Connection Issues: No connection could be made because target machine actively refused it

A lot of our customers face problems when they try to connect Client applications to Deadline Repository and Database. This troubleshooting guide will help you find the remedies if your client applications (Worker/Monitor etc.) are unable to connect due to any connection problem.

This guide is based of off our past experience of the problem related to connecting Deadline Client Applications to Database/Repository. We'll start with the most popular ones and then try to cover as many as possible.

After the Deadline Client installation is complete you try to open the Monitor. The Monitor will try to connect with the Database, If it connects successfully it's UI shows up, if it fails it throws an error message. One of them is below:

Error Message:

Could not connect to any of the specified Mongo DB servers defined in the “Hostname” parameter of the “settings\connection.ini” file in the root of Repository. Connection timed out or No connection could be made because target machine actively refused it.

Error dialogue would look something like below:

Cause: One of the common cases is that the database service isn't running at all.

Troubleshooting:

Mongo db service not running: Follow below to see if the database service is running.

Windows: Open up task manager, under “details” tab search for the process mongod.exe

Linux: run this through the bash/terminal

ps -aux | grep mongod

macOS: run this through the bash/terminal

ps -ax | grep mongod

If it's not running follow below to run it:

Windows: Go to Services and check Deadline <version> Database service, if its stopped run it through the right-click menu options, alternatively you can run the service through a command line using (be sure to run the command prompt as an administrator):

net start "Deadline 10 Database Service“

Linux: run this through the bash/terminal

sudo service Deadline10Db start

macOS

launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.mongodb_Deadline[VERSION]DatabaseService.plist

If the service fails to start, check the MongoDb logs which live here. If the it's urgent, call our support number during business hours. If you're not comfortable handling database problems cut us a ticket and include the database logs with the ticket.

Follow below to examine the logs:

On Windows, when you try to restart the "Deadline10Db service" it would pop some message like "Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion".  In the Mongodb logs you'll find the exact reason why the service failed to start.

There are commonly two reasons why the Deadline Database service fails to start:

A non empty mongod.lock file: Valid for mongo DB version 3.2 supported in Deadline Repositories installed versions below 10.1.1.2 (upgrades will not have changed this version). We need to check first if there is a mongo lock file in the Database then check that it is empty.

File name: mongod.lock
Location:

C:\Program Files\Thinkbox\DeadlineDatabase<VERSION> (Windows)
/opt/Thinkbox/DeadlineDatabase<VERSION> (Linux)
Applications/Thinkbox/DeadlineDatabase<VERSION> (Mac OS X)

Format: LOCK file but can be opened in the text editor. Open the file to see if it is empty, it must be empty for Database service to run properly. Follow here to handle mongod.lock file and then try to start the Deadline Database service again.

Datafile has been corrupted: If the mongod.lock file is empty, doesn't exist or the issue is not resolved by fixing it, then either reach out to us with the database logs or try to perform Database repair which we think is the solution to retrieve corrupted db data.

If you are able to run the Database service successfully try to connect the client, are you able to connect? if not follow the Firewall Issues Kb article.

Reach out to us if repair doesn’t work, we would usually recommend to re-install the Database as a last resort, follow here. But the existing data will be lost if you install a new database.