No. HQueue itself does not require a license.

However, HQueue render and simulation jobs that launch Houdini, Mantra, and Karma require access to the appropriate licenses to run those applications.

The HQueue server can run on macOS, Windows, and Linux. The server machine should have at least 2 CPUs and 4GB of RAM. It should also have a decent network card to handle network traffic from client machines and other observers.

The HQueue client has the same system requirements as Houdini. See Houdini System Requirements.

The HQueue server listens for incoming connections on port 5000.

The HQueue clients listen for incoming connections on port 5001.

These ports must be opened in any local firewalls for the server and clients to communicate with each other.

Yes. It is possible to add the HQueue server machine as a client machine to the farm.

This is recommended for mini farms consisting of less than 10 client machines.

For larger farms a dedicated server machine is recommended since job processing can take away hardware resources (i.e. CPU, memory) from the HQueue server.

See Network Folders Configuration.

See How to Submit Jobs.

$HQROOT is a variable that exists in the environment of a running job. It maps to a folder path that represents the main network folder registered in HQueue. Its value depends on the operating system of the client machine running the job.

$HQROOT can be used in any file or directory path parameter in HQueue Render and Simulation ROPs. For example, it can be used in the Target HFS parameter to specify a copy of Houdini that is installed in the main network folder.

See Network Folders Configuration for more information.

$HQCLIENTARCH is a variable that exists in the environment of a running job. It maps to a string representing the platform of the client machine running the job.

$HQCLIENTARCH is used by the Target HFS parameter in HQueue Render and Simulation ROPs. It allows users to specify a platform-independent path to a platform-dependent Houdin installation. This is only useful for farms that have a mix of macOS, Windows, and Linux client machines.

See adding a macOS client in the installation guide.

To install Houdini to a location in the network folder:

1. First download and install the Houdini Launcher.

2. Open a Terminal app and type:

cd /Applications/Houdini Launcher.app/Contents/MacOS

# Run the Houdini Launcher's command line interface to install Houdini.
# NOTE: This assumes that the network folder is mounted at
# /Volumes/myShare and that Houdini is to be installed in the standard
# "houdini_distros" folder.
sudo ./houdini_installer install --product "Houdini" --version X.Y.ZZZ --settings-file /path/to/launcher_settings.ini --accept-EULA=SideFX-20XX-XX-XX --installdir /Volumes/myShare/houdini_distros/HoudiniX.Y.ZZZ

# Create a non-versioned symbolic link to the Houdini distro.
# NOTE: Houdini render and simulation jobs by default look for Houdini
# at "$HQROOT/houdini_distros/hfs.$HQCLIENTARCH" where $HQROOT maps to
# the network folder mount point and $HQCLIENTARCH maps to
# "macosx-x86_64" for macOS machines.
cd /Volumes/myShare/houdini_distros
rm -f hfs.macosx-x86_64
ln -sf HoudiniX.Y.ZZZ/Frameworks/Houdini.framework/Versions/Current/Resources hfs.macosx-x86_64

See Houdini Launcher - Scripting installations for more information on installing Houdini from the command line.

To change the HQueue client’s user account:

• Open /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.sidefx.hqclient.plist in a text editor.

• Locate this line:

<string>hquser</string>

and replace it with:

<string>MyUser</string>

where MyUser is the username of the desired user account.

• Save the changes to the file.

• Then run these commands in a terminal:

# Stop the HQueue client service.
sudo launchctl unload -F /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.sidefx.hqclient.plist

# Change ownership to MyUser for the HQueue client files.
sudo chown -R MyUser /Library/HQueueClient
sudo chown -R MyUser /Library/Logs/HQueueClient

# Restart the HQueue client service.
sudo launchctl load -F /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.sidefx.hqclient.plist

See adding a Windows client in the installation guide.

To install Houdini to a location in the network folder:

1. First download and install the Houdini Launcher.

2. Open a Windows command prompt and type:

cd C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software/Launcher

# Run the Houdini Launcher's command line interface to install Houdini.
#
# NOTE: This assumes the network folder is mapped at H: and 
# Houdini is to be intalled in the standard "houdini_distros" folder.
#
# NOTE: HQueue render and simulation jobs by default look for Houdini
# at "$HQROOT/houdini_distros/hfs.$HQCLIENTARCH" where $HQROOT maps to
# the network folder and $HQCLIENTARCH maps to "windows-x86_64" for
# Windows machines.
houdini_installer.exe install --product "Houdini" --version X.Y.ZZZ --settings-file C:\path\to\launcher_settings.ini --accept-EULA=SideFX-20XX-XX-XX --installdir H:\houdini_distros\hfs.windows-x86_64

See Houdini Launcher - Scripting installations for more information on installing Houdini from the command line.

To change the HQueue client’s user account:

1. Go to Windows Start menu ▸ Task Scheduler.

2. In the Task Scheduler, look for the HQueueClient task, then the task and choose End.

3. Then the task again and choose Properties.

4. In the Properties dialog, click the Change User or Group… button. Enter the desired username in the text field. You can even click on the Check Names button to verify the username.

5. Click OK and then OK again to save the changes and close the dialogs.

6. In the Task Scheduler, the HQueueClient task and choose Run to restart the client.

See adding a Linux client in the installation guide.

To install Houdini to a location in the network folder:

1. First download and install the Houdini Launcher.

2. Open a terminal and type:

cd /opt/sidefx/launcher/bin

# Run the Houdini Launcher's command line interface to install Houdini.
#
# NOTE: This assumes the network folder is mounted at /mnt/myShare
# and Houdini is to be intalled in the standard "houdini_distros"
# folder.
sudo ./houdini_installer install --product "Houdini" --version X.Y.ZZZ --settings-file /path/to/launcher_settings.ini --accept-EULA=SideFX-20XX-XX-XX --installdir /mnt/myShare/houdini_distros/hfsX.Y.ZZZ-linux-x86_64

# Create a non-versioned symbolic link to the Houdini installation.
#
# NOTE: HQueue render and simulation jobs by default look for Houdini
# at "$HQROOT/houdini_distros/hfs.$HQCLIENTARCH" where $HQROOT maps to
# the network folder and $HQCLIENTARCH maps to "linux-x86_64" for
# Linux machines.
cd /mnt/myShare/houdini_distros
ln -sf hfsX.Y.ZZZ-linux-x86_64 hfs.linux-x86_64

See Houdini Launcher - Scripting installations for more information on installing Houdini from the command line.

If HQueue becomes slow after adding a large number of client machines then it is possible that the server machine is unable to handle the amount of network traffic on the farm. Adding a redundant network card (NIC) to the server machine can help handle network bandwidth and bring HQueue back to a more responsive state.

If a job is marked as abandoned and it stays abandoned then there are a couple of possible causes:

1. The HQueue client machine assigned to the job was terminated. In this case, restart the HQueue client and reschedule the abandoned job.

2. The HQueue client machine assigned to the job can no longer connect to the HQueue server. In this case, check if network connections from the client machine to the server are possible. This can be tested by opening a web browser on the client machine and navigating to the HQueue server URL, http://serverMachine:5000.

   Once networking connection issues are resolved the HQueue client will be able to contact the HQueue server and the job will move out of the abandoned status.

If a job jumps between the abandoned and the running statuses then it is likely that the client machine assigned to the job has multiple HQueue Clients running and conflicting with each other.

To fix this error kill all HQueue client processes on the client machine and restart the HQueue client.

HQueue requires a valid username and password in order to remotely connect to the client machine and restart the HQueue client.

To fix an “Invalid username or password” error:

1. Go to the Clients page on the web interface and click on the client machine name to view the machine’s details.

2. On the next page, click on Set Username and Password inside the Remote Login section.

3. Set the Username and Password fields to the username and password of the user account that runs the HQueue client on the client machine.

4. Click Save to complete setting the registered username and password.

A “Permission denied” error indicates the HQueue client, which runs with a generic hquser user account, does not have permission to access the network folder.

To fix this error, change the user account running the HQueue client to a macOS user account with access to the network folder. This must be done on the client machine that failed the job. For details, see this FAQ.

If multiple HQueue clients are running then do the following:

1. Stop the HQueue client

   Open a Terminal app and type the following:

   sudo launchctl unload -F /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.sidefx.hqclient.plist
   

2. Kill additional HQueue client processes

   In a terminal, list the additional HQueue client processes with this command:

   ps -ef | grep hqnode.py
   

   Note

   HQueue client processes can be identified by the hqnode.py Python script file.

   The command output will show the ids of the processes, typically in the 2nd column.

   Then kill the HQueue client processes by their ids by running this terminal command:

   killall -9 <process_id1> <process_id2> ...
   

3. Restart the HQueue client

   Open a Terminal app and type the following:

   sudo launchctl load -F /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.sidefx.hqclient.plist
   

An “Access is denied” error indicates that the HQueue client does not have permission to access the network folder.

To fix this error, change the user account running the HQueue client to a Windows user account with access to the network folder. This must be done on the client machine that failed the job. For details, see this FAQ.

A “cannot find the path” error indicates that the HQueue client cannot locate a file or folder on disk. This can happen for a number of reasons, however, if you are working with mapped network drives, then it is likely that the HQueue client does not have access to a mapped network drive. In this case, first ensure that the task runs with a Windows user account that has access to the mapped network drives. For details on how to do this, see this FAQ. Then register mapped network drives with the HQueue client configuration file as described here and restart the HQueue client.

A “Cannot find file” error can indicate that the HQueue client cannot see the network folder.

To fix this error, change the user account running the HQueue client to a Windows user account with access to the network folder. This must be done on the client machine that failed the job. For details, see this FAQ.

If multiple HQueue clients are running then do the following:

1. Stop the HQueue client

   Go to the client machine and open a Windows Command Prompt window. In the Command Prompt window, run the following commands:

   C:
   cd HQueueClient
   hqclientd.bat stop
   

2. Kill additional HQueue client processes

   Open the Windows Task Manager. In the Processes list, kill all python*.exe processes by on each matching process and choosing End task.

3. Restart the HQueue client

   Follow the instructions here to restart the HQueue client.

• If your machine is using systemd, make sure that the hqueue-client service is enabled and started:

  sudo systemctl enable hqueue-client
  sudo systemctl start hqueue-client
  

  If the machine still does not appear, inspect the logs of the service:

  journalctl -b --no-pager -u hqueue-client
  

• If your machine does not use systemd, the HQueue client is not automatically setup as a registered daemon. This means that when the client machine is rebooted the HQueue client does not automatically start up during the machine’s boot sequence.

  You need to manually restart the HQueue client after a reboot. See this FAQ for restarting the HQueue client.

  Alternatively, you could configure the HQueue client as a registered daemon to automatically start up after a reboot.

  For example, if your Linux operating system supports initd to manage the initialization of daemons then you can run these terminal commands to register the HQueue client:

  sudo ln -sf /home/hquser/hqclient/hqclientd /etc/init.d/hqclientd
  sudo update-rc.d hqclientd defaults
  

  Replace /home/hquser/hqclient with the location of the HQueue client installation.

• If your machine is using systemd, make sure that the hqueue-server service is enabled and started:

  sudo systemctl enable hqueue-server
  sudo systemctl start hqueue-server
  

  If the machine still does not appear, inspect the logs of the service:

  journalctl -b --no-pager -u hqueue-server
  

• If your machine does not use systemd, the HQueue server is not automatically setup as a registered daemon. This means that when the server machine is rebooted the HQueue server does not automatically start up during the machine’s boot sequence.

  You need to manually restart the HQueue server after a reboot. See this FAQ for restarting the HQueue server.

  Alternatively, you could configure the HQueue server as a registered daemon to automatically start up after a reboot.

  For example, if your Linux operating system supports initd to manage the initialization of daemons then you can run these terminal commands to register the HQueue server:

  sudo ln -sf /opt/hqueue/scripts/hqserverd /etc/init.d/hqserverd
  sudo update-rc.d hqserverd defaults
  

If multiple HQueue clients are running then do the following:

1. Stop the HQueue client

   If your machine uses systemd, open a terminal and type the following:

   sudo systemctl stop hqueue-client
   

   If your machine does not use systemd, open a terminal and type the following:

   cd /home/hquser/hqclient
   ./scripts/hqclientd stop
   

   Replace /home/hquser/hqclient with the location of the HQueue client installation.

2. Kill additional HQueue client processes

   In a terminal, list the additional HQueue client processes with this command:

   ps -ef | grep hqnode.py
   

   Note

   HQueue client processes can be identified by the hqnode.py Python script file.

   The command output will show the ids of the processes, typically in the 2nd column.

   Then kill the HQueue client processes by their ids by running this terminal command:

   killall -9 <process_id1> <process_id2> ...
   

3. Restart the HQueue client

   If your machine uses systemd, type the following:

   sudo systemctl start hqueue-client
   

   If your machine does not use systemd, type the following:

   cd /home/hquser/hqclient
   ./scripts/hqclientd start