backburner debugging tips

Tips for debugging Backburner

First Steps:

  -  On the licensed workstation launch the Backburner Manager.

  -   On the unauthorized, unlicensed workstations launch the backburner servers.

  -  Start > Programs > Autodesk > Backburner > Server

  -  Do this on all render slaves :

  -          Configure them to point at the manager machine. Here is how:

  -          In the backburner Server windows, choose Edit>General Settings>

  and disable "Automatic Search" checkbox.   Type in the actual name of the Manager    machine,  click OK, then close and reopen the Server window.

 

  -   Restart Manager, Server and see if that works.  It should show "successful registration",  if it’s working.

  -   On the Authorized Product machine open your scene, and attempt a render.

General tips:

·         When trying to debug Backburner, run it Application mode, not services, including the managers and all servers.

·         Make sure all OS’s are the same and have the same service pack; keep either all 32 bits or 64 bits for testing.

·         Verify all softwares installed are the same versions.

·         Render as .jpegs

·         Make sure your anti-virus disk scanning protection utilities are disabled and not interfering across the network

·         Try pinging  from the command prompt to check that the network is ok

·         You need to have 3ds Max or Maya installed on the render nodes (depending which you are rendering with).   They don’t need to be activated but it must be installed.

·         Unload all plugins and try t o render a simple scene – if you need to use plugins you need to verify they are installed on all render nodes.

·         Verify all machines have names starting with letters only ; no numbers, dashes, underscores, periods, etc.

·         Make sure there is plenty of temp file space. It has to compress not just the scene file but all the bitmap textures.

·          

 

Log files:

To set the options for the Log files before testing, go to Edit/Log Settings from Backburner Manager and Server and choose the following options-

o   Debug, Debug Extended, Clear Log

You can find the log files for Backburner in the following directory

-C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Backburner\Network

o   backburnerServer.log

o   backburner.log

 

Documentation:

The documentation for Backburner is installed in the following directory and should also give you a clear overview of the general setup:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Backburner\docs

Comments

[Stefan]

Great stuff, thanks!

[Srecko]

Is it possible to DR (render single frame with several machines) using Backburner and Maya??

[Carl]

I have issue with backburner ignoring "layer overides". Have you had any experence with this issue?

[Darrell]

how do I actually create a backburner job from within Maya? I have the software installed but the menu doesn't appear in the right place?