Hi,

Did anyone manage to run hqueue successfully on Windows ?
I set all permissions to everyone, no password to access network shares, disabled firewalls, I can perfectly create a new file on the shared folder without having to give any user/password, but in HQueue I still get “Access denied” // or cannot open //COMPUTERNAME/path_to_file.hip

depending on wether I leave
$HQROOT/houdini_distros/hfs.$HQCLIENTARCH
or set it to CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.634
in target HFS

Works with local files (using render target hip file, and the local Houdini version), so I've narrowed it down to to network permission, no luck still.

Thanks.
Vincent

I have the same problem!!! :?

hi! it should work. check this http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hqueue12.0/help/faqs#my-job-fails-with-an- [sidefx.com]'access-is-denied'-error-when-run-on-a-windows-client-machine.-how-can-i-fix-this

Thanks for the tip, but after some more testing with everything local to get rid of permission errors, it was still quite unreliable so we ended up using deadline which works well.

I'm getting the same error. Any solution? I know every setting is what it should be, so the only thing I can think of is network problems.

I have a fully functioning Windows 7 HQueue farm now running. Here is what I discovered while setting it up:

1. Do NOT use the windows hqclient service. Use hqclientd.bat.
2. Create a separate render login with administrator privileges and access to the shared drive. (everybody logs into this when they leave for the day and/or this is what you use for dedicated render nodes)
3. While logged in to your special render login, create a basic task within the task scheduler to start hqclientd.bat upon login. Note that the field “Start in (optional)” is NOT optional. You must enter the full path to the batch file.
4. In the hqueue web interface, if a client reports *NEEDS UPGRADE* it means the windows hqclient service is running and the node will fail all jobs. Fix this by running hqclientd.bat found in the HQClient install directory.
5. Make sure all machines have the same install of Houdini in the same place
6. Make sure HQClient is installed in the same place on each machine

The rest of the set up is as per the manual.

I hope this is useful. It took many hours and many innocent lives to deliver this information.

lor

Bookmarked !

Rob

Guys, sorry about a silly question)
But what is the correct way to specify a path to Houdini(Target HFS) if i installed it locally in

c:\sidefx

on all of the clients

Thanks!

All your machines need installation in exactly the same location. The target HFS can be the path to the install, for example:

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 12.5.316.22\

lor
All your machines need installation in exactly the same location. The target HFS can be the path to the install, for example:

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 12.5.316.22\

So this option is better than targeting a distro in the server machine? I suppose because it doesn't have to access to the network. Is it right?

merlino3d

lor
All your machines need installation in exactly the same location. The target HFS can be the path to the install, for example:

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 12.5.316.22\

So this option is better than targeting a distro in the server machine? I suppose because it doesn't have to access to the network. Is it right?

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hqueue12.5/help/installation.html [sidefx.com] (Point 9.)

ACCESS DENIED ERROR SOLVED!!!!

Holy Crap.
You are an administrator with all privileges, yet you still get “Access Denied” errors. The issue is that Windows now installs with UAC (User Account Controls) enabled. Disable them. Once I did this, I was able to disable the windows hqclient service and now my farm is rock solid.

If you're having trouble getting a machine running take these steps:

1: log in to your render account
2. Check your services. Ensure that Hqclient is DISABLED
3. open a command prompt, navigate to c:\Hqueueclient\
4. enter: hqclientd.bat stop
5. Using windows explorer, go to c:\hqueueclient\ and delete any .pid files.
6. back at the command prompt, type hqclientd.bat start.

If hqclientd.bat is in your task scheduler and scheduled to run whenever your render account is logged in, your machine should now work reliably, automatically picking up frames as soon as it is logged in.

good Luck

merlino3d

lor
All your machines need installation in exactly the same location. The target HFS can be the path to the install, for example:

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 12.5.316.22\

So this option is better than targeting a distro in the server machine? I suppose because it doesn't have to access to the network. Is it right?

Yes.

lor
ACCESS DENIED ERROR SOLVED!!!!

Holy Crap.
You are an administrator with all privileges, yet you still get “Access Denied” errors. The issue is that Windows now installs with UAC (User Account Controls) enabled. Disable them. Once I did this, I was able to disable the windows hqclient service and now my farm is rock solid.

If you're having trouble getting a machine running take these steps:

1: log in to your render account
2. Check your services. Ensure that Hqclient is DISABLED
3. open a command prompt, navigate to c:\Hqueueclient\
4. enter: hqclientd.bat stop
5. Using windows explorer, go to c:\hqueueclient\ and delete any .pid files.
6. back at the command prompt, type hqclientd.bat start.

If hqclientd.bat is in your task scheduler and scheduled to run whenever your render account is logged in, your machine should now work reliably, automatically picking up frames as soon as it is logged in.

good Luck

Thank you!!!

With Hqueue its possible to resume a failed render, for example if there is a power off? I don't know how to do that Hqueue always starts again from the initial frame and overrides all.

Thank you!!!

lor
ACCESS DENIED ERROR SOLVED!!!!
Holy Crap.
You are an administrator with all privileges, yet you still get “Access Denied” errors.

Since Vista, a normal administrator accountno longer has elevated rights by default and acts like a “standard user” account now. While signed in an administrator account you can either use “run as administrator” (elevated) or approve an UAC prompt when prompted to allow something to elevated instead.

Standard user (Users) - The standard account is an unelevated restricted users account. It can help protect your computer by preventing users from making changes that affect everyone who uses the computer, such as deleting files that are required for the computer to work. It is recommend to create a standard account for each user instead of an administrator account for the user. When you are logged on to Windows with a standard account, you can do almost anything that you can do with an administrator account, but if a standard user wanted to do something that requires elevated rights that affects other users of the computer, such as installing software or changing security settings, Windows will give the standard user a UAC prompt to enter the password of an administrator account for approval and confirmation before allowing the action.

administrator user - Is an unelevated administrator account that is created by default during the installation of Windows 7, or is already setup or you on a OEM (ex: Dell) computer. An administrator account has complete access to the computer, and can make any desired changes. To help make the computer more secure, this administrator account type will be prompted by UAC by default to give confirmation before allowed to make any changes that require elevated administrator rights. Such as those that affect the system, other users, or when running anything elevated (Run as Administrator) since running elevated will allow it to have access to the entire computer.

Built-in “Administrator” - Is the hidden elevated local administrator account that has full unrestricted access rights and permission on the computer. By default, this elevated “Administrator” account is not prompted by UAC by default to provide confirmation before allowed to make any changes that require elevated administrator permissions since it is an elevated account.

The built-in elevated Administrator account and anything that runs while signed in to this account has full unrestricted elevated rights. That's why this account should not be used for everyday usage, but only as needed instead. Something could easily run in the background with full elevated rights without you ever knowing about it since you never got a UAC prompt for you to allow or deny letting it run elevated first.

For your trusted programs that need to run elevated, you could set Compatibility Mode for them to always “run as administrator”. While signed in to a normal administrator account, you would be prompted by UAC first when you want to open the program before it is allowed to run elevated.

https://www.google.pl/search?client=opera&q=hidden+administrator+account+windows+7&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 [google.pl]

alejandro
With Hqueue its possible to resume a failed render, for example if there is a power off? I don't know how to do that Hqueue always starts again from the initial frame and overrides all.

Thank you!!!

Reschedule the job. It will fail and frames that have already rendered, because the IFDs are missing, but that's OK, because the frames have already rendered. It should carry on with the remaining frames.

Hope that works for you

After a good long chat with Houdini tech support the other day, in which they helped me with a myriad of difficulties, we've found the real fix! Here's the new documentation:

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hqueue14.0/help/faqs#my-job-fails-with-an- [sidefx.com]'access-is-denied'-error-when-run-on-a-windows-client-machine.-how-can-i-fix-this

If you see an ‘Access is denied’ error early on in the job output then the HQueue Client could not access files on the shared folder. To fix this try changing the user account running the HQueue Client service to the Windows user account that you are logged in with.

Open the Windows Services window (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services) and locate the HQueue Client service in the list. RMB-click the service and choose Properties.

In the Properties dialog select the Log On tab and then select the “This account:” radio button. Change the user account and password to your Windows account and password. Click OK to save the changes and close the dialog.

Now RMB-click the HQueue Client service again and select Restart to restart the service.

If you still encounter an ‘Access is denied.’ error after this change then you can try the following workaround:

Run the HQueue client process outside of Windows services.

Stop the HQueue Client service (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services). Then start the HQueue Client process manually by opening the Windows File Explorer, navigating to C:\HQueueClient and double-clicking on the hqclientd.bat file.

Note that with this workaround you must manually start the HQueue Client every time you reboot the Windows machine.

Any of this changed in Windows 10? I've followed all this through as best I can and still get only Access is Denied. My Linux client, no issues, but hoping to use a Laptop without dual-booting (it's too new, the NIC isn't easily supported in Linux).

Cheers,

Peter B

pbowmar
Any of this changed in Windows 10? I've followed all this through as best I can and still get only Access is Denied. My Linux client, no issues, but hoping to use a Laptop without dual-booting (it's too new, the NIC isn't easily supported in Linux).

I have identical problems with Perforce in W10, and haven't been able to solve them.
The main cause is that the drives (shares) that you mount as an user are not actually seen by the different user (Administrator or System) that runs the service. Running the service as your user should solve that, but it doesn't.
I'll try batch files to mount the shares next.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/182750/map-a-network-drive-to-be-used-by-a-service [stackoverflow.com]
http://answers.perforce.com/articles/KB/8794 [answers.perforce.com]

Sigh. Nothing's changed in over 15 years I'll see if I can get the network card working under Linux then…