Cinema 4D Client R21 Service Creation

r_gigante

Hi @thestraycat, we're still investigating the issue since using nssm is not officially supported on Windows 10.

As a temporary workaround, considering that the scope of having it installed as a service it to just have it started at the boot, you might consider to add the TeamRender Client executable among the programs being run at the startup: this can be done be creating an alias to the program - in your case the TR client - inside C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp or, if depending on a local credential, in C:\Users[local user]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

Finally, although it doesn't change the overall results - I warmly invite the drop nssm and have a look to sc.exe which is a similar utility provided directly by Microsoft and delivers the same functionalities delivered by the first.

Cheers,

Cheers, R

thestraycat

@r_gigante said in Cinema 4D Client R21 Service Creation:

Hi @thestraycat, we're still investigating the issue since using nssm is not officially supported on Windows 10.

Hi r_gigante, thanks for looking into it, i know it's not simple. I had a look on the NSSM website and it does seem to be supported on windows 10 as per the website:

But i totally understand that nssm + c4d isn't.

As a temporary workaround, considering that the scope of having it installed as a service it to just have it started at the boot, you might consider to add the TeamRender Client executable among the programs being run at the startup: this can be done be creating an alias to the program - in your case the TR client - inside C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp or, if depending on a local credential, in C:\Users[local user]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

Yeah, as a work around i likely will, but this dosn't real deal with auto starting the application during failure and isn't as resilient as running it as a service, we also run into issues with security banners and have monitoring systems tied into looking specifically for this service etc.

Finally, although it doesn't change the overall results - I warmly invite the drop nssm and have a look to sc.exe which is a similar utility provided directly by Microsoft and delivers the same functionalities delivered by the first.

Thanks for the suggestion, However sc.exe isn't as flexible as nssm (which is where nssm derived it's name and use case from NSSM -> (Non-Sucking-Service-Manager) and adds a comprehensive set of features to service creation.

Being able to use sc.exe would be my preference over running a scheduled task at startup. Do have any information or tips or a working service creation command to get R21 working under sc.exe?

Thanks for all your help on this.

r_gigante

@thestraycat said in Cinema 4D Client R21 Service Creation:

Being able to use sc.exe would be my preference over running a scheduled task at startup. Do have any information or tips or a working service creation command to get R21 working under sc.exe?

At the moment R21 is not capable to be run as a service both with NSSM and SC. For the time being I don't have any further update on the topic, but I'll get back to you as soon as we can identify the cause of this incompatibility.

Thanks, Riccardo

thestraycat

@r_gigante - Thanks for confirming. Well it seems something substantial has changed for this to suddenly stop working, which is a shame as it effects our farm hugely. I wouldn't want to move away from C4D but unless a fix emerges or the functionality returns it's a real deal breaker for the likes of people running 30+ nodes

r_gigante

@thestraycat thanks for following up.
I feel your frustration, but at the moment being a workaround already there - you can start the different clients either using Scheduled Tasks or simply using the Start-Up folder in the ProgramData as mentioned above - I don't see it as a deal-breaker.

Rest assured that I've already notified our developers about the issue and hopefully based on our development prioritization.

Best, Riccardo

thestraycat

Strict Security GPO's make this a lot harder to do in an enterprise environment. Easier if it's just a PC under your desk..

thestraycat

@r_gigante - I take it there has been no progress or milestone date to return running the functionality of teamrender client running as a service (as of R21) going forward?

If so, this is a shame.

Due to our infosec requirements of being a larger company. Our Microsoft GPO policies stop us from running a foreground application as a logged in user due to it being a rather large security risk! As mentioned previously, there were added benefits for us running this as a service, not only was it a supported method of running an application, it also gave as resilience of our render service due to auto-starting failed agents due to things like memory leaks or bad jobs etc.

It also had fundamentally broken our monitoring and analytics pages that we expose to our user base that track the service running state.
It has also stopped us piping our service logs into log aggregation solutions like logarr and splunk.

It seems strange that the functionality existed. And now has been removed. I understand this may be in effect due to substantial re-writes but it seems an oversight to not keep the functionality or plan to return it. In essence, your making the product harder to run for larger organisations. It seems a bit counter productive.

Can someone explain the rationale behind the decision to remove the functionality?

r_gigante

Hi @thestraycat, I see your frustration but although the topic is still under my radar I can't give an estimation on when it will be addressed. Unfortunately this looks like a regression that has nothing to do with API or plugin development and I can only increase the awareness on the issue.

Rest assured that I'll try to keep you posted upon the discussion.

Best, R

thestraycat

I appreciate your reply @r_gigante

Should i be speaking to a different team? Can you recommend a good contact or any insight into how i can get this in front of the relevant people?

r_gigante

Hi @thestraycat thanks for following up.

@thestraycat said in Cinema 4D Client R21 Service Creation:

It seems strange that the functionality existed. And now has been removed. I understand this may be in effect due to substantial re-writes but it seems an oversight to not keep the functionality or plan to return it. In essence, your making the product harder to run for larger organisations. It seems a bit counter productive.

I've just opened a bug-report to confirm the regression, although it must be told that this was not a functionality intentionally added but something that by chance was simply working in past versions.

There's no other "better" team to contact because considering the technical level of the topic, it's likely you're going to be forwarded again here.

Best, R

r_gigante

Hi @thestraycat, quick follow-up: today I've internally discussed the issue and it's likely it will take a while (at least 6 weeks) before development resources can be spent on fixing it.

I'll get back on the topic as soon as I've fresh news.

thestraycat

@r_gigante Thank you for checking in and updating! I'll keep a keen eye on the thread, if you need me to test anything just shout.

thestraycat

@r_gigante - Hi R.

Some time has past and i was wondering what progress you guys may have made on this issue?

r_gigante

Hi @thestraycat, I'm sorry to disappoint you but the option to start the TeamRender Client via NSSM or SC or WinSW has not yet been restored.

I can only ask, to contact us via our official email address, to better describe the impact this issue is causing on your work to escalate the discussion.

Best, Riccardo