OTOY Forums

Hi there,

when trying to run multiple instances of Houdini with Octane plugin I get this error:

2021-02-11 15:33:44: 0: STDOUT: [Octane] 15:33:44 INFOR: [license] ----------- Authenticate Octane license
2021-02-11 15:33:44: 0: STDOUT: [14:33:44.510] activation: Activation attempt
2021-02-11 15:33:44: 0: STDOUT: [14:33:44.512] activation: Total of 2 activation providers to use
2021-02-11 15:33:44: 0: STDOUT: [14:33:44.514] activation: Trying activation with provider: Dongle
2021-02-11 15:33:44: 0: STDOUT: [14:33:44.517] dongle : Could not find any Octane dongles. ()
2021-02-11 15:33:44: 0: STDOUT: [14:33:44.519] activation: Activation didn't succeed with provider Dongle: Could not find any Octane dongles.
2021-02-11 15:33:44: 0: STDOUT: [14:33:44.521] activation: Trying activation with provider: OctaneLive
2021-02-11 15:33:46: 0: STDOUT: [14:33:46.528] ERROR : Another instance is currently performing authentication tasks

A. Ubuntu 20.04
B. Nvidia RTX 2080 ti
C. 512 gb
D. 560.39
E. 2020.02
F. Octane_2020.2.0.4_Houdini_18.5.351_Linux_gcc6.3.1
G. Houdini 18.5.351
License of Octane is per Machine, I need to have multiple running.

Thanks for fixing!

Hi,

Can you please elaborate on what kind of Houdini instances are you trying to run and what's your workflow? Are they hython instances, and how are you creating them?

Thanks,
-Juanjo

Hi Juanjo,

thanks for reaching out.

So we are spawning up to 20 processes of hython3.7 with deadline.
Our pipeline is to open a scene, apply some changes to a model inside the scene and export orbx which we distribute to a renderfarm. The reason for that is that we have short rendertimes and only produce stills.
We did not figure out yet how to have a persistent hython-process and change values on the fly without respawning the whole process.

I hope that I was able to clarify what we do.

Thanks and kind regards

Goetz

This is weird because although it is true that just one instance of Octane can be executing its activation at a time, the plugin has a loop to retry the activation up to 16 times if it fails. Can you please attach the full output of hython to the terminal when the activation fails?

Thanks.
-Juanjo

I cannot support you with a full log right away as we are in mid of a critical production and I cannot jump to the new version right now to test.

has a loop to retry the activation up to 16 times if it fails

This behavior is known from the previous 1.5.3 version of the plugin. It does not exist for Octane standalone though. For standalone I had to simulate this behavior by respawning the process in case the license error occurs. However, from my pov it is hard tu understand why we license per-machine and then not be able to spawn as many parallel as we wish.

You can spawn as many parallel octane instances as you want. The problem is that the license authentication only can happen once a time, so probably this is the problem that you have: multiple octane instances trying to authenticate the license at the same time.

As I've said, the plugin can retry the license authentication if it fails, but perhaps if you are launching so many instances at the same time, one or several instances could not reach the authentication before giving up after the 16 tries loop.


Thanks,
-Juanjo

You are correct, multiple instances in parallel work but not authenticate in parallel with more than 2 machines.
However, I can confirm that the function of trying 16 times was there in 1_5_3 but got lost in 2_0_4.

Hmm, nope, this feature is there in Octane 2020.2.0.4 for sure. Don't you get the "Trying to activate the license. Attempt 1 of 16" message from hython when you launch the rendering?

Thanks,
-Juanjo

Let me confirm tomorrow. Also then I can provide a full log. Thanks!

Btw, do you have an idea why authentication can only be done twice in parallel?

This is a core limitation. The license authentication function can't work in parallel.

Thanks,
-Juanjo