Deadline Administration

Preparation

For AWS Thinkbox Deadline support you need to set a few things up in both OpenPype and Deadline itself

1. Deploy OpenPype executable to all nodes of Deadline farm. See Install & Run

2. Enable Deadline Module in the OpenPype Admin Settings.

3. Set up Deadline Web API service. For more details on how to do it, see here.

4. Point OpenPype to your deadline webservice URL in the OpenPype Admin Settings.

5. Install our custom plugin and scripts to your deadline repository. It should be as simple as copying content of openpype/modules/deadline/repository/custom to path/to/your/deadline/repository/custom.

Multiple different DL webservice could be configured. First set them in point 4., then they could be configured per project in project_settings/deadline/deadline_servers. Only single webservice could be a target of publish though.

Configuration

OpenPype integration for Deadline consists of two parts:

• The OpenPype Deadline Plug-in
• A GlobalJobPreLoad Deadline Script (this gets triggered for each deadline job)

The GlobalJobPreLoad handles populating render and publish jobs with proper environment variables using settings from the OpenPype Deadline Plug-in.

The OpenPype Deadline Plug-in must be configured to point to a valid OpenPype executable location. The executable need to be installed to destinations accessible by DL process. Check permissions (must be executable and accessible by Deadline process)

• Enable Tools > Super User Mode in Deadline Monitor

• Go to Tools > Configure Plugins..., find OpenPype in the list on the left side, find location of OpenPype executable. It is recommended to use the openpype_console executable as it provides a bit more logging.

• In case of multi OS farms, provide multiple locations, each Deadline Worker goes through the list and tries to find the first accessible location for itself.

OpenPypeTileAssembler Plugin

To setup tile rendering copy the OpenPypeTileAssembler plugin to the repository; [OpenPype]\openpype\modules\deadline\repository\custom\plugins\OpenPypeTileAssembler > [DeadlineRepository]\custom\plugins\OpenPypeTileAssembler

Pools

The main pools can be configured at project_settings/deadline/publish/CollectDeadlinePools/primary_pool, which is applied to the rendering jobs.

The dependent publishing job's pool uses project_settings/deadline/publish/ProcessSubmittedJobOnFarm/deadline_pool. If nothing is specified the pool will fallback to the primary pool above.

maya tile rendering

The logic for publishing job pool assignment applies to tiling jobs.

Troubleshooting

Publishing jobs fail directly in DCCs

• Double check that all previously described steps were finished
• Check that deadlinewebservice is running on DL server
• Check that user's machine has access to deadline server on configured port

Jobs are failing on DL side

Each publishing from OpenPype consists of 2 jobs, first one is rendering, second one is the publishing job (triggered after successful finish of the rendering job).

• Jobs are failing with OpenPype executable was not found error

  Check if OpenPype is installed on the Worker handling this job and ensure OpenPype Deadline Plug-in is properly configured

• Publishing job is failing with ffmpeg not installed error

  OpenPype executable has to have access to ffmpeg executable, check OpenPype Setting > General

  

• Both jobs finished successfully, but there is no review on Ftrack

  Make sure that you correctly set published family to be send to Ftrack.

  

  Example: I want send to Ftrack review of rendered images from Harmony :

    - `Host names`: "harmony"
    - `Families`: "render"
    - `Add Ftrack Family` to "Enabled"

  Make sure that you actually configured to create review for published subset in project_settings/ftrack/publish/CollectFtrackFamily

  

  Example: I want to create review for all reviewable subsets in Harmony :

  - Add "harmony" as a new key an ".*" as a value.

• Rendering jobs are stuck in 'Queued' state or failing

  Make sure that your Deadline is not limiting specific jobs to be run only on specific machines. (Eg. only some machines have installed particular application.)

  Check project_settings/deadline

  

  Example: I have separated machines with "Harmony" installed into "harmony" group on Deadline. I want rendering jobs published from Harmony to run only on those machines.