renderfarm

[radioVOY]

hi everyone!

 

i was looking in the forums for a tutorial to build a minirenderfarm, specially seting up the network manager of max 6.0 i already saw the max help but anything clear to me.

 

someone can post a tutorial to seting up a renderfarm?

 

i have 1 dual xeon 2.4 ghz 533fsb 2 gig ram 1 ethernet 100/1000, win xp pro, max 6.0 and two 36 gig scsi and one 80gig ide (where is installed windows).

 

im gonna start my render farm with two dual xeon 64 3.2ghz 800fsb 2 gig ram

1 80gig sata 10000rpm with win xp pro.

 

any help, tutorial, link or

[lambros]

Actually, you can check out the max help under network rendering, it explains everything!

Connect all machines to an ethernet hub, use the windows network wizard to create the local network (if you haven't done that up to now), install max on all machines (only one pc needs to have an authorized version of max - the one that initiates the network render), run backburner server on all machines that will be used to render (that may include the main pc), run backburner manager and backburner monitor on the main pc, run max, load file, press F10, under Common Parameters check Net Render, press Render, press Connect on the new window that appears, all servers will be listed, perhaps press Advanced to define Timeouts, make sure that the firewalls allow max to reach servers, Submit job, and ... check the backburner monitor...

It is quite easy actually, one thing to have in mind is that you should define a network address for saving the rendered files, i.e. do not save the files at: C://renderedfiles, but to something like: \\MACHINE0\C:\renderedfiles, and make sure that these HDs are shared across the local network.

Accordingly, all bitmaps and such staff should be on a shared network drive. Sometimes it is best to decentralize your system so that it would be less prone to errors. I use an external Firewire hard drive that holds all bitmaps and projects (I still have a backup of these in another hd!) that is shared across the network, so all PCs can access i.e. \\ATHLON4000\E:\Library\maps\wood\oak1.jpg or load a \\ATHLON4000\E:\Projects\Client18\Project10\maxfiles\house1.max file

I do not know what other users do, but I find it a timesaver to use that kind of file organization. Perhaps others would like to share the way they organize their systems?

[radioVOY]

thank you soooo much for taking the time for such a good explanation, i am cheking deeply now the max help to fix any mistake.

 

thanks a lot!!!!.

[leonmagnavox]

any better link than max help guys?

thanks in advance