Automatic Cycling Server

[Bugga_Guy]

Does anyone know how to create a script or know somehow to achieve this?

 

Automatically activate the backburner server on all computers when the computer are on like a script or exe file that will automatically "turn on" the server on all computers?

 

or

 

Server is launched at 5:00pm - if someone is still working on the comptuer and turns the server off - the script reactivates at every hour until the person leaves the office.

 

We have 30 or so computers but they are scattered allthroughout the office, turning them on every night is a bit of a pain. No matter when i ask someone to "log out" and login to a server login people always tend to forget.

[Chad Warner]

Do you mean like placing "backburner.exe" in the startup folder?

 

Or there's a window's scheduler that you can use for this type of thing. (programs/accessories/scheduled tasks)

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

let me ask this... at 5:00pm, when everyone leaves the office, are they simply walking away, and leaving there computer logged in as there username, etc.? ...if so, and this is the easy solution, follow Chad's advice on setting up windows scheduler, or something similar. ...if not, setting it up starts to get a little harry.

[moshenko]

How about running Backburner Server as a Windows Service? Even if you use a Scheduled Task you still have the problem of not knowing if all of the users have actually left. If server was set up as a Windows Service (i.e., it runs silently in the background all the time) you could at least hold off submitting jobs to certain computers that you know are still in use.

 

Your biggest task in all of this is determining which computers are actually "free". Enforcing a logoff policy would be the best thing (and would be a good security measure anyway). Are you in a true server environment (Windows Server, Active Directory, etc.)?

[Bugga_Guy]

Thank you all for the input so far. And we are in a true server environment

 

Basically how our office is set up there are 5 dedicated 24 hr render nodes and 30+ (12 hr) computers that people in the office use which is spread out all over the place. Right now I have to goto every computer and login as user which starts up the backburner server automatically. I just want something to be automated. But the problem is sometimes people work overtime and leave forgetting to login to activate the bb server.

 

I just want something more like a way to activate all the computers server all at once wheter it is at 12:00pm for lunch or 5:00pm when people leave.

 

The ideal thing that I was hoping for is something like the windows scheduler. where is activates at lets say 5:00pm. If a person is working over time he/she will most likely turn the server off preventing anymore renderings to happen and they never ever turn the damn bb server back on. So then a scheduler would cycle the BB server on at 6:00 or 7:00 and keep on doing so until the person left but the risk of doing this may have 2 bb server which may screw things up.

[Chad Warner]

I don't think that you can have two servers running at once, so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

Have you looked into the timer settings in the manager settings? You can setup certain times that the machines are allowed to render. That way you could have the BB running as a service like Nicholas mentioned so that it's always on, but only allowed to render from 12:00 to 1:00 and after 5:00 (or whatever).

[mtutaj]

How about a screensaver version of BB. That would work for me better as well, since I uses some systems from a remote office thru VPN. and sometimes the scheduler doesn't always work and they just shut down the server instead of pausing it.

[Bugga_Guy]

That way you could have the BB running as a service like Nicholas mentioned so that it's always on, but only allowed to render from 12:00 to 1:00 and after 5:00 (or whatever).

 

Can you specifiy some computers to render all the time and others to render from 12:00, 1:00, 5:00 etc?

 

I have 5 - 24 hour computers and would like them to render all day until I can make use of the other computers. My fear is if I and allow jobs to render at other times, then my 24 hour computer will stay in idle.

[Chad Warner]

I know you can, but I don't remember specifically how. I think you choose the computer in the manager and right click, then there's a scheduler there that you can specify what day and time the computer is allowed to render.

[mtutaj]

There is a scheduler in the manager, but it doesn't allow you to give preferences to certain systems