Monthly Archives: May 2015

[RLM] No ISV servers to start redux

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The technical reason for a “No ISV servers to start” message is that that RLM could not read the ISV line from the license file.

So, for example, if you somehow save the license file as a binary file that looks like this:

books8mk

then you’ll get No ISV servers to start, because obviously there’s no ISV line in that file.

Note: You’ll also see The hostname in the license file(s) may be incorrect, but that warning can always be safely ignored.

05/14 09:17 (rlm) 
05/14 09:17 (rlm) WARNING: No license file for this host (StephenBlair-PC)
05/14 09:17 (rlm)          The hostname in the license file(s)
05/14 09:17 (rlm)          may be incorrect
05/14 09:17 (rlm) 
05/14 09:17 (rlm) License files:
05/14 09:17 (rlm)     arnold_eval_90b11c647d93_20150514.lic
05/14 09:17 (rlm) 
05/14 09:17 (rlm) RLM License Server Version 11.2BL2

	Copyright (C) 2006-2014, Reprise Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

05/14 09:17 (rlm) License server started on StephenBlair-PC
05/14 09:17 (rlm) Server architecture: x64_w2
05/14 09:17 (rlm) License files:
05/14 09:17 (rlm)     arnold_eval_coffee0000_20150514.lic
05/14 09:17 (rlm) 
05/14 09:17 (rlm) Web server starting on port 5054
05/14 09:17 (rlm) Using TCP/IP port 5053
05/14 09:17 (rlm) ... adding UDP/IP port 5053
05/14 09:17 (rlm) (No ISV servers to start)

[RLM] No ISV servers to start

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In RLM, an ISV server is a license server for a specific product. For Arnold, the ISV server is solidangle.

isv_servers

So if you see No ISV servers to start in your log:

05/07 15:52 (rlm) RLM License Server Version 11.2BL2

        Copyright (C) 2006-2014, Reprise Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

05/07 15:52 (rlm) License server started on StephenBlair-PC
05/07 15:52 (rlm) Server architecture: x64_w2
05/07 15:52 (rlm) License files:
05/07 15:52 (rlm)     arnold_eval_90b11c647d93_20150428.lic
05/07 15:52 (rlm)
05/07 15:52 (rlm) Web server starting on port 5054
05/07 15:52 (rlm) Using TCP/IP port 5053
05/07 15:52 (rlm) ... adding UDP/IP port 5053
05/07 15:52 (rlm) (No ISV servers to start)

That means there won’t be a solidangle ISV server running, and there won’t be any Arnold licenses available:
no_isv_servers_running

Here’s a couple of licenses that result in No ISV servers to start.

  • This license is missing a line break. The ISV line has to be on a separate line; otherwise RLM won’t recognize the ISV statement and won’t find the ISV server name. 
    HOST localhost 0000coffee 5053 ISV solidangle port=66666
LICENSE solidangle arnold 20161030 28-apr-2015 1 share=h
  min_timeout=120 start=28-apr-2015 issuer=Stephen customer=00340
  issued=28-apr-2015 _ck=fed6ff299c sig="60P0453GDCA9UJKPGJSGAGJK8YWFY
  7M2K3CE5F822H1BS2TYR29EKEUCWGY70B9P1FWCTHJCSV"
  • This license is a node-locked license, so there is no ISV line, and you don’t need a license server to use the license. 
    LICENSE solidangle arnold 20150430 30-apr-2015 uncounted
  hostid=90b11c647d93 start=03-mar-2015 issuer=Stephen customer=00340
  issued=3-mar-2015 replace _ck=f9d7d6ce9c sig="60PG4512N1FRJ14HSNHACV
  7X25R5KR42PNBWUKR22M09CHC72GE07WRSGKJQJKF54C30FPFKSCG0"

    How do I know it is a node-locked license? First, there’s no HOST or ISV lines, and second, it’s uncounted. Only node-locked licenses have the uncounted keyword.

[RLM] The case of the expired license

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This case shows that if your license expires overnight, it may not be obvious that that is the problem the next morning. For example, in this case, the customer reported that:

  • The RLM license server was running.
  • The solidangle ISV server was running.
  • But clients were reporting watermarks and “No license for product (-1)” warnings in the Arnold log: 
    00:00:02   815MB WARNING | [rlm] error checking out license for arnold (version 20150428):
00:00:02   815MB WARNING | [rlm]  * No license for product (-1)
  • There were no errors in the ISV debug log in RLM Web Admin, just the Reread request by automatic@midnight entries (the RLM license server automatically rereads license files at midnight every day).
    isv_debug_log

Although there were no errors in the log, a check of the ISV solidangle status page showed something wrong: where’s the License Pool Status???
isv_solidangle_status

And a quick look at the log files in the RLM folder revealed the problem:

05/02 00:00 (solidangle) ==== Reread request by automatic@midnight ====
05/02 00:00 (solidangle) Using options file solidangle.opt
05/02 00:00 (solidangle) Setting TIMEOUT for arnold to 120 secs.
05/02 00:00 (solidangle) 
05/02 00:00 (solidangle) Re-reading license files, supporting products:
05/02 00:00 (solidangle) (No valid non-expired licenses found)05/07 00:00 (solidangle) 
05/02 00:00 (solidangle) License files:
05/02 00:00 (solidangle)     arnold_eval_0000coffee_20150428.lic

Note that the license file name arnold_eval_0000coffee_20150428.lic includes the expiry date: 20150428

And you can always check the actual license file to see the expiry date on the license:
lic_expiry_date

[MtoA] Instancing lights

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If you want to instance lights in Maya, use Duplicate Special. MtoA will correctly translate those instances to Arnold (as copies, not instances, because Arnold itself doesn’t support light instances).

MtoA doesn’t support the particle instancer for lights.

PS I don’t think Maya supports instancing lights with the particle instancer. The Maya docs say “Do not instance lights; they’ll have no effect in rendering.”, and that’s the behavior I’ve observed with mental ray and the Maya Software renderer. Also, if I leave the viewport set to Viewport 2.0, Maya crashes when I try to use the particle instancer with point or spot lights (and that’s without MtoA loaded).

Creating a polymesh with the Arnold Python api

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polymesh
Here’s a snippet that shows how to create a simple four-polygon polymesh node with the Arnold Python API.

n = AiNode( "polymesh" )
AiNodeSetStr( n, "name", "grid" )

nsides = [4, 4, 5, 6]
AiNodeSetArray( n, "nsides", AiArrayConvert(len(nsides), 1, AI_TYPE_UINT, (c_uint*len(nsides))(*nsides) ) )

vidxs = [0, 1, 4, 3, 1, 2, 5, 4, 3, 4, 7, 6, 9, 4, 5, 11, 8, 10, 7]
AiNodeSetArray( n, "vidxs", AiArrayConvert(len(vidxs), 1, AI_TYPE_UINT, (c_uint*len(vidxs))(*vidxs) ) )

nidxs = [0, 1, 2, 3, 1, 4, 5, 2, 3, 2, 6, 7, 8, 2, 5, 9, 10, 11, 6]
AiNodeSetArray( n, "nidxs", AiArrayConvert(len(nidxs), 1, AI_TYPE_UINT, (c_uint*len(nidxs))(*nidxs) ) )

vlist = [-1, 0, -1, -1, 0, 0, -1, 0, 1, -0.197835326, 0, -0.742445886, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0.802164674, 0, -0.742445886, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0.270379633, 0, -1.21302056, 1, 0, 0.508926511, 0.496316135, 0, 1]
AiNodeSetArray( n, "vlist", AiArrayConvert(len(vlist), 1, AI_TYPE_FLOAT, (c_float*len(vlist))(*vlist) ) )

nlist = [0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0]
AiNodeSetArray( n, "nlist", AiArrayConvert(len(nlist), 1, AI_TYPE_FLOAT, (c_float*len(nlist))(*nlist) ) )

m = AtMatrix( 	1, 0, 0, 0,
		0, 1, 0, 0,
		0, 0, 1, 0,
		0, 0, 0, 1 )

am = AiArrayAllocate(1, 1, AI_TYPE_MATRIX)
AiArraySetMtx( am, 0, m )

AiNodeSetArray( n, "matrix", am  )

AiNodeSetBool( n, "smoothing", True )

AiNodeSetByte(n, "visibility", 255 )

# Assign a shader to the polymesh node
u = AiNode( "utility" )
AiNodeSetStr( u, "name", "aiUtility1" )

AiNodeSetPtr( n, "shader", u )

And here’s the resulting node in the ASS file:

polymesh
{
 name grid
 nsides 4 1 UINT
4 4 5 6
 vidxs 19 1 UINT
  0 1 4 3 1 2 5 4 3 4 7 6 9 4 5 11 8 10 7
 nidxs 19 1 UINT
  0 1 2 3 1 4 5 2 3 2 6 7 8 2 5 9 10 11 6
 vlist 12 1 POINT
  -1 0 -1 -1 0 0 -1 0 1 -0.197835326 0 -0.742445886 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.802164674 0 -0.742445886 1 0 0
  1 0 1 0.270379633 0 -1.21302056 1 0 0.508926511 0.496316135 0 1
 nlist 12 1 VECTOR
  0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0
 smoothing on
 visibility 255
 matrix
 1 0 0 0
 0 1 0 0
 0 0 1 0
 0 0 0 1
 shader "aiUtility1"
}