pyro simulations on the farm?

[johnLIC]

How hard is it to run a pyro simulation on a remote machine?  We have one UI license, and 2 Houdini Engine licenses.  (I think there may also be some render licenses?)  I would like to use those Engine licenses to run pyro sims on other machines while I am working in Houdini at my desk.  

 

I have had a quick look for documentation, but it seems like Engine is more focused on using Houdini in other software packages like Maya.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

thanks

[Guest tar]

Engine licenses also replace hbatch - you could ssh into the remote machine and kick off the sim from the command line.

[edward]

Or, just run some type of farm server on the remote machine, like HQueue.

[johnLIC]

We have Deadline.  How hard is it to configure Deadline to pick up an Engine license?

 

SSH and command line sounds like a great solution.  I will google for the syntax... I'm guessing it's going to be similar to Maya: 

 

> houdini -batch - myfile.hip

 

or something...  thanks!

 

...OK I found hrender, but I need to sim... I really ought to get some sleep....

Edited February 27, 2015 by johnLIC

[edward]

Low tech solution (assuming you have Unix installed, or Cygwin if on Windows)

$ ssh user@host
$ cd /path/to/hfs14.0.249
$ source .setup
$ cd ~/job/path
$ hbatch myfile.hip
> render /out/therendernode
> quit
$ exit

Or, set up a render.cmd script with those render and quit commands. Then you can just do "hbatch myfile.hip render.cmd"

[xs2222]

hrender to do the export , hbatch license or the new houdini engine does the same job as well ,

and then mantra to render ifds , you normally have 10 licences ( but when you request sidefx for more licences , its unlimited )

mantra -f filename.$F4.ifd

[paxsonsa]

Hey John,

 

We used Deadline here for our sims, what version are you running? The 6 > come with submission scripts for to handle engine submissions. The script also come with in houdini calls that will allow you to submit via the interactive application.

 

Have you tried this?

[johnLIC]

Apparently Dealine 6, which we have here, does not support Houdini 14. Sad face!

 

So far I've been able to use hbatch to simulate from the command line on a remote desktop, using these two commands:

 

mread <myhipfile.hip>
render /out/geometry1

 

 

...and we got hqueue to render .exr frames on a couple machines on the farm.  I haven't tried the hq_simulate node yet, but I'm hoping I can simulate on the farm that way.  

 

Getting hqueue working was like breaking the enigma code, I imagine.  We had a guy from sidefx walking us through it.  It's quite a stew of ip addresses, mapped drives, and environment variables!  

[paxsonsa]

 

 

I haven't tried the hq_simulate node yet, but I'm hoping I can simulate on the farm that way.  

 

Which 'farm'? DL or the Hqueue?

[johnLIC]

I'm using HQueue exclusively.  DL version 6 does not support Houdini version 14.  (There's a dropdown in the Deadline window for submitting Houdini jobs that forces you to choose among versions 6-13 of Houdini.)

 

I got HQ_Sim to work, without a lot of hassle, so now I have 10 more machines to simulate on!  HQueue is great!