First attempt at network render

First attempt at network render#291926

By nik_h - Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:36 pm

- Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:36 pm #291926

Help!

I've tried network rendering for the first time and am not getting very far. Here's what I've done:

1. Launch Server on all nodes.
2. Launch Server and Manager on the computer being used as the manger.
3. Launch MXCL on manager and navigate to Network tab.
4. Click "Connect" - nodes are identified and status for each is given as "Ready".
5. Click "Add", navigate to MXS file on central file server (accessible to all nodes).
6. Manager crashes!

This happens every time. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Nik

Last edited by nik_h on Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

FormZ v6.7.2
Apple Mac Pro 2 x 2.4GHz Quad-Core, 6Gb RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5770

#291939

By frosty_ramen - Tue Feb 17, 2009 3:19 pm

- Tue Feb 17, 2009 3:19 pm #291939

i'm not sure if it will help, but before you add a render select all of the computers you want to render a file (right side on network tab, drag select all nodes) then add render. i hope that will help.

dan

#292047

By nik_h - Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:49 pm

- Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:49 pm #292047

Hi Dan,

No luck I'm afraid - crashes as before. Reading through some of the posts lower down there seems to be a lot of issues with network rendering on OSX. Has anyone got this running successfully? Does it matter that my manager is a quad G5 whereas my nodes are Intel based Macs?

Cheers,

Nik

FormZ v6.7.2
Apple Mac Pro 2 x 2.4GHz Quad-Core, 6Gb RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5770

Re: First attempt at network render#298903

By wow001 - Wed May 20, 2009 1:27 am

- Wed May 20, 2009 1:27 am #298903

I have had working a G5 quad core feeding 4 intel macs.
But this evening it is not working and not able to work out why.

Re: First attempt at network render#298976

By wow001 - Wed May 20, 2009 5:56 pm

- Wed May 20, 2009 5:56 pm #298976

The problem in our render farm is down to one of our render nodes that quits when receiving the files from the server, but all the other render nodes are working perfectly when we take the problem render node off-line.

Re: First attempt at network render#298978

By Fernando Tella - Wed May 20, 2009 6:04 pm

- Wed May 20, 2009 6:04 pm #298978

Are all textures accesible from all nodes? Do all paths refer to network locations instead of local files?

I have all my textures in a mapped network drive so I can have the same path to get to the textures from all the nodes. (T:/.....)

http://www.ftella.com

Re: First attempt at network render#298987

By wow001 - Wed May 20, 2009 7:19 pm

- Wed May 20, 2009 7:19 pm #298987

Thanks for the info, but the problem was a network cable.
The problem render node was connecting to the network hub at 100mps where all the other machines were connecting at 1gps.
So I tried a new cable.
Now it is connecting at 1gps and after a restart it is working!

On the textures and mxs locations, we keep the files in the documents folder of the home director of the rendering server and save the files back to the same documents folder. Each of the render nodes are logged in to the server with the servers user name and password before starting the co-op render.

We found this arrangement works for us. (unless using a faulty network cable or having hard drives named the same as user accounts. )