Skip to main content
UngerTime
UngerTime
Inspiring
December 26, 2016
Answered

Virtualizing AE installs for cloud-based rendering

  • December 26, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 3849 views

Greetings AE experts! First post on the forums here...

I'm in the process of leveraging Microsoft Azure for cloud-based rendering using After Effects. I was able to package up files for AE CC 2017 into a nice .zip file. I tested by extracting these files to machines that did not have AE installed and was able to run aerender.exe no problem.

I am having a problem getting AE to run on a virtualized Windows Server 2012 r2 instance in Azure though, with absolutely zero information from AE about why it fails to launch. The error message I receive is: "Your application install seems to be damaged, Please reinstall the application."

After contacting support, they informed me that AE CC 2017 won't work on virtualized hardware, which I find hard to believe given the advancement of virtualization in the last 5 years.

Does anybody else have insight on how to isolate aerender.exe to run in a virtualized environment?

Much appreciated.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer UngerTime

    Hi UngerTime,

    Were you able to solve your issue?

    Thanks,
    Kevin


    I was, yes! This issue dealt with the fact that I had "hide filename extensions" ON, and my filename was essentially named "ae_render_only_node.txt.txt"

    2 replies

    N
    nirc23884330
    Participant
    July 2, 2019

    UngerTime​

    Hi, I am interested how you were able to:

    "package up files for AE CC 2017 into a nice .zip file. I tested by extracting these files to machines that did not have AE installed and was able to run aerender.exe no problem."

    I want to create an EC2 (AWS) windows server instance with AE installed on it and run aerender. But I am unable to install on these machines. Can you help?

    Mylenium
    Mylenium
    Legend
    December 27, 2016

    Windows Server 2012 r2

    Where was it ever written that AE supports any server OS, even more so on virtualized systems where you run into layers and layers of permissions and file access problems due to the sandboxing? That aside I'm sure it can be made to run in some fashion, but you are strictly on your own. This is simply an unsupported scenario. Your information is way to sparse for anyone to begin to make sense of it, anyway.

    Mylenium

      UngerTime
      UngerTimeAuthor
      Inspiring
      December 28, 2016

      I was able to use the Creative Cloud Packer to create a package, and install it onto the server (finally). This got me past the initial error. Now, no matter where I put the "ae_render_only_node.txt" file, I'm not able to get aerender.exe to get past the "unable to obtain a license" message.

      Note: the OS is installed on "d:\" (not c:\)

      Here are the locations I've tried to put the file, to no avail:

      c:\users\[username]\documents

      c:\users\public\documents

      c:\users\public\documents\adobe

      c:\users\public\public documents

      c:\users\public\public documents\adobe

      d:\users\[username]\documents

      d:\users\public\documents

      d:\users\public\documents\adobe

      d:\users\public\public documents

      d:\users\public\public documents\adobe

      The blog post here is actually incorrect, as it states "..\My Documents", which is incorrect.

      Does anybody know where I should put the ae_render_only_node.txt file so that I can execute aerender.exe without activating the software?

      *edit* It might also be important to note that when I activate the software on the server, I'm able to execute aerender.exe and use AE CC 2017 no problem. Once I sign out, it goes back to the "unable to obtain license" error message.

      Kevin J. Monahan Jr.
      Community Manager
      Kevin J. Monahan Jr.Community Manager
      Community Manager
      January 20, 2017

      Hi UngerTime,

      Were you able to solve your issue?

      Thanks,
      Kevin

      Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio
      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
      Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices