Fusion 8 Dongle/License server issue

Hi, I have a Fusion Studio dongle that came with v7.7

It works with 8 which is great!

The new simplified network licensing from the user manual states that this Studio license can now be used as a single floating one. So I can use another remote machine which is in the same subnet as the machine with the dongle and use it with Studio. Not at the same time, I understand but thats fine.

Is that correct? Since I cannot make it work. The remote machine does not see the license server.

I've installed both Studio and Render Node on the one with the dongle. I've installed Studio on the remote.

Any help would be appreciated.

Matthias

Hi Matthias,

We have a similar issue here. In Fusion 8, the RenderNode requires a license server location. For this to work, we have to install the FusionServer onto a dongle-equipped machine. Then the FUSION_LICENSE_SERVER environmental variable is set to that machines IP address (Hostnames do not seem to resolve).

This allows the RenderNode to pull a license, however, this method does not appear to work when launching Fusion Studio. Our theory was to have all 4 of our dongles on one machine, and the variable would point to it, kind of like a floating license server. If we try this we cannot get a license to launch Fusion Studio, although the RenderNode can.

I've emailed Blackmagic support for clarification, but not had any response yet.

Any luck on this. I also emailed support last week, but no response yet.

Yes, I have an update. To be honest, Although I've been in contact with BM, most of what I figured out was by trial and error.

The RenderNode license does not require the FUSION_LICENSE_SERVER variable, this is only to be used when you have a multi-license dongle, and Fusion Studio needs to point to it.

When we installed the Fusion Server service onto a machine, then suddenly our RenderNodes could obtain a license (from one of the 4 dongles on our network, even with FusionStudio closed). If we remove ALL the dongles, we cannot get a license. Strange thing is, when we uninstall the service, it still continues to work! which it did not before. I do not understand that part, almost like installing the FusionServer service "kick-starts" the automatic network license discovery.

I don't think you can install all 4 dongles onto one machine and use it as a floating server. BM said they would look into this but never got back to me.

Hope this helps someone out!

James, that sounds promising! Thank you for sharing this.

What exactly is the Fusion Server service? Is it an extra piece of software or does it come with Studio or the Render Node?

Thanks,

Matthias

Ok, I got it working. After installing the Fusion Render Node I would get "No License" in the Render Status window. After setting the FUSION_LICENSE_SERVER environment variable pointing it to the machine that the dongle is attached to and restarting the Render Node it went to Render Status "Idle"

Weird issue we have is that some machines would work without this others don't. The ones that we have to force by using the setup above will time out after some time in the render manager when idling around. So we have to retry them from within the manager, but that's no job stopper. At least they're rendering.

Hope that helps.

Matthias

Matthias,

We also have strange inconsistencies you mention...

I'm fairly certain that during our early tests the we also needed the FUSION_LICENSE_SERVER variable to point to the Fusion Server service / Dongle machine, but later tests worked without the variable.

Also, our other tests needed the Fusion Server service to be installed on a machine in order to discover a dongle on the network. Then we uninstall the service, and even reboot that machine, and the RenderNode continues to get a license.

I'm sure there is some kind of logic behind these inconsistencies, but we have yet to figure it out