Run and Stop spawner at network computers without remote install

[Micha_cg]

Hi,

maybe something for Damien. It could be nice, to start and stop the spawners at network machines. So, the user could restart a crashed spawner or if something dosn't work right, he could restart a spawner.exe per stop&start.

A tool for this wish could be the pstool from here

http://technet.microsoft.com/de-de/sysinternals/bb896649(en-us).aspx

If psexec dosn't work, than it helps to deactivate the simple file access (I'm not sure how it looks at an english system), here the german hint I found

Im Explorer muss unter Extras->Ordneroptionen->Ansicht "einfache Dateifreigabe verwenden" deaktiviert werden. Dann lief alles und die Fehlermeldung "Zugriff verweigert" erschien nicht mehr.

Best-
Micha

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

Not for me...there's nothing I can really do with the spawners. I'm not really sure what your asking for anyway...can you explain further because I'm not getting it.

[Micha_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

It could be nice, if a Rhino button could be used, to restart the spawner.exe at the slave engines.
Example: a spawner is crashed at a slave or hanging - could be nice, if from within Rhino, it could be restart. At the moment, the user must use a remote software and manualy start the spawner.exe.

The pstools allow to kill and start programms at other engines. I thought, a Rhino programmer could use it to kill&start the spawner.exe from within Rhino.

[Travis Serio_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

Yeah, i too have asked Joe if he could release a System Service version of the spawner. Perhaps as a service some remote console commands could be added.

I like to sneak it on peoples machines here in the office. It's not uncommon to hear "WTF, Who's stealing all of my threads!?"

muahahaha 25 buckets!

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

Well, still not me...That doesn't sound like too bad of an idea though, although off the top of my head, I'm not sure how that could be done from a network security standpoint (most will prevent an remote connection from starting up an exe).

[Travis Serio_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

Not if you're the admin

A service would solve the problem. it could intercept the start and stop command to boot the spawner and prepare it to render as well as restart it. The service itself just sits and waits to be told what to do.

You could also set it up so that the console is not visible on the remote machine as well.

It's really a fairly simple task. Maybe sometime in the near future when i get a little bit of down time, i'll write a service that shells it and kills it along with a remote app that sends a little tcp/ip string to boot it, stop it, and restart it.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

shows you how much networking stuff I know ;D

[Micha_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

Today I found some time to play with the microsoft tools and now I can kill the spawner at the slave engine and restart it. A simple bat file at the master contain:

pskill -t \\slave1 -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD drspawner.exe
psexec \\slave1 -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD -i "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ASGvis\drspawner.exe"

Funny, if the option -i isn't use, than the new started spawner console isn't visible at the slave, it's shown at the master, but the slave is full running. So, the spawner can started at every computer at the network without the user at this computer must see it.

Now I can start my bat file per Rhino button for killing and restart the spawner. The short button script is

_run "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\PSTools\kill.bat"

;D

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

the -i option is most likely stands for interface. Basically most apps can be started with or without their interface. Starting it without helps out with memory since UI doesn't have to be created or drawn. This is also helpful with doing certain things "silently"

Glad you found something that works for you

[Micha_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

Little update: this batch file code kill the spawners at three slave engines and restart the spawners. If I start the batchfile per Rhino button, than it dosn't full work. The spawners are killed, but not restarted. Any idea why it dosn't work like a manual batch file start?

pskill -t \\slave1 -u Username -p password drspawner.exe
pskill -t \\slave2 -u Username -p password drspawner.exe
pskill -t \\slave3 -u Username -p password drspawner.exe
psexec \\slave1 -u Username -p password -d -i "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ASGvis\DRSpawner\DRSpawner.exe"
psexec \\slave2 -u Username -p password -d -i "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ASGvis\DRSpawner\drspawner.exe"
psexec \\slave3 -u Username -p password -d -i "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ASGvis\DRSpawner\drspawner.exe"

[joe_b]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

I asked Vlado a couple days ago for some information on the way DR was implemented. I would really like to add to the existing functionality. Particularly a batch rendering / render queue for distributed and network rendering. Also a way to have nodes join renders on the fly instead of only being used if they are available at the very beginning of the render sequence.

But yeah - I would like to be able to give more precise control over the dr stuff. When Vlado opens up some of the SDK to us then we should be able to make some cool improvements. So keep your fingers crossed

[Micha_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

Some times I see - slave not responding and I don't know what happen. I must login to the slave machine and restart the spawner.

But the PStools are a nice toy - now I can start all spawners and see the consoles at the master machine. The batch files are simple:

pskill -t \\slave3 -u username -p password drspawner.exe
psexec \\slave3 -u username -p password "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ASGvis\DRSpawner\DRSpawner.exe"

I add a kill process at the start, so that never two spawner.exe are running at the same machine.

Screenshot of the master machine - full control, anything looks good. ;D

[Micha_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers

Doe's somebody know a tool that catch the three console windows of the screenshot in one window?

[Micha_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers without remote install

I found a little free tool that allow me to open all my console windows within one window. Also now I can choose from selfdefined presets like info/startall/killall/suspendall. ;D

http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=43764

[Micha_cg]

Re: Run and Stop spawner at network computers without remote install

Sidenote: create a shortcut to the console.exe and add to the properties

C:\SpawnerRestart\Console.exe -t InfoAll -t Slave1 -t Slave2 -t Slave3

allow to start the console with three Tabs, which started spawners at all my Slaves.

Also, now it's possible to start, kill, suspend and shutdown all slaves per Rhino buttons. A Rhino button command must be linked to the shortcut with the right started tabs. Example of a Button script for start all spawners:

_run "C:\SpawnerRestart\StartSpawners"

;D