C4D Net Render Client on remote workstation

[David Coiffier]

Hey Dave, it’s all about ports & routing.
The key is that you have to get clients connect to the server but ALSO server to clients.
So make sure that server can connect to your client.
If at home, you’re behind a NAT, then you need a port forward rule that says “incoming TCP on 1080 goes to this particular local IP” (1080 is default port)

Next refinement is to connect several clients from one IP (I know you have more that one at home!) :
All you have to do is get a different port for each client behind the router, by specifying in the client prefs dialog other ones :1081, 1082, etc…
Of course, you also need port forwarding rules for each machine…

[Steve Bell]

This may be a long shot, but we have had similar problems within the office. Firstly, it sounds like you have your port mapping in hand or it wouldn’t connect in the first place, but if you dont then I think you need ports 8080 and 1800 going to your server.

We occasionally and randomly get the same problem happening inside and outside the office. It came down to permissions on the Mac client. Sometimes repairing or resetting the permissions on all of the C4D installation worked. It’s very weird….

Steve Bell
http://www.archiform3d.com

[David Wiffen]

I’m reviving my thread from the dead here…

I am trying to get this to work again.

I have a connection between server at work and client at home.

I have had success in rendering a very basic scene (cube in an empty scene) across the computers remotely but when it comes to a more complex scene it just never starts rendering the job.

Is it possible the files just cant be passed across the internet between server and client fast enough?

Any more help here would be amazing. My port fowarding seems to be all in shape as everything connects.

[David Coiffier]

How big is your tex folder ? How fast is your connection from server to client, how many clients have to be delivered, and how long did you wait before giving up ?

[David Coiffier]

Do you have any net monitoring on your client(s) to see if something is coming in when starting render ?

[David Coiffier]

From my point of view, if scene file is correctly uploaded to your client, then tex folder should also be…

[David Wiffen]

Thanks for the response:

tex folder is about 250mb

Server internet connection is 1.5mb download and 0.35mb upload

Client connection is 20mb download and 1mb upload

I haven’t got any net monitoring on the client mac – any recommendations on an app for this?

[David Wiffen]

When you say scene file is successfully uploaded to client…how do you mean?

My current setup is scene file and tex are only on the server computer in the administrator > user folder etc

Are you suggesting the tex files have to be on the client machines?

[David Coiffier]

You’re correct when placing scene file and tex folder to your admin folder, for netrender server to see them.
When starting render from web interface, server distributes scene file and tex folder to every single client. Normally you don’t have to worry about that transfer, because it’s automatically done behind your back.
What I’m saying is that if you can read in your client window “starting xxx render” then “rendering image #yyy” it does mean that transfer occurs correctly, and so port mappings are correct, even with the simpliest scene file.
With heavier scene+tex files, client will quickly say “starting xxx render”, but you’ll have to wait that scene and tex folder are totally transferred to client before reading “rendering image #yyy”.
So depending on total files size, and bandwidth, it can take quite a long time to deliver them to every client.

Renders never starting are usually symptom of incorrect port mappings on client side. But as you said a really small scene file is effectively rendered by your client, I understand that port mappings are ok, otherwise render would not even start (meaning you wouldn’t read “rendering image #yyy”)

Hope this is clear to you…

Have another try with a netmonitor on client machine (I do love menumeters, that is totally free, but there is also an Apple app named Activity Monitor.app, that resides in your utility folder). At the moment you start netrender on web interface, server should send files to client(s), and so you should see incoming traffic on client side… This will just eliminates long waiting for nothing in case nothing is transfered…

[David Coiffier]

Given your bandwiths, upload from server is the bottleneck.
In case mb means megabits, 0,35 mb/sec is only 0,043 megabytes, and transferring 250 megabytes would nearly take 2 hours to complete.
In case of 0,35 megabytes, 250 MB would take roughly 12 minutes to complete.

How long did you wait before giving up ?