Online Licensing down in the UK?

[tricky]

Error. Could not obtain a license ( -98 )

Any ideas? We only moved from dongles to online last week!

[vlado]

There is an issue that we are working to resolve; in general we recommend that you borrow your licenses - more information is available here:
https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...or+Offline+Use

Unfortunately the license server needs to be working for this to happen; I hope that the system will be back online shortly.

Best regards,
Vlado

[s0real]

looks like all the license servers are down at present - https://status.chaosgroup.com/

unable to borrow licenses as well...

[tricky]

Seems to be working now. Are there no failsafes to prevent this happening?

[OhGott]

Same here!
I'm new to the "license" thing, since we just moved from old VRay for C4D which only required a serial number to work to the licensing system from Chaosgroup. We didn't know that the online licensing can cause troubles. Now I know that we need to switch to "offline licensing" through borrowing the licenses ^^

[vlado]

Seems to be better now and I can render, but I would recommend to borrow the licenses as soon as you are able to do so.

Best regards,
Vlado

[s0real]

it's a shame that the license system doesn't allow the software to check only periodically instead of every time you hit render.
maybe if it checked once every 24 hrs or something?

no idea if this is actually possible - not a programmer :P

[tricky]

A couple of questions so we can plan. Now that we have moved to Online Licensing, what would happen if the serveices were to go down again in the following situations:

1) What would happen if you were mid render (and the render was around 5 hours in total)?

2) What would happen if you were mid-distributed render using your farm?

3) What would happen to a backburner-type, multi frame render project that was running over several farm computers?

[vlado]

1) What would happen if you were mid render (and the render was around 5 hours in total)?

The render will continue. V-Ray only checks for a license at the start of a render.

What would happen if you were mid-distributed render using your farm?

The render will continue. Both the client and server machines only check for licenses at the start of a render.

3) What would happen to a backburner-type, multi frame render project that was running over several farm computers?

Frames that have started rendering will complete successfully, but new frames will fail.

Borrowing the licenses isolates you from any similar internet-related issues.

Best regards,
Vlado

[vlado]

it's a shame that the license system doesn't allow the software to check only periodically instead of every time you hit render. maybe if it checked once every 24 hrs or something?

Yes, we've been working on this for a while now and it's almost done.

Best regards,
Vlado

[tricky]

The render will continue. V-Ray only checks for a license at the start of a render.

The render will continue. Both the client and server machines only check for licenses at the start of a render.

Frames that have started rendering will complete successfully, but new frames will fail.

Borrowing the licenses isolates you from any similar internet-related issues.

Best regards,
Vlado

Thanks for clarification. A pity the 'borrow license' option doesn't auto-kick-in when the ChaosGroup license servers go down. Would each farm computer also need to borrow a license? Obviously this would take time.
Good to hear about the 24 hour license checker.

[vlado]

Would each farm computer also need to borrow a license?

Right now the licenses are borrowed by the local license server and not by each individual machine.

Best regards,
Vlado