Butterfly Net Render 6 node woes

kopperdrake

kopperdrake

Super Duper Member
Hi all,

I have a node, my preferred main node, and for some bizarre reason its being seen by the controller, but when it comes to initialising, I'm getting the error:

(ARC01 ) ERROR Node Application( X:/ButterflyNetRenderPro6/Lightwave2015_1_64-win/programs/lwsn.exe ) not found on CLIENT! Check path-

Now there's only one account on a newly installed copy of Windows 7 (when I say new, I didn't format the drive first - possible mistake?) That account has full admin rights, and as far as I can tell is exactly the same as another node PC when it comes to rights on the network, which works fine.

The drive "X" is actually on an external QNAP NAS, so all PCs can see it, and the problem node can actually see it as a drive in normal Windows use, which is why I'm getting seriously frustrated as to why its LW Node *can't* see it, for some reason!

Does anyone have any ideas? It's frustrating me as it's a ruddy good PC.
 
I'm no longer on Windows 7 but I did initially run into issues with BNR version 6 after upgrading to Windows 10. For some reason the clients could not see my shared folders (on a NAS) when running under User, and when running under Administrator, Win 10 did not allow the BNR Client to write and update its configs. Paul fixed this for the current 6.5 release but there were still a few tricks I had to do to make it work. I don't know if this will help you but it might be worth a try.

First, remove all traces of BNR Client. And I mean ALL traces. Run the uninstaller and physically delete whatever is left behind. Then go into Folder Options and enable Show Hidden Files, Folders, and Drives. This will make a folder called Program Data visible in your C:\ directory. Open that folder and delete the BNR Client folder there. Next, look for any BNR shortcuts in your startup folders--check both the user and all user folders.

Finally, clean your registry. I use CCleaner. Be sure to save a backup of the registry when running the cleaner. You may need to run it a couple of times before it's completely clean.

Reboot your computer and now try installing the 6.5 client. When you set the configs, enable the User option. (I'm not sure that last step is needed for Win 7--it might just be for the Win 10 problem I had.) Set everything else as you would normally.

In my case, I only had issues with the client software but it probably wouldn't hurt to do the same for the main program too. Be sure to back up files before deleting anything just to be safe.

If you don't have the 6.5 update, you can download it from your BNR user account. I believe it's a free update for 6.0 users.

Hope this helps.

G.
 
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Thanks for taking the time to answer Greenlaw, it really is appreciated. I did try the 6.5 route, but perhaps I missed something during the uninstalls - in fact my uninstalls werent' working on the server PC for some reason, so Paul had talked me through removing things. We suspected it might be a firewall issue somewhere, but where I have no idea, there is nothing obvious!

However, yesterday I had Amleto up and running, complete with the new UberCam plugins, within ten minutes - I could have cried! Sure the scene files have to be downloaded to each client, but at least the farm's working now. This means I can follow your advice with BNR6.5 and not worry about breaking anything, so I'll go the route of deleting everything BNR related on every PC. I did wonder if the fact I have several iterations of BNR leftovers was messing something up, but we'll soon see. I'm assuming that the reason one would go for BNR over Amleto, now I've witnessed both, is to cut down on network traffic, have a few more features, and that BNR is still actively developed?

Thanks again :thumbsup:
 
For me, it seemed like the main problem was the leftover files in the Program data--BNR appeared to be getting mixed up about the configs. And some of the nodes gave me startup errors, like it was trying to launch mutliple copies--that's what the registry cleaning fixed.

This all started after the Win 10 upgrade last summer so it's not exactly the same problem you're experiencing, although it was also shortly after a new build of 6.0 had come out so I'm not exactly sure what triggered it.

At the moment, it's all running very smoothly though.

I've been using BNR since version 3 and have always liked it. I seem to run into some issues with major releases of BNR or LightWave but once alerted, Paul is on the case and has me up and running again pretty quickly. Once the 'new release kinks' have been smoothed out, it's been super reliable for me.

I've used Ameleto before. I think it's very reliable and works well, but because my scene files can be really heavy with MDDs and other aux files, Ameleto generates too much network traffic for me. Then again, my network is a lot faster these days so maybe I'll give it another try. I don't think it will replace BNR for me but it's good to have a backup, especially if I'm in the middle of a big render project.

FYI, I have a friend who uses Ameleto with Amazon Cloud and he swears by it for cloud rendering. If I ever launch a larger project than my typical animated shorts, I think I'd look into that myself.

G.
 
Thanks Greenlaw - interesting about the Cloud rendering. Amleto managed my scene well and completed over the weekend. When the PC Amleto server was running on went belly up (never try and do too many things on the crux PC!) it messed things up and the server wouldn't restart - turned out to be dumping the Program Data and Amleto caches on the nodes did the trick, so ten minutes later all was up again. It's not intelligent - after that debacle there were eight frames missing, which it couldn't figure out, and I like that about BNR. I will try BNR again, I have 6.5 downloaded, but as you say - I'm glad there are two options and I'm grateful to Amleto at the moment!

Thanks again :thumbsup:
 
Normally when I have trouble with BNR it's one of these things: 1. I need to update windows. 2. Install visual studio 2005 2008 or 2015. 3. Windows language is on something different then British or Us international. This fixes problems in most cases.
 
Hmm - thanks for those. My PCs are pretty much up to date, as far as Windows 7 goes. It might be worth me reinstalling Visual Studio, I suppose something may have gone amiss in the past with that. Again, I'm pretty sure I only have British set as a language, but it's worth me double checking. Thanks!
 
Hmm...for some reason BNR 6.5 was refusing to launch this morning. It was working perfectly when I used it last week and I'm not sure what's changed over the weekend. Can't check it till tonight though.

Ugh...I wish I could afford to pay an IT guy. I probably spend as much time messing around with system stuff than actually producing work. :)

G.
 
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Funny you say that. I'd reached my limit last year and searched for an IT guy to give me advice on connecting two buildings as I was relying on Homeplugs to move backup data between the two locations, which was getting nasty and kept dropping out. I finally found a chap who came in, diagnosed a breaker box between the two locations as the problem, and stated "an ethernet cable is your best bet". But to be sure, he attached one end of a temporary cable to the router in the building where I work, through an open window, 20 metres along a drive to the house where I keep my backups, in through an open front window, and added it to a switch there. Bearing in mind we were mid-winter, with two open windows, he said to keep it there, if it was stable, he'd come back and fit it properly after the weekend. I asked about protecting the outside cable eventually, he said he only did the connecting, and didn't know anyone who could dig a channel out.

Two weeks later, two weeks of us ducking under the cable still hanging from building to building, and umpteen messages left on his machine to say it all seemed okay, I bit the bullet. Gary (who works here) and myself dug the 2ft deep channel (through the driveway hardcore), bought some sheathed ethernet cable, drilled some holes, and bought the bits and bobs to hook it all up (laid two cables in case we made a mess of the first).

It seems to find an IT guy who's interested in smaller companies here are seriously hard to come by. It wasn't as if we weren't wiling to pay - at that stage I'd have sold my kidney to get someone to do it, someone who knew about networking. On the plus side I have a spare 750ft of exterior grade ethernet cable in the garage, I just need a use for it!
 
Finally got to take a closer look at this issue--basically, when I click Start, the NetRenderApp would crash. So I deleted the config files in the [BNR_share]\build\config directory and now BNR starts up normally. I'm guessing that at least one of the client configs must have somehow gotten corrupted this weekend.

Whew! At least that was easy to fix. :)

G.
 
Greenlaw said:
Finally got to take a closer look at this issue--basically, when I click Start, the NetRenderApp would crash. So I deleted the config files in the [BNR_share]\build\config directory and now BNR starts up normally. I'm guessing that at least one of the client configs must have somehow gotten corrupted this weekend.

Whew! At least that was easy to fix. :)

G.
Click to expand...

I've got a similar problem from time to time. Deleting the contents of the log dir normally fixes it.
 
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