Render Slaves not working

[Alex_M]

Hi,
I'm having problems installing Vray 3 SP1 on the render slaves. Rendering with DR on the workstations goes perfectly, it's the render slaves that don't work. All of the machines are running Max 2016. I tried with Max 2015 too but doesn't work either.

On the render slaves I've installed Vray with the "3ds Max Render Slave" option and have set them to use the default settings of 127.0.0.1 and port 30304. After that I start the vrayspawner executable and started a render from one of the workstations. It shows a message that the render starts on the render slave - "Server ****: Scene loaded; starting render" but after a couple of seconds it throws a message "warning: Render host **** is not responding". And the process repeats forever without the render slaves ever starting. I disabled the firewall and antivirus on both the render slaves and the workstation but it didn't make a difference.

Can you help me with this issue?
Thanks!

[Morbid Angel]

Hmm I think the license should be pointed to the license server, 127.0.0.1 is your local server ?

[Alex_M]

Sorry, I'm not very network savvy. How do I check what is my local server and how do I point my license to it? The official installation help document wasn't very clear to me.

[Morbid Angel]

So you install your vray license on a single machine for example your main workstation. It has a certain name or ip on the network. Then when you install on the network machines, you point to that machine, so it will be something like myWorkstaionNetworkName, or 192.169.1.102 (you can find out your license server ip by going to cmd and typing ipconfig).

Once all machines pointed to that server they should pick up the license.

[Alex_M]

Thanks, I found out the IP address of the workstation and tried again but it still doesn't work. I uninstalled Vray on the render slave, installed it again and clicked Customize in the installer. Then where it says "Primary Render Server" I entered the IP of the workstation instead of 127.0.0.1. But it still doesn't work.

[Bruce Hart]

Hey there
Having been frustrated by DR machines not working myself - I have put together a checklist of what I look for, roughly in order of importance:

1. Check the Spawner is actually running
2. Try “Remove Vray Spawner as Service” in Distributed Rendering menu
3. Can the DR machine IP address be “pinged” from the workstation?
4. Check the “Change Vray Client Server Settings” to see if the correct IP address are listed
5. Has the login script run so all network drives are mapped.
6. Has the DR machine changed its IP address (if so make static)
7. Has the DR machine been updated to the same Vray/Max/SP updates. Also good to uninstall old versions of software
8. Can the DR machine run a Vray render through Backburner?
9. Give the machine a re-start
10. Make sure Windows automatic updates/Virus scanners/Firewalls are not interfering
11. Has the VRLService on the license server Stopped? If so start it again
12. Employ a Shaman to enact a ritualistic rain-dance

Just today I had some machines not working and Item 2 was the culprit. Seems to be the problem 70% of the time in my office. I am none the wiser as to why this occurs or why it can't be fixed automatically by the software itself.

Anyway - I hope this helps anyone

[hoppergrass]

Ah is that why its raining so much around here?

[Alex_M]

I just phoned the support and they were outstanding at resolving my issue. It turned out that on the PC with the dongle I didn't make an exception in the firewall for "vrlservice.exe". Everything works perfectly now!