max concurrent connection limit on windows 10 / license servers

[wizzackr]

Hi guys - hopefully someone can me help out on this one:
As far as I know there is an upper limit to the maximum number of concurrent network connections allowed by windows 10 (pro in my case) of twenty. Now I understand this effectively requires you to run Windows Server for file serving etc puposes. In our case, however, we pull all texture data, caches etc. off a Linux server with no relevant maximum connection limit when rendering. Only our license servers run off a windows 10 pro machine, ie. VRay, Autodesk etc.
Now, how does this relate to the above connection limit - is that techincally different from connections invoked by file transfers etc., or does windows 10 lmit us to 20 rendernodes querying licenses off the windows 10 computer? If the second is the case, ie. it is the same as file transfers - doe the license querys count as one open connection per rendernode or could one node use up 2 for each license service, effectively limiting us to ten render nodes?
Any help is greatly appreciated, cheers,
j

[ivan.slavchev]

This should bother you since V-Ray licensing uses poling for licenses on periods of time rather than keeping the connection opened all the time.
You can also edit the connection limit for Windows:

First, type Win-R to open the "Run" dialog box, and type gpedit.msc.

Navigate to Computer Config -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Option

And set Interactive Logon to 50 (the maximum) or 0 (i.e. disable caching completely)

You can also set that from the registry:

- Type Win-R
- Type regedit and hit Enter
- Search for the following entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon -> CachedLogonsCount
- Change CachedLogonsCount to 50 (the max) or 0 (disabled)
- Close the Registry Editor

[wizzackr]

Thanks for the help, Ivan - the respective group policy has been adjusted on our license server.
If I understand you correctly this should practically give us the option to have 20 render-nodes query the windows 10 machine worst case (with all cached logons) and 50 at best (with logon caching disabled and given that the polling does not occur simultaneously), correct?

[Morbid Angel]

Actually I have run license server on a windows machine with 10 limit without any issues on a 40 node farm before, and now and everything works fine so not to worry about it

[wizzackr]

Actually I have run license server on a windows machine with 10 limit without any issues on a 40 node farm before, and now and everything works fine so not to worry about it

Cheers, Dmitry - that's what I wanted to hear

[ivan.slavchev]

Thanks for the help, Ivan - the respective group policy has been adjusted on our license server.
If I understand you correctly this should practically give us the option to have 20 render-nodes query the windows 10 machine worst case (with all cached logons) and 50 at best (with logon caching disabled and given that the polling does not occur simultaneously), correct?

Besides, setting the policy/registry value to "0" means that you disable the limitation and it's mostly relevant to caching constantly open TCP connections like Windows file and printer sharing, shared folders usage etc.
I haven't heard anyone experiencing licensing problems because of the above limitation. The license server uses http to communicate with the V-Ray clients in the internal network and does not leave its connections half-open, so the chance to reach a connection limit for long enough so that the license request will time out is practically none.