Backburner Setup Question

[alastairerrett]

Hi,

 

I'm currently looking into setting up a render server for our small office. However I have a question about backburner that I need answering before I can move forward. The way I would like to setup backburner is that each user on the network can send a render job from their workstation to the backburner manager that's on a dedicated workstation, the backburner manager then sends the job to the render server which renders the job. I believe this is possible from reading the backburner user guide, however I have a couple of questions.

 

Number 1 - How do you tell each users version of 3ds Max to point to backburner manager on the dedicated workstation rather than backburner manager on their own workstation?

 

Number 2 - On the dedicated workstation setup for backburner manager do I need a licenced version of 3ds Max for it to work correctly. Or can I just have the backburner Manager installed and nothing else?

 

Below is a diagram of how I'd like to setup the system in case my description wasn't clear enough.

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Alastair

[Scott Dombrowski]

each user on the network can send a render job from their workstation to the backburner manager that's on a dedicated workstation, the backburner manager then sends the job to the render server which renders the job.

 

Yep, that's how it works.

 

Number 1 - How do you tell each users version of 3ds Max to point to backburner manager on the dedicated workstation rather than backburner manager on their own workstation?

 

Manager only runs on one machine, and it should be a machine that isn't doing any rendering. The hardware requirements are low, so we have it running on a virtual machine which has worked well so far for our two node render farm. Here's the workflow for me: We have a Manager (BRND0), and two render nodes (BRND1 & BRND2) running Server. I submit to network rendering, connect to BRND0 as the manager, and tell it to utilize BRND1, BRND2, or either one, depending on what I'm doing. Hit Submit, then check on the progress using Monitor on my workstation. I'm the only 3D guy, so I can't speak to what happens if two or more people try to submit a render at the exact same time, but I imagine in a small office you can probably work that out verbally if it's an issue.

 

Number 2 - On the dedicated workstation setup for backburner manager do I need a licenced version of 3ds Max for it to work correctly. Or can I just have the backburner Manager installed and nothing else?

 

You just need Manager. Max gets installed on the render nodes, but does not need to be licensed.

 

Good luck!

[alastairerrett]

Thanks that's helpful, the only thing I don't fully understand is how you connect to the Backburner manager from 3ds Max on a separate machine.

 

For example. Say I'm on my workstation working on a scene in Max. I want to render out the scene, so I open up the Render Setup dialog box and set all my settings. The then click the dropdown arrow to the right of the render button and click 'Submit to network rendering'.

 

Will this send the job to the backburner manager on the other workstation that's setup to run backburner manager? Currently when I press submit to network rendering it just opens the backburner manager on the workstation I'm currently on. This is probably because I haven't got it setup yet. In which case when setting it up how do I point 3ds Max on my workstation to the backburner manager on the other workstation?

 

Thanks

[Scott Dombrowski]

When I choose Submit to Network Rendering, the Max window hides and this window pops up

In there, I type in the name of the computer running Manager, hit connect, then hit submit which initiates the job transfer to the Manager computer. Manager has to be already running, it does not start Manager for me. Perhaps you're confusing this window with the actual Manager app?

 

Backburner is automatically installed with 3ds Max, so you shouldn't have to do anything extra on your workstation or the render nodes. For the machine you're going to use as Manager, you can download Backburner standalone from here. You can run Manager and Server either manually or as Windows Services. For me, running them as a service was always kinda buggy so I just start them manually and leave them running all the time. I only have two render nodes so it's no big deal.

[alastairerrett]

Excellent, thanks so much. Mine is identical except it says 'Enter Subnet Mask' instead of Enter Manager Name or IP Address as yours does. Now you've explained that it'll work I can be confident that I can do what I need to. It's either just a different version and that's why it's not the same or it's because I don't have the Manager App installed on my network yet. I'm confident it'll work how I want now though so thanks for that.

 

[Scott Dombrowski]

Uncheck Automatic Search right under Enter Subnet Mask and you can enter your machine name directly.

[alastairerrett]

Ah ok, great, thanks for that. All sorted now.