Running across remote sites (VPN)

Render Manager Issues
#1

I’ve just installed, to see if I can run this across remote sites (through VPN).
I’ve installed as workstation in location 1.
Installed as rendernode in location2. and found workstation via global IP address (port forwarding in router to workstation),

Rendernode seems happy, has found workstation… I can submit job from location 1, and render node has picked it up fine!

However there are no updates to the job in Render manager from Location 1?! The node is happily chugging through frames, but Location 1 is not seeing any updates or progress or the render node at all??!

Firewall ports are open 3005-3008 on both machines…

Any ideas?

D

#2

Dear D,

Thank you for reaching out! We haven’t had a chance to fully test Render Manager on VPN so far so by default it is not recommended to use. On the other hand it is capable of working through VPN, in some special circumstances. In your case it is important to check if the bidirectional communication is allowed or not.

Before we dig deeper into the troubleshooting, I suggest writing to support@pulze.io and we can continue the discussion in private.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Attila

#3

I’m amazed you got that far. I’m trying to connect to my Farm over VPN but am greeted with the message to open firewall ports, even though they are opened and confirmed with portforward network utility.

No idea how to get this to work :slight_smile:

#4

The initial success has not lasted… we’ve given up on Pulze render manager for now, going to wait for it to gain a few new features, like submitting all passes direct from pulze scene manager, and the ability to edit the job once it is submitted… feels very beta at the moment…

#5

Thank you for your kind words!

Unfortunately at the moment , VPN is not supported. We have been working on it and in the next major release we are planning to implement this feature as well.

In the meantime the users most of the cases have the following workaround:
The recommended way is to use a common Workstation which can be accessible by anyone remotely. In this way you can benefit the great feature of Render Manager where you do not need to open a specific Max file to send it to render. So you can login remotely to the Workstation which is in the same network as the Nodes and you can just browse the previously saved Max file and you can send it out to render with a few clicks.
If you have further questions about the ports and technical requirements please visit the FAQ overe here where you can find detailed technical descriptions.
If you have any questions, just let me know.
Best regards,
Attila

#6

Hello Donal,

Thank you for reminding us that there are a lot of things to do :slight_smile: We have been working hard to fulfill all the needs.
I just would like to kindly encourage you to not hesitate to contact us at support@pulze.io next time. Every feedback helps us to better understand your needs.
Looking forward to working together.
Cheers,
Attila

#7

So almost 2,5 years later. Almost no updates in the last 6 months, apart from a beta. This still isn’t happening. A lot of people here have asked this or even a tutorial, which was promised a couple of times. I wonder why we’re paying a subscription…

#8

Hi guys!
I was wondering whether there’s been any further developement of connecting nodes across remote sites?
If not, are there any plans to support such use in the coming RM releases?
Cheers!

#9

The next major update will have better support for VPN-s meaning it will be much much easier and straightforward to connect computers together.

2 Likes
#10

During some working sessions with my IT team and with the help of Peter we were able to get this working over VPN perfectly. As Peter mentions above connecting to the pool when offsite is a little cumbersome, but it does work wonderfully.

Ultimately the issue resides likely with your tech team to get involved and analyze where communications are being blocked. My IT team needed to allow communications over VPN bi-directionally across ports 3005-3009 in order for all machines on the pool to communicate (per Peter’s instructions).

Once your offsite workstation is connected you probably also have to go into Render Manager settings and change your Network Connection to whichever one is the VPN traffic. In my case I have up to 3 choices in that menu:

  1. Ethernet
  2. Wireless
  3. VPN
1 Like
#11

Exciting news! Will a tutorial for VPN newbies like myself be available too?

#12

Yes it should be pretty straightforward with services like Tailscale for example, you just need to enter an ip address. We will create documentation for the most popular ones so it should be a lot easier.

#13

Ah does that mean you guys fixed the mac address problems with tailscale?

#14

Yes, we are building up the new version to overcome the problems/limitations we had before. In our early tests I can confirm that it is working with tailscale without any issues!

2 Likes
#15

Hi Peter,
Do you have any how-to guide on how to set VPN connection for Pulze?
We would love to test it, thanks!

#16

Hi,

I’ve been trying more or less everything. I set everything up using Wireguard and the computers can ping each other, but Pulze Render Manager is not able to see the other computer. So frustrating.

You mention Tailscale, could you please tell me how you got this setup working?

#17

So, I have a working solution for anyone interested. I’ve been trying a few things, and nothing seemed to work. Here’s what seems to be working for me at the moment, in Windows. These steps should be replicated on all machines that you are interested in getting connected.

Before you start, just close all software just to be sure.

ZeroTier

  1. Create an account at zerotier.com
  2. Download the ZeroTier software and install
  3. Copy the “Network ID” from the ZeroTier portal and paste it into the clients
  4. The clients should show up in the ZeroTier portal
  5. Open each client in the ZeroTier portal by clicking the “wrench icon” and
  6. ---- Check “Autorized”
  7. ---- Under Advanced check “Allow ethernet bridging”
  8. ---- Assign all machines IP address within the same range, only the last numbers should differ
  9. Start ZeroTier

This should be all within ZeroTier.

Windows 10/11

  1. Open “run” and run the command %appdata%
  2. Browse to the Pulze folder and open it and clear/delete everything in it.
  3. Open the firewall settings
    ---- Add port 8889 TCP in both in and out, name it to whatever you like
    ---- Add port 3005-3009 TCP in both in and out, name it to whatever you like

Pulze Render Manager

  1. Start the software
  2. Select the ZeroTier network option
  3. Add 0.0.0.0 as gateway
  4. Enable “multi network”
  5. Select “workstation”
  6. Fort the first machine you need to create a pool, for the other you should be able to press “scan” and the first pool should show up.

This should be all the steps to get you up and running. It’s possible that I forgot some step as I’m writing this from memory. Just ask if something seems weird. I’m not in any way a network guru, I’ve just been trying my way forward and this is what ended up working for me. :slight_smile: