Software updates on renderfarms...

[Craig Ramsay]

Hi guys,

 

Im wondering how you guys manage your software updates on your renderfarms?

 

I started out with just a couple of computers that had plain old Viz on them so updates were quite quick but now I have 5 machines with Max and various plugins which is becoming a complete pain to manage. Is there an easier way to do updates on the machines other than doing each one manually? What is the best method?

 

Craig

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

i use 2 methods. my render farm has 25 machines on it right now. in the start up folder of each machine i have a .bat 'batch' file. the file runs at log in of the user name for the render farm. we have a '3d' login set up for logging in the render farm computers. the bat file only has a path in it that tells it to run another bat file located on the server. when i want to change anything on the render farm computers, i modify the bat file on the server, and all of the machines update themselves when i log into them.

 

another thing i have set up on them is a scheduled task. the task tells the machine to run a bat file every 6 minutes. this bat file is also located on the server. i use it to shutdown or restart the machines, or to switch rendering utilities from lightwave to max.

 

the bat files contain basic msdos codes. you can run files with them, map drives, change settings, ect.. ect.. here is a list of basic commands.... http://www.computerhope.com/overview.htm

 

my next step that i want to accomplish is using a Lan on feature to start all of the computers, and log in. right now i have to walk to each computer, and start it manually.

 

hope that helps, i am sure others have cleaner solutions.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

...in the start up server bat file by default i have the rendering farm i am going to use prompted to start up. i log in, walk away, and the computer launches the server, and starts rendering.

[quizzy]

My setup (4 comps)

 

install max and copy my plugin.ini file over it.

 

My plugin.ini has a shared plugin directory on 1 of my network drives.

 

All my textures are also on a network drive, you might think this will slow things down, but once the textures are loaded into max its as fast as if they were on a physical drive. And for animations that often render for a week you won't see any difference...

 

To be sure you run exactly the same max's, you can also install MAX and copy a version from another comp over it....