac mini with 4 cores (8 virtual cores) running 1 slave. On your set up, since you have 16 slaves running do you divide the available memory among all the slaves? or set the max for each slave? Do you set each Camera to only run 1 thread? thanks brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzLightyear Posted March 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 Hi Brian - On my 16 thread machine, I have 24 Gig. RAM, and each Camera takes 1 Gig. I leave the threads at 16. On the other 8-Core (8 threads), I give each camera as much of the total 8 Gig. RAM that I can, usually around 850 Meg. I now run 8 & 16 slaves all the time, and it seems rock solid to me. It takes a little setup, but the frame throughput is fantastic. I've tried using one Camera with all 16 threads, vs. 16 Camera's, and the time savings using multiple Camera's is substantial. So I max my system out with every ounce of RAM and Slaves possible, and each CPU says it's running at 99.9% capacity. (Naturally I don't disturb the system by trying to do any other operations while it's rendering. There just isn't a single CPU cycle left!) Chip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzLightyear Posted March 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 As a final post to this thread, I can now absolutely say that it _was_ the "security measures" at my company that caused the Rama Slaves not to launch. I just had Mavericks installed on my secondary drive, and once again, the Slaves won't launch. But they run fine on the same machine when I boot from my other drive with 10.6.8. I always knew it wasn't Rama's fault, and I'll bet the Slaves would run fine on 10.9.2, if my machine wasn't loaded with all the file-vault/virus protection/security stuff that's been added here. (It's great fun to watch 16 Camera's crunching away on my files now :-) Chip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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