Network Rendering Fails to distribute job

jccoulter wrote on 5/4/2004, 9:17 AM
I have set up Network rendering between 2 Win XP Pro computers. I followed all of the help files on the details of setting this up and I have monitored the other threads on the subject. Both computers show up as rendering hosts with a status of Ready and the files are placed in a shared folder as needed. File mapings are complete. The DCN server is set up properly. My problem is no part of the job ever hits the second computer. All of the rendering happens on the 1st computer. When I status the job on the second computer it indicates a status of Queued.

In the log file of the second computer (network render service) I get the following Error Trace:
Error: System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond

Server stack trace:
at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.Connect(EndPoint remoteEP)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.RemoteConnection.CreateNewSocket()
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.SocketCache.GetSocket(String machineAndPort)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp.TcpClientTransportSink.SendRequestWithRetry(IMessage msg, ITransportHeaders requestHeaders, Stream requestStream)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp.TcpClientTransportSink.ProcessMessage(IMessage msg, ITransportHeaders requestHeaders, Stream requestStream, ITransportHeaders& responseHeaders, Stream& responseStream)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.BinaryClientFormatterSink.SyncProcessMessage(IMessage msg)

Exception rethrown at [0]:
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)
at Sony.Vegas.NetRender.NetRenderService.ReadyToRemoteRender(String jobID, NetRenderServiceURL workerURL, String license, Boolean isRenderOnlyClient)
at Sony.Vegas.NetRender.NetRenderService.DoJob(Object sender, LocalTaskArgs args)
at Sony.Vegas.NetRender.LocalTask.DoTask()
at Sony.Vegas.NetRender.NetRenderService.RunRenderService()

Any suggestions???

Comments

SonyPJM wrote on 5/4/2004, 9:52 AM

What do you mean by "DCN server"? How exactly are the computers
networked? Is there any type of firewall between them? When you say
both computers show up with a status of ready, do you mean that you've
entered computer2 in computer1's list of renderers and computer1 in
computer2's list of renderers?
jccoulter wrote on 5/4/2004, 10:27 AM
The computers are networked via a Linksys Router There is not a firewall between the computers (there is a firewall built into the routher but it is between the router and the outside world. I am able to copy files from one to another across the network no problem. Yes, I have entered computer2 in computer1's list of renderers and computer1 in computer2's list of renderers and each shows up with a status of Ready on the opposite computer. Example Computer2 shows computer1 as a render with a status of ready and vice versa. Only one computer is listed as a render on each computer.
johnmeyer wrote on 5/4/2004, 11:00 AM
My bet is on the mapping. Vegas doesn't give you any errors if you do it wrong. You can type pretty much anything in these boxes, but only the correct entries will work. I'd double-check the mappings.

Second, you cannot place any of your media assets in the root directory of a drive. There is a bug in the mapping if the mapping points to the root directory, and the rendering will not work. If any of your media is in the root, or if the location of the file you are trying to render is in the root, move them and try again.
SonyPJM wrote on 5/4/2004, 11:23 AM

All sounds good. Seems like it should work. Clearly the two render
services can communicate since both give you the Ready status. But
still, there seems to be a communication error once the render job
gets started.

How many network interface cards does each machine have? If there's
more than one, the problem might have something to do with a machine
having more than one IP address (although some internal tests with a
multi-NIC machine have not had a problem).

How long is the project or region you're rendering?
SonyPJM wrote on 5/4/2004, 11:24 AM

I don't think bad file mappings would produce the kind of error jccoulter is
seeing. It seems to have something to do with the ability of the two
render services to communicate.
SonyPJM wrote on 5/4/2004, 11:40 AM

More questions... which versions of Vegas 5 are installed on each
machine? If one is 5.0 (from the CD) and another is 5.0a (update
downloaded from our web site), that may lead to the problem. Is either
version a trial installation? Is one of them a render-only
installation?
jccoulter wrote on 5/4/2004, 11:46 AM
It is version 5.0a downloaded from the web site over the wekend. Computer1 has the full version loaded. Computer2 has only the render only version loaded.
jccoulter wrote on 5/4/2004, 11:48 AM
The video I am rendering is about 5 minutes long. Simple photo montage with music and about 25 photos. I have only one network card in each machine.
SonyPJM wrote on 5/4/2004, 12:13 PM

Everything sounds correct except, of course, for the problem you're
seeing. Nothing else comes to mind so I apologize. I'll continue to
try to track it down.

If you're willing, it might help me to know if you're able to do
non-distributed renders on computer2 and if you're able to do a
distributed render with a project containing generated media only.
SonyPJM wrote on 5/4/2004, 1:19 PM

Just trying to cover a few more bases (I'm seeing reports of similar
problems on the web and news groups.):

Do you have any type of VPN set up?

Are the machines connected via a wireless network?
johnmeyer wrote on 5/4/2004, 1:53 PM
jccoulter,

At the risk of repeating myself, and therefore becoming a pain, I still think that the problem is somewhere in the network share.

1. Write down the network mappings as shown in the "Network Render Service" dialog on your host computer. You can actually select these, and then copy them (Ctrl-C) and paste them into a reply for this message. On my computer, for the last network render that I did, these are the two mappings:
local				universal

------------------------------------------------------------------------

d:\basketball		\\polywell\Documents\Basketball

e:\render_out		\\polywell\Video\render_out
Next, go to your render client (the remote computer), and click on Start, and then click on Run. In the Run box, type the name of the main computer followed by the share name. In my example above, for the first share, I would type:

\\polywell\Documents

When you press the Enter key, you should immediately get an Explorer window showing you the files on your main computer. You should then be able to double click on the folder that contains your media files ("Basketball" in my example) and see and operate on the files.

Repeat this for each of your shares.

This procedure tests to make sure that your remote computer has read priveledges on your main computer. You should also make sure that you can write back to these folders from the remote computer.

The next thing to check is that your mappings are really correct. To do this, go back to your main computer. Click on Start and then Run, and enter the "Local" part of your first mapping, and then press Enter (this would be "d:\basketball" in my example). Note what files are displayed. Now, repeat this for the "Universal" entry that corresponds to the "Local" mapping ("\\polywell\Documents\Basketball" in my example). You should get exactly the same display. This test ensures that you really got all the path names correct and that they do indeed correspond to each other.

Hope that helps. It takes longer to read this than it does to check the results. Let us know what you find.