DR only works in CPU mode

[particlerealities]

I have two render servers and one primary workstation. Both servers have GTX550Ti cards installed. My primary workstation has 1 GTX980Ti, as well as a Quadro K4200. RT works mostly fine on my own computer (I can't disable either of the cards via the "Select OpenCL devices..." utility), but I can not get either of my two servers to work in DR RT, unless I use CPU mode, and even then, only one of my servers works. They work with regular V-Ray Adv 3.20.03.

I am not logged in as Admin, and I'm not sure what services my IT has running, if any, in the background. I'm accessing my two servers with Remote Desktop.

Any suggestions?

[savage309]

Make sure V-Ray is not started as a service on the DR nodes (Windows services can't work with older GPUs, if this is the case start the V-Ray render server as a regular process).
If this is not the case, please share the DR nodes log.

[particlerealities]

My IT logged in and stopped the VRayRTSpawner service on both servers. I manually launched the RT server on both computers via the start menu "V-Ray RT render server" icon in the Chaos Group folder. One computer won't respond to a render job and simply says "Entering server mode - waiting for render requests on port 20206". The other server gave me this log:

_________________________________

[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] Reading configuration from "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\
V-Ray\RT for 3ds Max 2016 for x64\bin\/vrayconfig.xml"
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] ===============================================
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] V-Ray Standalone, version 3.20.03 for x64
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] Copyright (C) 2000-2015 Chaos Group Ltd. All rights reser
ved.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] Use -credits option for additional third-party copyright
notices.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11]
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] Build 5f83ed362da9 from Jul 11 2015, 01:47:34
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] Compiled with Intel C++ compiler, version 14
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] Operating system is Microsoft(tm) Windows(tm), version 6.
1, Service Pack 1
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11]
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] V-Ray core version is 3.20.03
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] ===============================================
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11]
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:11] Loading plugins from "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\
RT for 3ds Max 2016 for x64\bin/plugins/vray_*.dll"
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:12] 161 plugin(s) loaded successfully
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:12] Finished loading plugins.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:12] warning: It is no longer necessary to use the -rtEngine o
ption for server mode.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:12] Entering server mode - waiting for render requests on por
t 20206. Press Ctrl+C to exit.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16]
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Starting DR session from 10.0.0.248
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Receiving DR scene from 10.0.0.248
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Reading scene file "C:\Users\eadams\AppData\Local\Temp\vr
scene_a05960.txt"
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] C:\Users\eadams\AppData\Local\Temp\vrscene_a05960. txt: do
ne [ 0h 0m 0.0s]
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Scene file parsed successfully in 0.0 s.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Scene created successfully.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Objects in scene: 0
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Starting render sequence.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Preparing renderer...
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Preparing scene for rendering...: 0.00% [ 0h 18m 12.4s]
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Preparing scene for rendering...: done [ 0h 0m 0.0s]
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] 0 lights found.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] CUDA renderer requested.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] 1 plugin(s) loaded successfully
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] CUDA renderer plugin successfully loaded from "C:\Program
Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\RT for 3ds Max 2016 for x64\bin\rt_cuda.dll"
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] CUDA renderer plugin instance successfully created.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] EXT_RTOPENCL interface obtained successfully from CUDA re
nderer plugin instance.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] ========================
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Starting frame 0.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Preparing scene for frame...: 0.00% [ 0h 18m 12.4s] [ 0h
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Preparing scene for frame...: done [ 0h 0m 0.0s]
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Compiling geometry...: 0.00% [ 0h 18m 12.4s] [ 0h 0m 0
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Compiling geometry...: done [ 0h 0m 0.0s]
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Using embree ray tracing.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Running RTEngine
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Initializing CUDA renderer (single kernel version)...
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] error: Cannot initialize CUDA! No CUDA devices are availa
ble!
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] warning: initDevices() failed.
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Number of raycasts: 0 (0.00 per pixel)
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Camera rays: 0 (0.00 per pixel)
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Shadow rays: 0 (0.00 per pixel)
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] GI rays: 0 (0.00 per pixel)
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Reflection rays: 0 (0.00 per pixel)
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Refraction rays: 0 (0.00 per pixel)
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Unshaded rays: 0 (0.00 per pixel)
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Number of light evaluations: 0 (0.00 per pixel)
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Number of intersectable primitives: 0
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] SD triangles: 0
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] MB triangles: 0
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Static primitives: 0
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Moving primitives: 0
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Infinite primitives: 0
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Static hair segments: 0
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Moving hair segments: 0
[2015/Nov/18|14:31:16] Closing DR session from 10.0.0.248

[particlerealities]

I should also mention the "Choose OpenCL Devices" utility gives me this one one machine:



And I get this on the other machine:

[savage309]

This is strange. In the first one for sure the OS can't see any GPUs.
I don't know about the second one ..

Can you try putting latest driver and double check that V-Ray is not running as a service ?
If that does not help, I guess you would have to contact the support at support@chaosgroup.com ... They usually are more familiar with such setups and they can arrange online session if bad goes to worse.

[matanov]

Are you connecting to the servers with Windows Remote Desktop ? Do they have monitors connected to the GPUs ?

[particlerealities]

I asked my IT to confirm the service was not running and never got a response from him. I'll ask again. And Peter - sorry, I'm just now seeing your question. Yes, I'm connecting to both render slaves with Windows Remote Desktop, logging in with my username (no Admin privileges). They do not have monitors connected to them.

[matanov]

Old GPU's can't be used properly when the servers are accessed through Remote Desktop (not our fault ), and this is why they are not appearing in the "Choose OpenCL Devices" utility.

[particlerealities]

I found a section in the V-Ray help file that says the NVidia cards need either Fermi, Kepler or Maxwell architecture. I believe my GTX 550 Ti was released in March of 2011, and I believe it's based on Fermi. My guess is the cards, while pathetically slow, are not too old and should work fine...?

[savage309]

I found a section in the V-Ray help file that says the NVidia cards need either Fermi, Kepler or Maxwell architecture. I believe my GTX 550 Ti was released in March of 2011, and I believe it's based on Fermi. My guess is the cards, while pathetically slow, are not too old and should work fine...?

V-Ray RT GPU works fine with Fermi, Kepler and Maxwell GPUs in every V-Ray 2 and V-Ray 3 version. 550ti is Fermi and is supported.
However, accessing old GPUs (Fermi and Kepler) through Remote Desktop is not possible (this limitation is caused by the GPU driver). This is why ocldeviceselect.exe is not working for you.
Also, often the operating system does not load GPU driver if there is no monitor attached.
Try to attach monitors to those machines and access them through VNC for example. This should work.

Again, this limitations are not cause by V-Ray, it is just how drivers and the OS works.