(I'm on Linux, but there's a chap on Reddit this morning having exactly the same issue on Windows. Redshift loads fine in the GUI but not via hbatch. Thought I'd finally get round to asking for the canonical solution)

The houdini.env file is the place to set up $HSITE, playing with $PATH, stating the location of plugins like Redshift - at least as far as the full-blown GUI Houdini app is concerned.

But when HQueue asks a client to render something, any houdini.env file on the client's drive is ignored, it seems.

For the last few years I've resorted to stuffing my essential env vars into the end of $HFS/houdini_setup. It works but feels wrong.

Where are environment variables supposed to be defined on HQClients? I know you can add job-specific environment variables within the HQueue ROP in a project, but that seems inappropriate for variables that are static / sitewide, like $HSITE.

People running Redshift on an HQueue farm, where do you add your redshift folders to $PATH?

Hi , did you solve this problem ?
I also would love to have an answer this question.
I am in exactly the same situtation.
( I am on Windows 10 )
Thanks

I don't know how others do it, but this is what we do:

• Hide the submit button
  
• Create a new submit button that:
  Calls a script to populate the advanced tab with the baked-down vars
  Presses the original submit button
  

Sean

Hi , thanks a bunch for you answer.
Do I need all these variables ?
or can I just add those that are present in my houdini .env file ?

It gets better, all starts fine but after a good initialization, redshift complains about license :

[Redshift] RAISING EXCEPTION: Maxon licensing error: User not logged in (7)

Like in your example above, I created a reshift_LICENSE variable pointing to "redshift-core2.lic" in redshift directory.
Are there other information that redshift MUST have ?

You should only need to init the vars that are present in your houdini.env file. That licensing issue is new to me - I'm guessing you're using the new Maxon installer. You do need to make sure that you're logged in as the same user when you install Redshift as the one that you run hclient from. What happens if you try running a job manually from that machine (ie with hbatch)?

(just to add - you don't necessarily need to do all this variable set up with scripting; if it's just you using this network you may as well set up an HQueue ROP node with whatever vars you like, then save it as the default. Then whenever you drop an HQ ROP in it'll already have things the way you like 'em)

(another thought: I haven't used this new Maxon installer, but I seem to remember it's not node-locked - so you may have to login manually on the client machine before you can expect it to service Redshift jobs)

howiem
(just to add - you don't necessarily need to do all this variable set up with scripting; if it's just you using this network you may as well set up an HQueue ROP node with whatever vars you like, then save it as the default. Then whenever you drop an HQ ROP in it'll already have things the way you like 'em)

Very true. At our school, we have a pipeline that initializes a bunch of variables depending on the shot you are working on. If you don't have anything like that, just doing the same ones you have in your env file should do it as Howiem describes above.

We have floating licenes here, so I'm sorry can't help with that license error.

Sean

howiem
What happens if you try running a job manually from that machine (ie with hbatch)?

I tried using hrender, and it works fine.

howiem
(another thought: I haven't used this new Maxon installer, but I seem to remember it's not node-locked - so you may have to login manually on the client machine before you can expect it to service Redshift jobs)

That's the weird part, the client machine IS the one I am on right now, with redshift license activated.
So it's a Maxon issue ...

I finally found the solution.
I didn't realize I left the default user when installing hqueue, so I just had to change the user in windows services ( as shown here https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/hqueue/faqs.html [www.sidefx.com]