FAQ¶
General¶
Supported Software¶
What 3rd party software does Deadline support?
Deadline efficiently manages network processing from a variety of sources - see the complete listing of Supported Software for more information.
Do I have to install the rendering software on all the render nodes?
Strictly speaking, yes. Deadline simply controls the render applications when network rendering, so the applications must already be installed. However, in the case of Linux, many VFX studios choose to install their software to a network location. See here for more information on Network Installed Applications.
Can we create our own plugins for Deadline?
Yes, and the Deadline team encourages you to do so. You can create your own plugins and scripts and we initially refer you to our SDK Scripting Overview for more information.
Do I have to license the rendering software on all the render nodes?
This depends on the rendering software. Some renderers require licenses for network rendering (V-Ray for Maya), while others do not (Mental Ray for 3ds Max). It is best to confirm with each application’s Support or Sales team to confirm what the licensing requirements are for network rendering.
Note that Deadline does not control the licensing for any of the applications it supports, so the licensing must be in place prior to network rendering.
Which Remoting Software is Supported By Deadline?
Deadline currently supports VNC, Radmin, Apple Remote Desktop and Remote Desktop Connection via Python scripts in the Deadline Monitor. Additionally, we have a Mobile application for remote viewing, which is available on iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone devices.
Licensing¶
What is Usage-Based Licensing?
Usage-Based Licensing is an on-demand licensing model for select 3rd party products that was introduced in Deadline 8. It can be used as an alternative to floating licenses, or as supplemental licensing to cover temporary increases in render nodes (cloud burst compute, rentals, artist machines overnight, etc). See the Usage-Based Licensing documentation for more information.
See the Usage-Based Licensing FAQ below for additional questions.
Usage-Based Licensing¶
How do I purchase render time?
Usage-based licensing is vended through the AWS Deadline Cloud service. AWS Deadline Cloud UBL offers a Pay-as-you-go model, billed monthly on your AWS bill. For UBL pricing see the AWS Deadline Cloud Usage-Based Licensing pricing guide.
How do I monitor my UBL costs?
You can view your AWS Deadline Cloud UBL costs through AWS Cost Explorer.
Installation¶
What are the system requirements for Deadline?
See the System Requirements documentation for more information.
Are there specific requirements for the AWS Portal?
Yes. The AWS Portal feature requires the installation of a couple additional components, which are documented in the AWS Portal section of the System Requirements.
What is the Deadline Repository?
The Deadline Repository is a collection of files and folders that stores various Deadline information which is accessed via a shared network path. It is NOT a program.
The Repository stores the plugins, scripts, logs, and any auxiliary files (like scene files) that are submitted with the jobs. The jobs, settings, and Worker configurations are all stored in the Database.
What is the Deadline Database?
The MongoDB Database component allows Deadline to easily manage tens of thousands of jobs and scale across thousands of nodes, while also offering asynchronous access for efficient work even over remote connections.
All frequently accessed data, like jobs, settings, and Worker configurations, are now stored in the Database. This makes accessing this data much faster and more reliable, while placing a much smaller load on your network.
How many machines do I install the Deadline Repository and Database on?
The Repository and Database only need to be installed on one machine, preferably running a server operating system. Note that they are separate components though, and can be installed on separate machines if desired.
If you choose to have the Repository installer install the Database for you, then they will be placed on the same machine. If preferred, you can manually install the MongoDB Database on a separate machine, and then point the Repository installer to it during the installation.
How many machines do I install the Deadline Client on?
The Deadline Client includes all the applications required for submitting, monitoring, and rendering jobs. So it should be installed on all of your workstations and render nodes.
If you decide to run Pulse, Web Service, Remote Connection Server, or (Deprecated) License Forwarder, you need to install the Client on the chosen machine as well. If you choose to run Pulse on the Repository machine, you’ll need to install the client on the Repository machine.
Do I have to install the Deadline Client on the Repository machine?
This is only necessary if you plan to run Pulse, Web Service, Remote Connection Server, or (Deprecated) License Forwarder, on the Repository machine, or if you wish for the Repository machine to participate in rendering or job submission. It is never recommended to render on the repository/database machine as this machine should be dedicated to controlling your queue.
Is it possible to install the repository share on a NAS drive?
Yes. See the Database and Repository Installation section of the manual for more details on how to do this.
When installing or upgrading the Deadline Repository, do I have to run the installer on the Repository machine itself?
While it’s recommended that you run the installer from the Repository machine, it is possible to run the installer from a remote machine providing that the destination path is network accessible.
Note that if you choose to have the Repository installer install the Database, be aware that it will install the Database to the machine that you are running the installer on (even if you are pointing to a network share for the Repository installation).
Do I have to reinstall the Deadline Client, Repository, or Database to upgrade the software?
This depends on if you’re installing a major or minor upgrade. Major upgrades (Deadline 9 to Deadline 10) require reinstallations of the Repository and Clients. Minor upgrades (Deadline 7.0 to 7.1) can be performed by simply upgrading the Repository. See the Upgrading documentation for more information.
Is there any benefit to running more than one instance of Pulse?
Multiple Pulses can be run for redundancy.
Client Connection Issues¶
The Deadline applications are unable to connect to the Database.
Check that the MongoDB database is running, and that a firewall isn’t blocking communication.
Also, check the host name or IP address that the Client is using to connect, and check to make sure it can access the Database machine using that host name or IP address.
On macOS, the Deadline applications can’t connect to the Repository, and are instead complaining that the ‘bin’ folder cannot be found.
If the repository volume isn’t unmounted properly, it will stay listed in your /Volumes folder. Then the next time you mount the repository, it will append a ‘-1’ to the volume name. For example, instead of being mounted to /Volumes/DeadlineRepository, it will be mounted to /Volumes/DeadlineRepository-1. When this problem occurs, you need to unmount the volume, get rid of the folder it created in /Volumes and then remount it. Volumes can be found in Finder by selecting Go -> Go To Folder (shift, apple, g) and typing in /Volumes. You can do this in terminal as well.
My Worker shows it’s MAC address as FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. What’s wrong?
The issue here has to do with which physical adapter the Worker chooses to use as its default at startup. Traditionally, it should make use of the first network adapter that has a usable IP address.
If that address in this case belongs to an adapter with a physical address that has more than six bytes, our parsing mechanism fails and we default to FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. A prime example of this is on Windows, when the Worker chooses the Teredo interface or some other tunnel.
The fix, at least for Teredo, is to disable it. Toredo is used to tunnel IPv4 traffic over an IPv6 address, so if your network is currently IPv4 only, disabling it will have no negative effect. You can do so with the following command:
c:\> netsh interface teredo set stateand re-enable it with:
c:\> netsh interface teredo set state client teredo.ipv6.microsoft.com 60 34567A restart of the Worker application will be needed for these changes to take effect.
Rendering¶
Can Deadline split up a sequence of images across multiple machines?
Yes. For a render job, image sequences can be split up into one or more frames per task, and each task can be rendered concurrently by one or more Workers.
Can Deadline create movies from rendered frame sequences?
Yes. Movies can be generated using Draft, which is a compositing and video processing tool designed to automate typical post-render tasks.
Can Deadline split up a single image across multiple machines? In other words, can Deadline do distributed rendering?
Yes. Jigsaw Standalone is a flexible multi-region rendering system for Deadline for 3ds Max, Houdini Maya, modo, and Rhino. It can be used to render regions of various sizes for a single frame, and in 3ds Max, it can be used to track and render specific objects over an animation.
Draft can then be used to automatically assemble the regions into the final frame or frames. It can also be used to automatically composite re-rendered regions onto the original frame.
Jigsaw is built into the 3ds Max, Houdini, Maya, modo, and Rhino submitters, and with the exception of 3ds Max, Jigsaw viewport will be displayed in a separate window.
Original ‘Tile Rendering’ support is still present in Deadline and for applications which are unable to utilize the advanced functionality of Jigsaw.
My job gets picked up, but the job is turning red and no frames are being saved.
When your job starts to turn red, it’s a sign that errors are accumulating for the job. You can take a look at the job’s errors from the right-click menu in the Job List in the Deadline Monitor. Usually, the error reports will contain useful information explaining what the error is.
If you aren’t sure what an error report means, you can email it to our support team and we’ll be more than happy to take a look!
Why isn’t my job getting picked up at all?
There can be many reasons for this:
The job has a lower priority than other jobs in the queue.
The job has been assigned to a Pool or Group that no Workers are assigned to.
The job has an Allow List or a Deny List that prevents it from rendering on available Workers.
The job has been assigned to one or more Limits, and a Limit is either maxed out, or a Limit has an Allow List or a Deny List that prevents it from rendering on available Workers.
To determine which Workers a job can render on (based on Pools, Groups, Limits, etc), you can enable the Job Candidate Filter in the Worker List in the Monitor. When enabled, the Worker list will automatically be filtered to show which Workers can render the selected job.
