• Installing Enterprise Edition

Installing Enterprise Edition

This page has moved to https://help.animbot.ca/support/solutions/articles/61000292031-installing-enterprise-edition

 

By default, animBot is designed for individual installation and it won’t allow you to install it in a central location. However, Enterprise Edition is designed for companies, it’s powered by RLM float licensing system  and allows you to install animBot in a central location and have full control over version deployment, just like you normally do with other tools in your pipeline. In addition to that, it’s possible to do some tweaks, thru a config file.

Step 1 – RLM license server initial setup

 

1.a) Selecting a computer to run the License Server

If you already have a RLM server setup for other software vendors (v12.4 or above), you can skip to 1.c).
You’ll need to select a computer that will host the Reprise License Manager (RLM) server. This computer will act as a server and must be on your internal company network, accessible by all the computers in your organization that will use animBot. RLM must be hosted on a physical (non-virtual) server and it should also be a computer with high availability, i.e. never turned off.

 

1.b) Install the RLM license server

  • Please download animBot RLM package and extract the ZIP file.
  • Copy the folder pertinent to your OS (win, mac or linux) anywhere you want in your server.

 

1.c) Install the animbot.set file

  • Make sure to copy the file animbot.set in your server install directory. This file is contained in the animBot RLM package.

 

1.d) Get your RLM server host ID(s)

Step 2 – Complete the installation

Once you have the files animBot_Enterprise_Edition.lic and config.json, please proceed with the instructions below.

2.a) Install your license

  • Copy the file animBot_Enterprise_Edition.lic to your RLM installation directory (the same directory containing the executables rlm and rlmutil).
  • Make sure the hostname described in the license file matches with your license server. You can edit the lic file with any text editor at this line:
    HOST <hostname> <hostid> <port>
    * You can edit hostname and port only.

 

2.b) Launch RLM license server

* It’s recommended that you setup this application to run at system startup, to ensure the server is always up and running.

 

2.c) Install animBot files

  • Download animBot (preferably the recommended version for the Enterprise Edition)
  • Extract the zip file and look for the folder “animBot” which is inside the version folder i.e. “animBot_1_0_0_Bundled/animBot“. Copy it to a shared location in your network.
  • Add the config.json file to the same animBot parent directory. The folder structure in your network could look something like this:

/net/maya/animBot/1.0.0/animBot
/net/maya/animBot/1.0.0/config.json

  • Alternatively, you can set the environment variable ANIMBOT_CONFIGJSONPATH and add the config.json file to a custom location. This is useful when you have multiple animBot versions that point to a single config.json file.

 

2.d) Set your Python path

In order for Maya to know where you’ve installed animBot files, and be able to import the modules, you need to include this location to Maya’s Python Path. Feel free to do that the way you are used to. If you are not familiar with this, the simplest method goes as follows:

  • Download and extract this Maya.env file.
  • Open the file with any text editor and change the location accordingly.
  • The location should be the animBot parent directory, i.e. for the directory “/net/maya/animBot/1.0.0/animBot”, you will use “PYTHONPATH = /net/maya/animBot/1.0.0/”.
  • Copy this file to every user maya preference directory: <user>/maya/<version>, i.e. ..john/maya/2020
  • Restart Maya.More information about Python in Maya

 

2.e) Set the RLM license server host address so animBot can find the licenses

There are 3 options to set the server’s <port>@<hostname>, please pick the one you are more comfortable with:

 

2.f) Add animBot to Maya’s shelf

 

Monitoring your license

After installation, you can also monitor the status of your floating licenses using the RLM server’s web interface. From the server machine go to http://localhost:5054 or from another machine use http://servername:5054 replacing servername as appropriate.

Troubleshooting

If you followed the instructions above, animBot should work smoothly for you. If you are having troubles with it, the most common cause is when the end user installed animBot locally, so you end up having 2 installations. In order to check, on the user machine please go to animBot menu/licensing and you should see the image below. If you see something different, please make sure to remove animBot from <user>/maya/scripts and restart Maya. Important: Do NOT use the “animBot Drag’n Drop Install.mel”, this is only for individual installation, it will install animBot locally.

ImportError: No module named animBot._api.core
If you get this error, it means animBot is not available in your Python path. Please double check step 2.d above.

RLM Server init failed or No License for Product (error -111)?
This error means animBot can’t connect to the license server. If you followed all the steps above and still get this error, it means there’s something blocking the connection, such as a firewall. Please ensure that the RLM port is open, as well as animBot specific port. More information here.

 

If you are having troubles with RLM, you can either email me for support or visit RLM Support for License Administrators and Users

 

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