TomasEsperanza Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Can anyone offer opinions on particular switches for Link Aggregation? I have found this... but the choice is somewhat overwhelming; as well as managed and unmanaged, Netgear do an "Unmanaged Plus" series too. Netgear ProSafe Gigabit Ethernet Switch http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I46IIFQ Might this be just the ticket...or...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elipan Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Can anyone offer opinions on particular switches for Link Aggregation? I have found this... but the choice is somewhat overwhelming; as well as managed and unmanaged, Netgear do an "Unmanaged Plus" series too. Netgear ProSafe Gigabit Ethernet Switch http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I46IIFQ Might this be just the ticket...or...? Go to your NAS website. They usually provide a list of recommended and compatible Link Aggregation switches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomasEsperanza Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Well, this is what I ended up buying for my network upgrade: http://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/127TF00K2PKJF These bits are to facilitate a very small home-office network. Connected will be: a NAS, a Workstation, a Rendernode, and a Laptop. Plus the usual Wi-Fi (Ipad & Mobile phone). It's not all plugged in yet, as I'm in the middle of a project, but the hope is to get Link aggregation working for as much as pos', primarily the NAS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliviecharbonneau Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 (edited) Hi, connect everything to your GigaBit switch (all stations, NAS, Internet modem, etc). This way they will all be connected in GB together (you want that for data sharing and network rendering) and they will all have access to the Internet (through the modem). The modem doesn't need to be GB unless you have a kickass Internet connexion. Your Wifi stuff has to be connected to the modem (avoid Wifi if possible, for all sort of speed-reliability-security-health reasons). Edited January 19, 2015 by oliviecharbonneau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryannelson Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I have a question for you tech/render wizards. I try to utilize some old machines in the office as render nodes and I notice that after a couple renders, the threads from the nodes seem to hang and eventually drop. What causes this? My suspicion is that the spawner doesn't dump memory after each render and just fills up with textures, could that be the cause? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyderSK Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Possibly. Vray (under distributed setting) has option to "restart servers on render end", you can check it (or see if it's checked) and see if it improves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryannelson Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 (edited) Possibly. Vray (under distributed setting) has option to "restart servers on render end", you can check it (or see if it's checked) and see if it improves. I don't seem to have that option in Vray for Rhino. I wonder if its because my memory limit for my WS is set to 0 and my nodes have 50% the amount of memory, so then Vray is trying to stuff more into the cache than the nodes can handle? Maybe later today (on deadline...) I can test it out. I really need to switch to 3dsMax soon... *edit* It also doesn't seem to make a difference if I restart the spawner either, I have to restart the whole machine. Edited January 20, 2015 by ryannelson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomasEsperanza Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Possibly. Vray (under distributed setting) has option to "restart servers on render end", you can check it (or see if it's checked) and see if it improves. Juraj beat me to it! - was gonna suggest the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliviecharbonneau Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 (edited) So many possibilities unfortunately: renderer crashed (lack of RAM typically), network problem (IP conflict typically), V-Ray DR server-slave miscommunication, Backburner manager-server miscommunication (a classic), etc. Alternative if you'r interested: I personnaly decided to not invest more time into network rendering expertise and I abandonned it (too much maintenance for me) for a very simple approach: I now split my renders on several machines by copying all the assets locally (same folder/path on all computers) and rendering different segments of the animation locally on each machine. You can easily synchronise the asset folder with SynchBack Free Edition for example. Simple and reliable. I know a lot of people will not like it though As a side note before I get trashed by the mob here : I do this because I only have 2 to 3 stations and obviously this low skill/headache/maintenance trick is not practical for much more than that mind you... Edited January 20, 2015 by oliviecharbonneau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryannelson Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I have a feeling its a memory problem. Which might be why the spawner doesn't dump the cache and simply restarting it doesn't fix it. I might also suspect the 10/100 switch that most of the machines are on (had to split them up around the office, kept kicking the breaker). I only work on still images (for now...) and have been using 5-10 nodes which is a hassle to manage. Fortunately, I've ordered a new render box for our server rack, dual E5-2650 v3 with 64gb of ram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterletten Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Hi Thomas, I find my self in a very similar situation to you at the beginning of this thread. So I'm very curious... How did it go? Did you get the LA working? How much of a headache was it? How much of a speed difference did you notice? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomasEsperanza Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Hi Thomas, I find my self in a very similar situation to you at the beginning of this thread. So I'm very curious... How did it go? Did you get the LA working? How much of a headache was it? How much of a speed difference did you notice? Thanks Hi Peter, I bought a new switch and stuff, plugged it all in and it was looking promising (in that the interface on the NAS and Switch for setting up the LAG seemed pretty straightforward), but alas.... When I got close to getting it working it didn't seem like it was going to be a problem at all... up until the final hurdle, but then I got an error message from my Synology NAS, telling me that some connection was "unsuccesful", and I haven't found out why yet. (I don't recall the exact message, but might update this post). Basically all my components are advertised to be LAG compatible, but as yet it ain't workin'! So, a bit of a wind-up tbh. I don't feel like I've exhausted all avenues, for troubleshooting, but I needed to take a break after get fed up with it. I can see how if everything had worked as it should have, it would have been pretty straightforward, but something isn't quite right. I got these bits, and they seem alright in themselves: Netgear ProSafe Gigabit Ethernet Switch http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I46IIFQ VanDeSaiL Cat 7 cables http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00J1Y48VS Synology DiskStation http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00G6AX604 D-Link Router http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KPP9ZFQ But as I said previously, I'm not that confident with network stuff (IP addresses, Permissions, and all that)... so someone a little more savvy might find it a breeze to set up LAG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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