ktm07 Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 Good morning (or evening as the case may be)! We have been in the process of fine-tuning our backburner set up and are hoping that someone in this group can help us with the next challenge. We have a large number of PC's (300+) at our disposal in the off ours that we want to include in the farm. The challenge is that user activity varies wildly! We are hoping to find an add-on to backburner that will detect user activity on the individual server node and disable (or enable) based on activity. Does anyone know of a tool that will do this? Thanks! Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 I can't help you with the program but I can tell you what our IT guy's did. In our office you have to log on and off of your computer every day. One of the IT guy's wrote a program that I can access where I indicate what number of computers I need online each night. When I specify a number (say 50) it goes to a database and reads off the 50 fastest computers names and puts those computers on a separate list of machines needed for network rendering. When people log off for the day each computer reads the file that tells it whether or not it is needed for network rendering, if their name is listed the computer reboots. The reason that the log on and off is so important is because we run backburner as a service in windows. As long as a computer is on and no one has logged in the service is running, as soon as someone logs in the service is stopped and full control is returned to the user. It has taken us 3 years to get the system up and running with a lot of trial and error. The program will even start up a computer that has been shut down through the use of the LAN card and something called a magic packet. It's really made my life much easier, now I just tell the system how much horse power I need and I get it. I hope this helps you in some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 i've not used this but have heard good things: http://www.uberware.net/smedge3/index.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 maxer, I would be interested in more details on how that was all accomplished. Thanks, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 I'll tell you what I can, what would you like to know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 I understand how to turn on the computer with Wake-on-Lan Just tring to figure out how to get the systems to understand how to log-off and on as the rendernode, then shut off the service when the person logs in. I would have my couple of extra systems just do it automaticly, and not worry about how many systems I would need for the job. I am also using FR so I am wondering if I can get it setup with that as well if I want to use DR. Thanks, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktm07 Posted July 6, 2006 Author Share Posted July 6, 2006 As long as a computer is on and no one has logged in the service is running, as soon as someone logs in the service is stopped and full control is returned to the user. Maxer, Could you find out how this works? Specifically, we need to understand the part of returning control to the user when they log back in. We have it configured as a service but need that final step so users can regain control of their systems. Thanks! Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 All I know is that after login a script is run that stops the service, this returns control to the user. I've asked my IT guy for a more detailed description of how this works but he is very busy and hasn't gotten back with me yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthony cortez Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 This thread might help you out...there's some useful information about setting up backburner as a service and it also goes over the log on/log off scripts: http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=456140 Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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