3/26/13

Autodesk - Autodesk Smoke Services & Support - Export jobs fail and/or don't appear in Smoke's background tasks window
Cart(0) Company ContactUs Partners

Products

Support

Communities

Buy

UnitedStates

WorldwideSites

Home > Services&Support > AutodeskSmokeServices&Support

AutodeskSmokeServices&Support
Support KnowledgeBase SupportOfferings OtherResources ContactUs Documentation Data&Downloads

Share

Exportjobsfailand/ordon'tappearinSmoke's backgroundtaskswindow
Issue
YouareattemptingtoexportmediafromSmokeandjobsarestuckin "waiting"status,orfailbeforecompleting. Additionally,exportjobsmaynotappearinSmoke's"Background Tasks"window,butarelistedintheBackburnerWebMonitorat http://localhost/backburner Note:thisarticleonlyappliestocaseswheretheSmokesoftwareand allofitsbackgroundcomponentsareinstalledonthesame workstation.
Didthispageresolveyourissue? Yes No

[Providesuggestionsorfeedback]

Submit TranslateThisPage(Beta) LearnMoreaboutthistranslationbeta.

Solution
Whydidmyexportjobfail? ExportjobsrelyonpropercommunicationbetweenSmokeand severalofitsbackgroundservices: Stone+Wire,theserviceinchargeofmanagingthemediacache storage. BackburnerManager,theserviceinchargeofqueuingtheexport jobs. BackburnerServer,theserviceinchargeofactuallyprocessing thejobs. WiretapGateway,theservicethatprovidesfileaccesstothe exportfolder. WiretapServer,theservicethatprovidestheGatewayand BackburnerwithaccesstoSmoke'sprojectandlibrarymetadata, andthereforetothesequencetobeexported. Thesecomponentscommunicatewitheachotherviathe workstation'snetwork. Therearecaseswherecommunicationbetweenanyofthese componentscanbreak.Thisisoftenduetooneofthesecomponents (especiallyBackburner)attemptingtoreachtheothersviathe computer'sexternalnetworkhostname(forexampleUser'sMacPro) ratherthantheinternalhostname(localhost).Havingmorethanone externalnetworkinterfaceactiveatthesametime(e.g.wiredand wireless)canfurthercomplicatethings. Startbycheckingthestatusofthejobandthelatesterror UsetheBackburnerWebMonitortoconfirmthattheexportjobhas indeedbeencreated,especiallyifit'snotlistedinSmoke's backgroundtaskswindow. 1. OpenSafariandgotohttp://localhost/backburner 2. Loginusing"backburner"astheusernameandpassword. 3. Selectyourcomputerinthe"Manager"dropdownlist. 4. Themaintableonthepagelistsrecentbackburnerjobs. 5. Findthejobstuckin"waiting"anddoubleclickit.Ajobdetails pageopenslistingthelatesterrormessage. 6. Don'tclosetheWebMonitoryet.We'lluseittoattempttorestart thestalledjobs. 7. Youcanalsogetdetailedinformationontheerrorbyopening Terminalandtypingthefollowingcommands: tail/usr/discreet/backburner/Network/backburner.log tail/usr/discreet/backburner/Network/backburnerServer.log 8. ThesecommandswilldisplaytheendoftheBackburnerlogs.The errorsreturnedbythelogsshouldgiveyouanideaofwhythejob hasfailed. Verifyandrestartbackgroundservices 1. Theeasieststepyoucantaketowardstroubleshootingtheexport

Select Language

Translate

Automaticallytranslatewiththislanguage Wasthistranslationuseful? Yes No

[Providesuggestionsorfeedback] Submit DocumentInformation Publisheddate:2013Feb07 ID:TS21205267 Appliesto: AutodeskSmoke2013forMacOSX AutodeskSmoke2012forMacOSX AutodeskSmoke2011forMacOSX

usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=21205267&linkID=9242618

1/4

3/26/13

Autodesk - Autodesk Smoke Services & Support - Export jobs fail and/or don't appear in Smoke's background tasks window
jobistoopentheServiceMonitorappfromtheApplications> Autodesk>SmokeCommonUtilitiesfolderandrestartthe WiretapServerandthetwoBackburnerservices. 2. Ifanyotherserviceshowsaredlight,restartitandthengotothe BackburnerWebMonitor,selectthejobin"waiting",clickthe Actionbuttonandselect"Activate". 3. Ifthejobdoesnotrestart,orbrieflystartsbutimmediatelyfalls backinto"waiting",restartyourMacandtryactivatingthejob again. 4. Ifthejobstillwon'trestart,trythefollowingtroubleshooting procedures. Ensuretherearenodisconnectedmediastoragecachefolders. Ifthelogscontainerrorssimilarto"Couldnotdeterminefilesystem typefor",thatmeansthatadrivethathasbeendefinedasaSmoke mediastoragelocationisnotconnectedtothecomputer. YoumustdisablethedriveintheSmokeSetupapp. 1. OpentheSmokeSetup appfromApplications>Autodesk> Smoke>Utilities 2. GototheMediaStoragetab. 3. ClickManualEdit. 4. Thestorageconfigurationfileopensinatexteditor. 5. Findthe[Partition]sectionthatcorrespondstothepath mentionedintheBackburnerlog. 6. ThesectioncontainsaName=lineandaPath=line. 7. Adda#signbeforethePartition,NameandPathlines.For example: #[Partition7] #Name=AutodeskMediaStorage #Path=/Volumes/storage/AutodeskMediaStorage 8. ClickOK,thenYesandthenApply. 9. Themediastoragepartitionisnowdisabled. 10. OpentheServiceMonitorappandrestarttheStone+Wireand WiretapServerservices. 11. GointoBackburnerWebMonitoranddeleteallstalledjobs. 12. OpenSmokeandattempttoexportyourclipagain. Ensureservicescommunicatevia"localhost" Thefollowingtaskswillforcebackburnerservicestocommunicatevia thecomputer'sinternalnetwork. 1. ExitSmokeandopentheSmokeSetup appfromthe Applications>Autodesk>Smoke>Utilitiesfolder. 2. GototheBackburnertabandmakesurethevalueofthe "Manager"fieldissettolocalhost. 3. GototheGeneraltabandclicktheManualEditbutton. 4. Aconfigurationfileopensinatexteditor. 5. Scrolltotheendofthefileandfindthe #BackburnerPreConfigManagerHostnamelocalhostline. 6. Removethe#atthebeginningoftheline. 7. ClickOK,thenYesandthenApply. 8. ClosetheSmokeSetup app. 9. OpentheTerminalapp. 10. TypethefollowingcommandandpressEnter: sudonano/usr/discreet/backburner/Network/backburner.xml 11. Enteryourpasswordwhenasked. 12. TheBackburnerconfigurationfileopensinasimpletexteditor. 13. Usethearrowkeystoscrollthroughthefileuntilyoureachthe <ManagerName>and<ServerName>parameters. 14. Makesurethevalueofbothparametersislocalhost 15. Alsocheckthe<ServerMAC>and<ManagerMAC>parameters. 16. IfanyoftheMACvaluesissetto0000000000,openSystem Preferences>Network,selectyourwirednetwork,click Advanced andcopythe"MACAddress"valuefromthe Hardwaretab(withoutthecolons)intotheSeverMACand ManagerMACparametersintheTerminal. 17. Presscontrol+o andthenEntertosavechanges. 18. Presscontrol+xtoclosetheeditor. 19. WhilestillintheTerminal,type: sudonano/usr/discreet/backburner/cfg/manager.host 20. Themanager.hostfileopensinatexteditor. 21. Makesurethevalueinthefileislocalhost.

usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=21205267&linkID=9242618

2/4

3/26/13

Autodesk - Autodesk Smoke Services & Support - Export jobs fail and/or don't appear in Smoke's background tasks window
21. Makesurethevalueinthefileislocalhost. 22. Presscontrol+o andthenEntertosavechanges. 23. Presscontrol+xtoclosetheeditor. 24. OpenServiceMonitorandrestartthetwoBackburnerServices. 25. GointoBackburnerWebMonitoranddeleteallstalledjobs. 26. OpenSmokeandattempttoexportyourclipagain. Iftheaboveproceduredoesn'tfixtheissue,checkthatthe/etc/hosts filehasnotbeenmanuallyaltered: 1. OpenTerminalandtype: cat/etc/hosts 2. Thecommandoutputshouldcontainasinglelinefor"127.0.0.1", asintheexamplebelow: ## #HostDatabase # #localhostisusedtoconfiguretheloopbackinterface #whenthesystemisbooting.Donotchangethisentry. # 127.0.0.1localhost 255.255.255.255broadcasthost ::1localhost fe80::1%lo0localhost 3. Ifthere'smorethanone"127.0.0.1"line,orifthe127.0.0.1line pointstoanyotherhostnamethanlocalhost,typesudonano /etc/hoststoopenthefileinatexteditorandremoveallother "127.0.0.1"linesexcepttheonehighlighedintheexampleabove. MakesurethatyouarerunningthecorrectWiretapVersion 1. OpentheTerminalappfromtheApplications>Utilitiesfolder. 2. Typeinthefollowingcommand: /usr/discreet/<SMOKE_VERSION>/bin/selectWiretapVersion.py 3. Youwillgetapromptlikebelow. WiretapVersions 1)2012.1 2)2013.0.1 3)2013.0.4 4)2013.2 5)2013.2.1 6)quit Selectnewwiretapversion 4. SelecttheversionofSmokeyouarerunningandpressEnter. 5. Restartyourcomputerandattempttheexportjobagain. Disableadditionalnetworkinterfaces 1. Iftheexportjobstillwon'twork,openSystemPreferences> Networkandmakesureonlyonenetworkinterfaceisenabled, preferablytheonethatwasenabledwhenyouinitiallyinstalled Smoke. 2. Thenselectthenetworkinterfaceinthelefthandpaneandclick Advanced intherighthandpane. 3. MakesureConfigureIPv6issetto"Linklocalonly"intheTCP/IP tab. 4. Also,ifyouhaveinstalledParallelsDesktop,VMWare,Oracle VirtualBoxoranyotherapplicationthatcreatesvirtualnetwork interfaces,trytotemporarilydisablethoseinterfacestosee whetherexportstartsworking. 5. RestartyourMacifyoumadeanychangetothenetworksettings, thendeleteallstalledBackburnerjobsandattempttoexport again. Avoidportconflictsandblockedports IfyourMac'sfirewallisturnedon,openSystemPreferences> Security&Privacy>Firewallandturnitoff,thenrestartyourMac andseeiftheexportjobresumessuccessfully. IfyouhaveinstalledAutodeskMayawiththeBackburneroption enabledafterhavinginstalledSmoke,uninstallallMaya components,thenuninstallandreinstallSmoke,deleteallfailed exportjobsandretryexportingyourclip.
SupportTermsofUse

usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=21205267&linkID=9242618

3/4

3/26/13
Careers

Autodesk - Autodesk Smoke Services & Support - Export jobs fail and/or don't appear in Smoke's background tasks window

Copyright2013Autodesk,Inc.Allrightsreserved.Privacy(updated)LegalNotices&TrademarksReportNoncomplianceSiteMap

usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=21205267&linkID=9242618

4/4