> We have a problem where we're getting this error
> from some of the machines on our farm:
> *******************************************************
> ERROR: can't create log: //server001/XSI/Scenes/bw12.scn.log:
> No more connections can be made to this remote computer at
> this time because there are already as many connections as the
> computer can accept.
> *******************************************************
>
> All the systems used are Windows2000 Professional.
> And the number of machines used for a rendering is 10.
This is a standard Microsoft error when a machine tries to open a file
on a file server that has maxed out its CAL licenses.
In this case, there are too many file sharing connections open
to file server //server001/XSI/.
Microsoft devotes several "Knowledge Base" (KB) articles to this:
1) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314882
2) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328459
3) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/122920
The error is also covered pretty well on Usenet, eg:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web/browse_frm/thread/1a5c4a7ed0f4d954?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rnum=7&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26q%3DNo%2Bmore%2Bconnections%2Bcan%2Bbe%2Bmade%2Bto%2Bthis%2Bremote%2Bcomputer%2Bat%2B%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch&fwc=1
If "server001" is running Windows 2000 Professional, there can only be
10 NTFS connections open at a time. Any more than that you would need
to get Windows 2000 Server.
On host 'server001', go into 'My Computer' and right click on the 'XSI'
share, and check what the 'User Limit' is set to. You will find that,
for Win2K professional, there's a 10 user/remote host connection limit.
Microsoft says this cannot be changed for their "Professional" series of
products; you /have/ to upgrade to one of the Microsoft "Server" products
which support more than 10 connections, and you can purchase more "CAL"
licenses to increase the connection count. (CAL=Client Access Licenses).
Microsoft is unusual in that the license their file server's
connections. A connection is "per-user", "per-share". This means
even if there's one share, a single workstation might still use up
more than one connection for that share, if more than one user account
is actively accessing the share.
This problem will appear to be intermittent, as connections will
timeout after 15 minutes of inactivity, freeing them up. Then different
machines will have the problem. Even users may encounter the error
while opening files interactively.
Administrators of Microsoft file servers have to make sure file servers
have enough Microsoft's CAL licenses to support their entire render farm
and workstation users all working concurrently.
This is why many companies do not use Microsoft machines for file servers,
to avoid the CAL licensing issues.
The solution is to either:
1) Add more Microsoft CAL licenses to your "Server"
2) If your server is running a workstation version of Microsoft's OS,
(XP Pro, 2K Pro, etc), you will need to install Microsoft "Server"
instead. The workstation OS's are limited to 10 connections, period.
3) Use a non-Microsoft file server, eg. Mac, Linux, or some third
party file server, like NetApp, BlueArc, Isilon, etc..
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