Setting up DR after a fresh windows install on master and nodes

[dj_buckley]

So I've just finished a clean install of windows across my pc's.  I'm now setting up DR again so it works seamlessly but have a couple of questions.

I've found some articles that detail the setup but I'm wondering how up to date they are - for example, do we still need to install Backburner as per this article https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4528608387217-How-to-use-Distributed-Rendering-in-Corona-for-3ds-Max

I can only find this version of Backburner https://apps.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/en/Detail/Index?id=3481100546473279788&appLang=en&os=Win64 but it doesn't say it's compatible with 2025 which is what I've just installed.  I was on 2024 before the reinstall.  The article states Backburner versions need to match Max versions ....

Also in this article https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4528128298257-Creating-custom-inbound-and-outbound-rules-for-the-DR-Server-application is everything still relevant and do we need to do all of this on the master and the slaves?

Of if there's a clearer more up to date guide somewhere please point me in the right direction.

[maru]

In theory: it should just work out of the box

Backburner: it shouldn't be necessary, but it won't hurt to install it. The 2019 version is the latest one.

The article on inbound and outbound firewall rules: this isn't necessary. Try DR first and if there are any issues, try this as a troubleshooting step.

[dj_buckley]

Yep I probably should have stated I've already tried.  The master is only picking up 1 of 2 nodes.  No idea why, exactly the same install process on both, exactly the same methods of trying to connect etc etc.

So up next is the trouble shooting.  So does the firewall stuff need to be done on both master and nodes as the article doesn't say

[maru]

It's best to do it on the master and the nodes so that they can communicate in both directions.
How exactly are the machines connected?

You can also try the following one by one:
 
- Disable any antivirus software you are using on all PCs (including Windows Defender and Firewall) - this is just to check if the issue is related to this software. You can then turn it back on.
- Make sure on each computer there is only one instance of 3ds Max and DR server. If there are multiple instances running at the same time (for example two 3dsmax.exe processes), some issues may appear.
- Do not render from a perspective view—use some kind of camera, preferably a Corona Camera.
- Open your scene, go to Render Setup, deselect the "lock" icon in the top right corner. Click on any viewport, then click on the viewport you want to render. Select the "lock" icon in Render Setup again. Such a reset of the rendered view sometimes helps.
- Disable IPv6 - https://medium.com/@JockDaRock/disabling-ipv6-on-network-adapter-windows-10-5fad010bca75
- Go to Windows’ Services list and make sure "Function Discovery Provider Host" and "Function Discovery Resource Publication" are started. Set them to automatic start.
- Make sure you have network discovery enabled - https://www.isunshare.com/windows-10/turn-on-or-off-network-discovery-in-windows-10.html
- Make sure you are using exactly the same 3ds Max version on all of the computers taking part in the distributed rendering (note: even using different update/hotfix versions may cause problems, for example, 3ds Max 2020.3 vs 2020.2).

[dj_buckley]

Thanks Maru I'll test it out.  Very simple setup, all connected to the same network switch sat next to each other in the office.  In terms of setup, nothing has changed since before the clean install and it was working previously.  I just can't remember how I set it all up when it was first done years ago

[maru]

Just making sure: do you have enough licenses to run Corona on all the machines?

[dj_buckley]

I sure do.  As I say.  Everything was working fine until I reinstalled Windows on all machines this week.

[dj_buckley]

It's a firewall issue.  Turning firewall off and everything connected instantly.  The problem node is much older than the rest.

[dj_buckley]

Figured it out if anyone else struggles.

On both nodes the network connection was set to Public rather than Private.

So why was I able to connect to one of the nodes but not the other.

When first launching DR Server you get a popup similar to the attached.

On the node that the master did find, I'd ticked both boxes, so even though the network was set to Public it was still able to connect.

On the node that the master couldn't find.  I'd only ticked 'Private' and as the network on that node was set to Public, it wouldn't work.

Making sure everything was set to Private on nodes and master solved the problem.

[maru]

I'm glad you've managed to pinpoint it! Troubleshooting network issues can lead to insanity. One case I remember was having to ENABLE firewall in the router settings, otherwise DR wouldn't work...