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1. Enaame 8 By frame i LT Additional flags 7 GD Shake job file The job file to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 108 Toxik 2008 2009 Toxik 08 09 Composition tie Project directory Santame 7000000000007 Ena fame Composition file The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame 109 Vue Vue Vue scene fie Sata 77777 Eng tame Pamesep 70777777777 Vue scene file The job file to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame Frame step Frames step in the final sequence 110 Xsi Xsi XSI scene file n ya Test Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Start frame 1 End frame 100 By frame 1 MNA C C XSI scene file name The job file to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 111 Xsi frame slicing Xsi Fs Xsi Fs Xl
2. Client configuration Windows network dives E Faanis anmain mapping Barepcad naa deremnaccen cate BRETT gu pom e e e POOR Dispatcher configuration Remember that after each configuration you need to restart the services to activate the changes The second step requires the configuration of the Mac platforms First you need to mount the shares to make it visible on the Mac Assuming 192 168 0 100 as the IP address of the network shares the following pictures shows how to mount it using the Finder Connect to Server option e 0 Connect to Server Server Address smb 192 168 0 100 QJ Favorite Serve s CHEESUCEHEENMPMEEMENPe M Connect to the server 24 KK Select the volurnes to mount Y Cancel or 3 Select the share and mount it eoo C Volumes C3 EE o m L3 Q DEVICES n Date Modified Macintosh HD 28 Deta Today 2 48 PM Ei iDis na Macintosh HD Today 2 38 PM EO Macintosh HD 2 Today 2 38 PM 2a Macintosh HD 2 SHARED Ed 192 168 0 30 amp E crime hd Bl fxperseo ll halc000 1 of selected 76 12 GB available Z Shares is now available in the Volumes folder As you can see from the last picture the Data share is now available under Volumes Data If you re going to run Muster as a Mac service you need to mount the volume in a different way Considering Muster will run even with no users logged at all if you restart your Mac the share will
3. End frame Sra rn nmoetimadm carc ion i poe dAdo mne Fs emo leona L Frame destination LIsers lea Desktop Maya Test Pr o ects images Addiionaitags 7777777777777 Ga Job file The job file to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame Frames destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 86 Maya 3Delight Maya 3Delight est Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Project directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects L Frame destination Usersfeo Desktop Maya_Test_Projects images Satiame M End frame Byrame Qn Addionafags 7777777 Maya scene file Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination path for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 87 Maya Cloth Maya Cloth Maya scene file fya_Test_Projects scenesilight_reflection_scene mb Start frame a J Endtame nD e Maya scene file name The job file to render e Start frame The final sequence startin
4. Addnew Duplicate Remove Fath name Netwrk 1 O OS Fath scope Global TA Server side Rendero Data S SR Windows iWRenderl Data o SS S Linux mnDaa Mac Nolumes Daa OK Cancel As you can see we are telling Muster how paths are seen for each platform The Server side field is a Dispatcher side path Considering we re running the Dispatcher on Windows the path matches with the Windows one If we had installed the Dispatcher on a different platform the field should have been configured according We almost done Remember the Windows drive mapping If you want the freedom of using it as well as the direct network paths you have to add an additional substitution rule Type Server side Windows side Linux side Apply changes Global WRenderDflData Render01 Data mnt Data xb Global rs rs imnt sharename Beth Cees Duplicate Remove a Pathname Mapped Drive Pathscope Bererside 7 00 mnjshaeemame e Ee That s all Restart the Dispatcher service and start submitting and rendering cross platform 27 Preparing a job for Network Rendering The next step will be preparing a test scene for network rendering You can use a scene built for this example following the instructions or you can adapt an existing scene taken from your works The most important concept to take care when launching networked jobs is file referencing When you link any external file in you
5. Fher sy Unthered m Browse range anar range r HN If you query the jobs history you ll get a resume of the selected period you can then export the data in a proprietary format or to well known forma ley nee Corse mregin innr ATII 1548 k OA 111 135A Norrise of cane 12 Toa processing dre Jorge procesang ume per chunk 87 9 Seconds ts like PDF Crore chan 15 Crongdetee charia wilh ammi A Abanca honk 0 Days 00 Hours 17 Minutes 3G Seconds EScercy 2 Lire stor gt Linina niic naha Unique depanmere 1 GIPFEL gacec ceed 76 Engine specific submission view options The following section explains parameters available in the submission dialog for each supported render engine LI Aagitional flags C S a 3D Studio Max 3DS Max 3DS Max 3DS Max 2010 3DS Max scene Test Projects scenes light reflection scene mb 3DS Max scene Test Projects scenes light reflection scene mb _ Start frame 07 LLL Poeddeooy a QJ Start frame End tame End frame By frame as LL By frame C g LONTINUE on error Additional faas 777 77 0000 0 Cs You have two versions of the Max template one for Max versions from 6 0 to 9 0 the other for versions 2010 3DS Max Scene The job file to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Continue on error Tells Ma
6. Muster Console is the graphical interface to the Dispatcher Service Each operation on the render farm and on the queue is performed through it Launch the Console This can be done from the Start menu in Windows from the Application folder in OS X and from a command line in Linux You should see something like this AAA a eT dazu a Lm on eet Pl Workssece Detaut nght submission e Rx e Tr ditti The first thing you need to do is to log in on the dispatcher service so click on the first icon on the left side of the toolbar A connection window will appear Dispnennner Annmess TOP rur Nata fiw fier woot Gent Deabicd a Loon admin Password Insert your dispatcher service host name or IP address put admin as username and leave the password field blank then click on Connect 30 If the connection is successfully you ll get the Console interface FA CN 98 Muster Console 7 0 0 conmacted as admin to 192 168 7 53 3681 Worksoces Defaut nent aubrizaion T m zn A i LL oo BS Kx Submission cane csSk r ebuk fitrat Enid Wiew node instaroes Petom Mol eed Status Noies r Poo Entre Fann I 4 560c568282082 5 H Lod decin ror view MAVEN I ies ree PAES Piima Press ANY LESE S i J L W Rees soy ony Sa cH o MacPronjt 12 001 Mee 5 Moma 1 Feused Pee waue e M
7. Maya VRay Maya VRay Maya scene file fest Projects scenes light reflection scene mb a Project directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects unl Start frame v End frame Iro By frame ssnm H Adaitional flags 777 US a Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 103 Modo Modo Modo file op Maya Test Projects scenes light reflection scene mb san tame Mn e Modo file The job file to render e Start frame The final sequence starting frame e End frame The final sequence ending frame To successfully configure Modo to render through Muster you need to copy on every Modo installation across the clients the file ModoMusterRender pl inside the scripts folder of each modo installation 104 Mentalray Standalone multiple files Mr Multifile Mr Multifile Mortal ray ien RERIEPEEEIREERFETEUREPEEETS a Start frame f End frame roO By frame MEE Additional flags 7 GD Mental ray file list prefix The prefix full path and filename up to the numbering portion to ren
8. Mentalray Standalone multiple files Mr Multifile eee 105 Mentalray Standalone single file Mr Singlefile cccccccesecccceesececeeeseceeeeeeeeseeeeees 106 Nuke d 5 Or O Funan Eitdeedteasteotns attt iet neti odia ciudad laus fob ott oM Ue 107 Sud Gta eir ete ueram tte md ee ted eL 108 TOK 2003 2009 E 109 MU icone b uitia am mettetesudic ute antes tire mr eR Loue tA eee ee ees eae een 110 p C eae 111 Xsr Trame sliciDg UXSISES o osea veeiete pe cas Dutestu A ERN eu toe beu Due n Pas ne egal 112 Managing LIGhEWOVe JODS doe ias na aso essi oa cta divi bea onda irr ur diepsi bauen 113 Dispatcher service Referen E o e ais attt das e td peu sitet ts nies 115 DISDatCMe MDKEer ENCES EE TT DU 115 RENGER 01216 ane sete Nee te ton nu DE D 127 SUDSECUEION D3tliscs ied i cate Gothia ouo sede Em DEN gece cu EM ON MI DH EDU LUE 128 sers marge CINCO IIE ss oes Ead Riv ERN SUPPE bei dn DI umm ant s iN dU MER i din M 129 Muster Notificator Reference iios rere eU pH va ein i elis a Uit 131 Using the integrated WED SErvEl siut iiiar ban rea REA SEDE UN Ao eURa o e Ex bu Sosa ei a deos 133 Using Mrtool command line utility sees 135 Maya Connector DU Oat seda maa atee ek dove Rekzau uet ette eat Foret rea era a ated Debent 136 General guidelines for distributed rendering essen 138 CO
9. e Job actions failure Lock job Tells Muster to lock a job if it encounters a failure during an action execution e Chunks actions failures Add job to exclusions list Tells Muster to put a job in the client exclusions lists if it fails a chunk s action e Chunks actions failures Add template to exclusions list Tells Muster to put a job template in the client exclusions lists if it fails a chunk s action e Chunks actions failures Requeue chunk Tells Muster to requeue a chunk if It fails the pre post chunk action e Chunks actions failure Abort processing Tells Muster to abort a chunk processing if it fails the pre chunk action e Actions timeout in seconds Defines a global timeout value for actions e Global pre post job chunk actions Defines an executable to be launched as a pre post job or chunk action e Check return code Tells Muster to check the return code of the action e Override action timeout Overrides the default action timeout 120 The following window shows the Logs faults properties Enable check C Pause job 7 Pause client O Add job template to client s exclusions list 7 Add job to client s exclusions list C Requeue chunk Enable check 7 Pause job 7 Pause client C Add job template to client s exclusions list 7 Add job to client s exclusions list C Requeue chunk Enable check Pause job 7 Pause client O Add job template to client s exclusions list C Add j
10. lates exclusion list Purge jobs exclusion list select job in exclusion list supported templates CTHL L Soft restart CTAL M Configuration Ld Service b System events b Remote Control CTRL N Details T FTF F F This is a brief explanation of each option e Refresh Forces a refresh of the instance s status e Pause Pauses the instance e Resume Resumes a paused instance e Kill and go on Aborts a working instance put the chunk back in the queue and move to the next or the same chunk depending on clients availability and priority position e Kill and redo Aborts a working instance and restarts the chunk from the beginning e Kill and pause Aborts a working instance and pauses it e Process priority menu Sets the system process scheduling priority for the running process e Set notes Sets custom notes on the instance e Realtime log streaming Enables or disables real time log streaming from the instance e Workstation logs Accesses the workstation logs inspector Through the inspector you can access logs produced by the instance read and remove them 43 e Alarms If you have an alarm running you can reset the status from this menu e Purge templates exclusion list If you have some templates into the instance s exclusion list you can see and remove them from the associated menu e Purge jobs exclusion list If you have some jobs into the instance s exclusion list you can see and remove them from the associated menu e
11. Dispatcher service to be able to communicate with it Dispatcher IP address or host name 127 0 0 1 You can also change the default network ports used by the TCP IP protocol Be sure to reflect the changes on the Dispatcher service configuration of your server Renderdient port 9680 Explorer port 9681 Notification port 9683 Client management port 9685 The Rendercient can be automatically discovered by the Management console You can also set a password for management operations Leaving it blank disables the protection Enable auto discovery Management password Installshield If you choose to install the render client service the installer will prompt you for changes in the default configuration Unless you ve a deep knowledge of network topics the only field you should change is Dispatcher IP address or host name This is where you need to enter the IP Address or the host name of the host where you installed the Dispatcher service If you re installing both the Dispatcher and the Client just type the local system name in the IP Address field 13 MITTUg Configure Dispatcher connection parameters The current installation includes the setup of the Dispatcher service You can change the underlaying database used to store the Dispatcher status Database engine Sqlite local file Address 127 0 0 1 DE Username muster Password Data DB Name uster db muster history db You can also change the
12. Hii Behaviou s E Templates a Mappings amp Paths by Availability wre To Shutdown 5 Wakeup Activity logs Severity level Extended x Destination folder Debug iogsiclientiactivity Pick Clear logs older than 1 days Clear older logs when the size exceeds 10 megabytes Destination folder bug iogs clientiprocesses Pick Clear logs older than 1 days Clear older logs when the size exceeds 10 megabytes Rescan O Rescan logs filesystem path every OK Cancel The logs section let you configure the storage path for the activity and processes logs You can also configure the following parameters e Severity level This applies to the activity logs only and set the logs severity filter e Destination folder Sets the local destination folder to be monitored by the logs engine e Clear logs older than Specifies if you want to automatically delete logs files older than a certain number of days e Clear older logs when the size exceeds Specifies if you want to automatically delete logs files when their size exceeds a certain amount of Megabytes e Rescanlogs file system path every If you store the logs on a common location and you remove or change the files outside of Muster you can tell each client to rescan the folder to have them in sync with the Workstation log s view 47 Settings for host iMa
13. Windows based rendering hosts Mac OS X based Linux based They see the server s share with the rendering hosts They see the rendering hosts They see the same export path SERVERO1 server s share under Volumes Data server s share under mnt Data Data or through a network drive mapping Z As you can see from the picture we have a full set of mixed platforms each one accessing a common shared folder hosted by a Windows server machine In our example the same machine also runs the Dispatcher server but the components may be on two distinct hosts The first step requires the mounting of the shared file system on each client Beginning with Windows there s very little to do considering the Dispatcher is running on Windows too If we want to support an additional path through a drive mapping the Z drive must be configured on each client and on the Dispatcher This is done exclusively through the Muster preferences of each module in the Drive mappings section There s no relation between what you map through the interface while you re logged on the machine and the network drives available to Muster The Muster service lives in its own space and has the visibility over the shares created by a user The following picture shows how the preferences should be configured on the clients and on the dispatcher 23 Subsimutions paths Wire ins netur rins Ez Grete sureb mapping Auiorpped drives disconnection policy On senice shadow
14. a different location 11 te Muster 7 0 0 InstallShield Wizard Setup Type Choose the setup type that best suits your needs Please select a setup type Full installation of both services Dispatcher and Fienderclient plus command line and GUI tools O Render node with GUI and command line tools 5 Dispatcher only no GUI and tools Render node with no additional tools O Custom setup InstallShield The next steps asks you to select which Muster components will be installed Select the option that best suits your needs is Muster 7 0 0 InstallShield Wizard Services configuration Choose installation of services or console applications You are going to install at least one Windows Service Rendercient or Dispatcher Muster let you choose to install the components as Windows NT system services or console application to launch manually after the logon While console applications use credentials available to the logged user system services requires extra steps to setup the login rights On the other side installing system services let you run Muster independently from the logged users Install as system services Install as console applications InstallShield Muster is able to run as a system service A system service is an executable application that runs into the background If you choose to start Muster as a system service you won t need later to logon on the machine and start the software
15. at least a valid username and password pair that s valid on both side of the communication the client running the process and the server hosting the files When you access files on your network the entire process is hidden to the user The client sends the login and password pair of the user running the current process to the server To gain full access a user should be successfully authenticated by the server this means that he should be available on the server s user list and its password should match with the one stored on the server In case of failure depending on network policies the system could pop up a dialog that asks for the user password and retries the connection The Muster Render Client Service must be able to access the network resources but its behaviour is a bit more complex Windows services are basically software modules that run independently from the logged user The next figure shows the services installed by Muster Depending on installed features you will find at least one of the services listed below Services run even if no user is currently logged on the machine For this reason they have a dedicated configuration window where is possible to specify which user the service have to impersonate When a service impersonates a particular user it runs as it was started from the user desktop and supply user credential to the various file servers 16 The next picture shows the services properties window
16. be unmounted and won t be available until someone remount it That s why you require a static mount where the Mac will take care of mounting back the volume each time it performs the boot sequence There re several ways to do that on a Mac platform the most reliable we found until now is changing the etc auto master file This is a fast walk trough To start with open up the Terminal application as an administrative user and then use sudo to create a bash shell sudo bash enter You will be prompted to enter your administrator password at this point We will now create a file entitled auto smb in the etc directory to hold our server details pico etc auto smb enter In this file enter the following line add more lines for extra servers shares SSharename fstype smbfs SUsername SPassword SServer S Share Where 25 SSharename the name you want to give the mount point SUsername the user to connect to the server as SPassword password of the user SServer the name of the server dns wins entry SShare the name of the share on the server That means considering our scenario Data fstype smbfs SUsername SPassword8192 168 0 100 Data As this file stores the username and password to the server in plain text set the permissions of the file so that only the root user can read it chmod 600 etc auto smb enter Now edit the etc auto master file and append the auto smb record at the end of the file The auto
17. commands and starts the scheduled render jobs It may run in the background as a Windows Service or as a UNIX daemon Notificator This is a very simple component that gathers notifications from the dispatcher when jobs are completed Based on the user preferences it will warn logged users about jobs completion Windows only Console The Muster console is a complete graphical front end to the Dispatcher service It s basically the Muster most used module It allows the user to schedule jobs change their order manage and configure connected render clients and configure the dispatcher service Connectors Those are plug ins for external software allowing job submissions from within the software s GUI At present the connector is available for Maya 6 0 or greater tested up to version 2010 Choosing your server An important concept to take into account at the beginning of your installation is choosing the right machine to dedicate to the dispatching process Before going further we ll take a look at the roles of the dispatcher service and the way it interacts with your network distributed file systems and the hosts in your render farm As seen before the main role of the dispatcher service is to retain a pool of persistent connections with your render farm hosts The connections are performed using the TCP IP protocol The decision of using TCP involves several pros and cons This guarantees messages order and consistency but requires a h
18. computers Muster relies on a client server architecture A centralized server takes care of controlling several slave modules There are two client modules groups 1 The Render Client service installed on every computer in the render farm allows Muster to manage the computer for you It basically receives commands from the Dispatcher service starts and stops the Rendering process on behalf of it 2 The management notification modules that connects using socket connections to the Dispatcher service and allows monitoring and management on Muster itself The next figure shows a typical implementation Dispatcher Server Renderfarm Muster Console This is a complete list of the modules available in a Muster installation e Dispatcher service e Render client service e Notificator applet e Console real time graphical frontend to Muster e Direct Muster connector for Maya version 6 or greater tested up to version 2010 This is a brief explanation for each module Dispatcher Service The Dispatcher service is the most important component of the whole suite It manages connections with every client retains a job queue accepts commands from external client applications and sends notifications to the users It may run in the background as a Windows Service or as UNIX daemon Render client Service This is a service that must be installed on each render farm node It retains a connection with the dispatcher service waits for server
19. default ports used by the TCP IP protocol Rendercdient port 9680 Integrated Web HTTP port 9690 Explorer port 9681 Integrated Web HTTPS port 9691 Notificator port s683 InstallShield If you choose to install the dispatcher service the installer will prompt you for changes in the default configuration Unless you ve a deep knowledge of network topics you should not change the network ports settings In this window you can also choose the way the Dispatcher stores its data If you want to store the data in an external database change the settings according otherwise leave them unchanged Customer Information Please enter your information If you own a valid Muster license to unlock the Dispatcher service on this host please provide registration information in the fields below User Mame Leonardo Bernardini Organization virtual Vertex s rl Host id required for licensing Q00c292b9c03 InstallShield If you choose to install the dispatcher service you can track down the HOST ID prompted by the installer from this window you may need it later to request the license through our website 14 Configure paths to locally installed render engines Muster will start the scan for active engines on this workstation The operation may take a quite long time depending on the depth of your filesystem By default the installer searches for applications inside the Program Files folder of the boot hard dri
20. e Dependence mode Specify what kind of results Muster should expect from dependent jobs to allow the job processing e Notes You can put any kind of notes inside this field e Starts on Specify a starting time for the job e Minimum logical units Specify a minimum amount of virtual processors an host must have to be eligible to process the job e Minimum cores Specify a minimum amount of physical cores an host must have to be eligible to process the job e Minimum physical cpus Specify a minimum amount of physical processors an host must have to be eligible to process the job e Minimum cores speed Specify a minimum speed in GHz an host must have to be eligible to process the job e Minimum ram amount Specify a minimum amount of Ram in Megabytes an host must have to be eligible to process the job 61 e Minimum disk space Specify a minimum amount of free space on the physical disks in Megabytes an host must have to be eligible to process the job Multiframe options section This section is available only for multi frame jobs It contains the following fields e Packet size This field specifies the size in frames for each chunk sent to a client You should carefully balance this value carefully depending on your scene frame range and the processing power of your clients e Maximum instances This field specifies the maximum number of render instances used by the job A value of O instructs the job to use all the available inst
21. e Procs faults Enable web server HTTP port 9690 Maximum pending connections 100 pum mom i HTTPS port 9691 Connection timeout 120 el Default serving threads 5 Maximum bandwidth in bytes 0 Maximum serving threads 50 OK Cancel e SMTP server Specifies the SMTP server to use when sending e mails e SMTP server requires authentication If your SMTP requires authentication check this box e Account The mail account to use when sending e mails in the form mail domain e Authentication login If you need authentication put your login here e Authentication password If you need authentication put your password here e Send to default Default destination address for notifications e Mailing behaviors Job completation Enables notifications for a particular job event e Mailing behaviors Chunk completation Enables notifications for a particular chunk event e Enable web server Enables the integrated web server binding it to the listening ports e HTTP port Port to listen for incoming HTTP connections 124 e HTTPS port Port to listen for incoming HTTPS connections SSL encrypted e Default serving threads Number of threads that listen for incoming connection by default e Maximum serving threads Maximum number of concurrent serving threads allocable by the web server e Maximum pending connections Maximum number of pending connections in the queue of the web se
22. follow those steps e Define anew environmental variable named MUSTER that points to the location of the installed Mrtool executable You can define the variable system wide of directly inside the maya env file making it available to Maya only e load the shelves simply execute the Mel command loadNewShelf shelf Muster mel e Then source the mel file source MusterConnector mel After this step you can popup the submission dialog clicking on the relative icons in the Muster shelves This is a little explanation about the four Connector icons Starts a single frame render Starts a multi frame render Opens the Connector dialog Opens the Muster Explorer By opening the connection dialog you can configure basic settings as well as perform the basic functions supported by the add on Texture relocation and batch submission 136 ti Muster Connector for version 5 0 Connector Images Output Preferences Load from Render Globals Frame ranges Start frame 1 000 End frame 1 000 By frame f1 000 Frame padding 4 Renumber frames Renumber frames using E m _y Publishing Dispatcher server 127001 Dispatcher port 81 Username adin Password PO Job name Untitled Render engine Maya Software Destination pool EmieFam gt Publish folder Rn Browse Project name poect Packet size A Priority HE Instances jo Publish Submit render Sing
23. from the selected LWS file when you pick one from the submission view Textual contents Defines an external viewer used to open textual contents Visual contents Defines an external viewer used to open image files 68 The jobs section lets you define several default values for the submission views The remote control section lets you define how to remote control an host when you select the Remote Control function from the popup menu LI IR A PAPYPAN PAARE E CI POPP POOR OR PPTL SG e N Msza tur oe EN ps SPR Pe NA gr fess FS Compra Cakra Wm Am a The default values on Windows use Remote Desktop to access Windows hosts and Putty to access Unix hosts through an ssh connection while Unix s Console uses Vnc or Ssh You should configure the command line according to your environment and your preferred software Particular attention should be paid to the Unix services control While Windows is able to query remote services using its built in API we rely on a modified version of Plink part of the Putty suite to access Unix hosts through an SSH connection and check the Services remote status You should not change the command line preconfigured unless you ve particular needs Just be sure to specify a root username and password in the preferences and open the SSH port on the remote hosts While you can use the Windows API and Plink from a Windows hosts running Console to query any platform service status the
24. manually it will be up and running as soon as your boot sequence reaches the login window Having the software installed as system service requires an additional step later in the setup sequence Considering it won t be bound to any logged user a service requires its own user setting in order to access the network and be recognized by servers Installing Muster as a system service is more complicated compared to the standard installation but allows you to have independent modules 12 Specify a user name and password Specify the user name and password of the user account that will logon to use this application The user account must be in the form DOMAIN Username User name E Cms Password SS Select the button below to specify information about a new user that will be created during the installation Mew User Information InstallShield If services is your choice this is the window you ll get during the installation process to configure the user assigned to the Muster services You can either configure a user now or choose Use Local System Account This will install the services with a default user The setup will continue but this user won t be probably able to access the network content in most cases so you ll need to configure the user later as explained in the last part of the setup section of this manual Configure dients connections parameters The Rendercient service must know the destination address of the
25. network to allow automatic discovery y If you want to protect incoming management connection with a password type it now Do you want to start the Renderclient service in paused status y What selection priority do you want to give to the Renderclient 1 Where do you want to store the processes log files usr local muster6 logs Writing Renderclient configuration file to usr local muster6 rc conf After configuring the Render client properties the installer will ask you to scan the local file system for installed batch renders Remember that this process may be time consuming and will scan in know locations on your system drive or your entire file system if you choose perform a full scan on any local drive You can always skip this step and configure the paths to the render engines later through the Console Ihe Renderclient configuration file needs to be configured with the paths to external processes This may be done automatically by this installations script but it may take a long time depending on your filesystem Do you want to scan your local filesystem for known applications and configure the Renderclient templates y n The last step will setup the required file permissions and copy if available the init d scripts for automatic services startup At the time of this writing we provide init d scripts for Fedora Suse and Debian distributions Some distributions are direct forks of those ones so there s a chance that our
26. opened and this means that we strongly suggest using a maximum of 7 8 client hosts e When working on a mixed platforms environment you should be sure that the shared file system is exportable using a network protocol supported on every system A typical implementation could be made by client tools like Samba clients to access a Windows shared folder from UNIX machines or server services like NFS for Windows Our suggested solution is setting up a dedicated file server running Linux with SAMBA and NFS support e f available switch your network to Gigabit or better technology 10 Windows installation ie Muster 7 0 0 InstallShield Wizard Welcome to the InstallShield Wizard for Muster 7 0 0 The InstallShield R Wizard will install Muster 7 0 0 on your computer To continue click Mext WARNING This program is protected by copyright law and international treaties www vvertex coni Muster comes with a standard Windows Installer package By clicking the msi file you got from the web you start the installer as shown below i Muster 7 0 0 InstallShield Wizard Destination Folder Click Next to install to this folder or dick Change to install to a different folder PF Install Muster 7 0 0 to C Program FilesWirtual Vertex Muster 7 InstallShield peck net cae In the first you re asked to specify the final destination for Muster files This may be left untouched unless you need to install it in
27. settings and stores them persistently across different sessions You can access the workspaces functions by clicking the icon next to the workspaces selector combo box in the right corner of the menu bar Duplicate Hename Delete By using the menu entries you can Duplicate Rename and Delete the current workspace If you want to create a new workspace you must start duplicating current this will inherit your current settings and will create the new workspace Once you create a new workspace it will be available in the workspaces list Workspace Default right submission Default left submission Muster Console supports three default workspaces You cannot Delete or Rename them but you can Duplicate them to originate new workspaces The settings of the views like their columns ordering and filtering are stored with the workspace If you re working on the default you ll lose your settings each time you exit from the Console Always create your own workspace if you want to keep your settings From the view menu you can create a new view selecting the Create new view submenu Once you create a new view you can manage the state of it using the buttons at the top of it uo 2 mx The buttons let you rename hide or destroy a view Remember that once you hide a view using the central button you can recall it using the views popup menu right clicking on a view header or on the empty workspace area of Console if
28. shows the estimated ending time e Working nodes The field shows how many instances actually are used to process the job An instance can include one or more processors belonging to a particular render client This depends on render client configuration e Submission time The field shows the time when the job was submitted e Belonging to The field shows the name of the user that submitted the job e Starting frame The field shows the starting frame of the job where applicable e Ending frame The field shows the ending frame of the job where applicable e Total frames Shows the total number of jobs frames or the number of the slices where applicable e Filename The field shows the primary filename of the job where applicable e Notes Show additional notes for the job If you want to filter the view contents you can use the options on the filtering bar Network flow Enabled Engine Not filtered Status _Not filtered Pool Entire Farm User Not filtered Q150 0909go0oqg1 amp ogogogo Project Not filtered Department Not fittered gt Loa a e Network flow Enable or disable the flow of data to the view If you disable the network flow each host view will be disabled and you ll reduce the amount of network traffic between the Dispatcher and the Console You should always disable a certain view network flow if you don t need the data shown to be updated e Engine Fil
29. the Virtual Vertex license requesting page e Virtual Vertex site Connects to the Virtual Vertex home page e Check for a newer release Check if a newer release is available online e About Shows the about screen 39 The instances hosts view The next figure shows a typical hosts instances view in instances view mode The view shows the connected and unconnected slaves instances and their relative status will be immediately visible during their activity Instances view amp xX gt Network flow Enabled x View mode Instances Platform _Not filtered x Status _Notfiltered _ Pool Entire Farm 460409006200 56 Instance name A Ip Address Platform Progress Memory usage Cpu usage S 1 1 J E 1 10 Process Priority Priority Status Curren e iMacProWin 1 127 0 0 1 Windows OGDOGQOGDOD 5 Normal Paused Fr 1 9 iMacProWin 2 127 0 0 1 Windows Normal 1 Paused 3 iMacProWin 5 127 0 0 1 Normal 1 Paused 9 iMacProWin 6 127 0 0 1 Windows Normal 1 e d 1 Paused Each column of this view shows a specific property of the connected instance The columns headers can also be used to sort the information Just click on one of them and the view will be resorted The default sorting is priority based The meaning of each column follows e Instance name This is the name assigned to the machine It can be the Netbios name on Windows or the name returned by gethostname on Unix machines When mu
30. there are no idle hosts on the farm e When the client is required by a job pool Wakeup the client when it is required by the job s pool e Matches wakeup rules with availability rules Apply the action only if the availability rules are also valid 52 The queue view The next figure shows the jobs queue view As you can see jobs can be arranged in a hierarchical way By dragging and dropping jobs you can parent them to a new folder To move them upward and downward in the queue you must change their priority Queue view Network flow Enabled w Engine Notfiltered w Status Not filtered w Pool Entire Farm User Not filtered Project Not filtered Department Not filtered gt m Progress Joo Name 7 shot cartellone shot cartellone shot cartellone shot cartellone X shot4 portaleNo 4X shot4 portaleNo 4 shot4 portaleNo X shot4_portaleNo X shot4 portaleNo X shot4 portaleNo w musterTest test2009 Department 0 0 O 0 O 0 O 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 O 0 O 0 O 0 Entire Farm Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p ono oloi i ioo Priority Working nodes Jestination pool s Excluded pool s Regueued Engine Derive
31. 1854 3 2 AEEA resi2008 iMacProWin 5 131954 1853 3 1 iMazProWin 5 test2008 iMacProWin 6 1319541803 2 2 MazProWin 6 Untitled is 3 iMacProWin 5 1319541803 2 1 iMazProWin 5 Untitled Refresh ist testwork pd pm 6 13188427302 2 testwork pd pm 6 Untitled testwork pd pm 5 131985427302 1 testwork pd pm 5 Untitled inspect tegtwork pd pm 65 1318842775 3 2 tegt y ork pd pm 5 test2008 testwork pd pm 5 13195427753 1 testwork pd pm 5 tesr20C8 Delets Delete All 26 10 1 s 26 10 1 2 Untitled 26 10 1 Z Untitled 2o 10 1 Untitled 280 1 zi untitled 28 10 1 3 test2003 26H0 1 3 test2 008 26 10 1 M M c n n MUSTET Spewning process C Program Filesy amp utoaceskWMayago 12bimTender exe inside CAProgram Files Autodesk Mayac0 zin using the folowing command line A MUSTER sw n 6 proj C Users leo Deskiop Maya_Test_Projects s 1 030 e 1 000 b 1 000 rfs 1 rib 1 pad 1 C Usersileo Desktop Maya_Test_Projectsisceres light_reflection_scene mb starting C Program Files Aulodesk Maya2012 pin rayabatch exe File read in 1 seconds Result C Lsers lea Lesktop Maya Test Pro nms 00 00 19 reflection scene mDp Total decisa Time Since Stat Of bns nn mm ss 00 00 oer 0 Page faults 123 434 MD Max resident size 122531 Mb Peak total size Estimaled TSi Mb Peak arena size Find text fn n Open in external ecitor The logs have the solution to your problem Muster
32. 2011 12 15 68 Complet in Firet Prewii Meat Last Show 25 cz ant as Shnwing Ba 25 nf 25 entries Frn uned Py ims rz lE AD rige ranncomt FT other pe pepe pe EEE Demon 133 The web interface works in a similar fashion to muster explorer Just right click on the folders jobs or the hosts to access a popup menu and change job values HTTP communications are stateless This means that you won t get any kind of real time visual feedback like the ones you get using Muster Console Even some panes are automatically refreshed when managing the jobs the host queue may require some time to acknowledge the response from the Dispatcher and the host itself This means you may need to manually refresh the host queue to reflect the changes Through the web server you can even submit or modify jobs with a submission dialog similar to the Explorer one Muster 7 Integrated Weh server F nttp 192 168 7 53 9690 index html You re currently logged in Click Logout to terminate your session vy Muster 7 Web interface Nodes Queue tah Queue Inh History Dispatcher I cg m it Submit Job x amp Refresh 4 Excel Print ff B n z j Jcb Generals Job Overrides Job Actions submt edt id Owner Na Progress Endir EJ 60 michele voc B 3 name Untitled 69 michele fur B E PEE E Completed 11 amp 67 michele fur 19 Complete
33. Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Entire Farm o ho mo o o o Ao o o o o Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p oooooooooo Requeued Engine Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Stanedon X Progre 04 11 11 14 07 04 11 11 14 24 02 11 11 16 47 02 11 11 16 48 28 10 11 12 50 28 10 11 12 51 28 10 11 12 51 28 10 11 12 53 28 10 11 12 55 28 10 11 12 57 Completed 03 11 11 15 28 pea 27 10 11 13 30 After your first installation this view will be empty You will need to submit some jobs to populate it The bottom pane contains the dispatcher internal log It s a resume of the most important events happened on the Dispatcher service This is a typical log view 33 Logs view o BX Network flow Enabled Source Not filtered Clearlog Exportlog 1 Event Time Source IP Source Hostname User Event 08 11 11 16 06 127 0 0 1 iMacProWin Service Dispatcher engine initialized successfully 07 11 11 12 22 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Frame check on job shot1_cartelloneMakingOf gligliato 52 started e 07 11 11 12 22 127 0 0 1 musterserver
34. During this phase the wakeup function through the LAN will work e Shutdown disabled with logged users This tells Muster to avoid a shutdown process if someone is logged on the workstation e Track remote accesses as local loggings If someone is logged though a remote connection Muster considers them as local loggings and prevents a shutdown if enabled in the previous option e Shutdown the host when idle for Tells Muster to shutdown the host after a certain amount of minutes of idle status e Shutdown the host when paused for Tells Muster to shutdown the host after a certain amount of minutes of paused status e Scheduled shutdown Defines custom rules to shutdown the host e Matches shutdown rules with availability rules Apply the action only if the availability rules are also valid 51 Settings for host iMacProWin 192 168 7 53 x Wakeup policies H1 Behaviours PP 7 When the farm is at full load T When the client is required by a job pool s toe C Matches wakeup rules with availability rules Scheduled wakeup F RE v Network e uem 00 Adding ig Templates ra Mappings amp Paths by Availability _ Te Shutdown B The wake up dialog let you configure specific rules to wake up an host through the Magic Packet formerly Wake up on Lan Apart from specific timings you can check the following options e When the farm is at full load Wakeup the client when
35. NJIQUHAG Vout TIE DWOTN xcu t vi tn Seti etae ve vtae etu a have ETIE 139 Troubleshooting eoi Ei uno dr OR P d xa Pt ir eda ta a epo P C ER 140 SVstem TedquiFremebtses suciedad E E pon PHAR pev E d O ror EN ETE 141 Using this document This document provides a description of the Muster software suite its installation procedure derived tasks and workflows for using your hardware and software equipment Muster has been created as an external plug in for professional 3D content creation packages This manual gives an in deep explanation on all of its features but doesn t explain any argument related to 3D production or third party software specific tasks This document assumes that you have a good working knowledge of 3D common procedures and terms meaning as well as a basic knowledge of network environment and basic configuration procedures It also assumes that you are familiar with the basic concepts related to using operative systems Windows NT Administration Unix shell operations and simple management Technical support Muster includes unlimited free technical support via email With technical support you can get help when installing or using Muster We do not normally provide telephone support or training Technical support can be requested on our e mail address vvsupport vvertex com We suggest you to check the validity of the e mail address visiting our site at http www vvertex com and clicking on the support section Muster i
36. OT SUC O einai E EE E E E EE E E T E AR 8 Choosing VOU SCI aie E E E E EE E 10 Wmnaows Installa UON crierai erpi ea n a e aara 11 Defining Windows Services user rights on your network sessssssssesesreeressreresrrreserrreserreese 16 Apple MAC OS X InstallQLIOI rerni renr veas etpe pedo ipei Seq starlet e rave va E T 19 ETOCS ECU NON seesuretucun eu eem SUN En E E Th ras HERE PM VNIECOmB UU ER CP E 21 Cross plat ormi SetU SOCIO RENT TTE 23 Preparing a job for Network Rendering esses 28 Muster Gro koc roll TOJO ETT 30 Muster Oo o eRT TE E o mie ETE EIEPI PIT URS sum OR EE pU MM P MIU IE 37 MAMET CS COO ONC ICS m mem 37 Thednstances MOSES VIBW otecesucn esate tseseteccaacancdsannttesanactecainaciskacsieduaiatecasdeomnsdeaneieeteniaten 40 Managing the hosts instances ccccccccccccssssssssssssseececeececcccsecccseseeeeeeuueeeeesssesseeeeeeeeesesseeess 43 COMPUTING tH HOSES oo usd tts E aiU Paseos Pus is usu IUNII Ue SU LI PU M Pa UEM MUN PONE 46 The duele VON er A EE ens eee een eee eee ere 53 Managing the JOD Susson a aia 57 MUNI A S T 59 Te upm ON VEN er EEA 60 Cener eec UO Eaa E E Mm A E N 61 Multiirame options Sectio tccssisiccsiesdccesiaanacinsacunetesauseaesaadeatansancniasdeceatacandasenneaacoeniens 62 Image slicing options SECTION ceecccssecceessccceececeececenececeeeceseuececeneceseecesauecessueceneness 62 sigerzrofor uutejoju og 5 Tejido QR c 63 Single WOSU O DEIONS SECTION esa
37. Select job in exclusion list Let you directly select a job fro the exclusion list e Supported templates Opens a dialog that shows the instance s supported templates engines e Soft restart Performs a soft restart reloading the configuration disconnecting and reconnecting it again Unlike Reinit this is done on any instance sharing the same node e Configuration menu Access the configuration option for the node e Service Accesses services query options e System events Sends system events like shutdown or restart to the node e Remote control Attempts to take control of the node using Remote Desktop ssh or a valid tool This may be customized in the Console preferences dialog e Details Give a full resume of the host details like the OS the system capabilities RAM and CPU and the free space on the hard drives e Remove Removes the instance from the list Works only on disconnected instances Before attempting to configure automatic wakeup for the hosts try to shutdown and wakeup an host manually using the options in the System Events menu Also check the documentation of your motherboard and its Bios to understand if your system actually supports wake up on lan Magic packet If you select the Configure menu you ll get the following additional popup Add to pool Li Rer ove rom pool k Inspect clipboard Copy configuration CTAL Q Appy preset k Create preset trom current contig Manage presets 44 The menu le
38. Service Processing of job shot _cartelloneMakingOf gligliato completed e 07 11 11 12 22 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 1 belonging to job shot1_cartelloneMakingOf gligliato 52 successfully processed by host render2 youar e 07 11 11 12 22 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 2 belonging to job shot1_cartelloneMakingOf gligliato 52 successfully processed by host render1 youar e 07 11 11 12 20 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 3 belonging to job shot1_cartelloneMakingOf gligliato 52 successfully processed by host render3 youar 07 11 11 12 19 192 168 0 11 MAYA1 michele Removed job s ID 51 07 11 11 12 19 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 1 belonging to job shot cartelleneMakingOf gligliato 52 assigned to host render2 youare net 07 11 11 12 19 192 168 0 11 MAYA1 michele new job shot cartelloneMakingO f gligliato 52 submitted 07 11 11 12 19 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 3 belonging to job shot _cartelloneMakingOf gligliato 52 assigned to host render3 youare net 07 11 11 12 19 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 2 belonging to job shot1_cartelloneMakingOf gligliato 52 assigned to host render1 youare net You should always take a look at the log during the rendering process Every error reported from render clients or directly from the dispatcher will be logged here and is your primary error detection tool The last pane the one on the right is the submission view From this window you can submit ne
39. User manual Virtual Vertex Revision 1 7 Muster 7 0 3 3 May 2012 Virtual Vertex Email vinfo vvertex com Web site Www vvertex com The information in this document is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment Virtual Vertex assumes no liability for any errors that may appear in this document The software described in this document is furnished under a license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license Copyright 2000 2012 Virtual Vertex All rights reserved Muster is a trademark of Virtual Vertex Microsoft Windows 2000 Windows XP and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation UNIX is a trademark of AT amp T Pentium is a trademark of Intel Corp Apple Macintosh and Shake are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc Maya is a trademark of Autodesk Softimage and SoftimagelXSI and Softimagel3d are trademark of Autodesk Lightwave is a trademark of Newtek inc After effects is a trademark of Adobe inc 3D Studio Max is a trademark of Autodesk Code credits Muster uses a subset of the OpenSSL security library Licensing and code available at http www openssl org Muster uses the sqlite inprocess database Licensing and code available at http www sqlite org Contents Gold S M 3 SIO TS GOCE MCI NPPRRQQR TREE 7 TCT CO SUDO o ga TTE 7 C
40. Workgroup You should refer to your network Administrator to obtain information about your current setup This is a description of the basic differences when setting up Muster on Domains or Workgroups e Workgroup based networks A Workgroup is basically a group of Windows computers that must share the same user accounts to allow access through each one This means that there s no server hosting a common list of users and their relative permissions When a user tries to access a folder on another host the authentication function simply checks that the user exists on the remote machines and that its credential matches For this reason the Muster installer when detects a workgroup creates the same user account of every host with same credentials and assign it to the Administrator group of the machine In this way each host can authenticate the Muster account and allow read write access to the shared folders e Domain based networks The situation on a domain network is a bit different and much easier A Domain is a group of computers that shares a server that hosts information about user accounts and permissions the Primary Domain Controller As you can image setting up Muster in this configuration requires to just create the user on the Domain Controller Automatically all the machines will recognize the user and will give access to it The only important thing to be aware is that each machine must recognize the user as a member of the local Adm
41. a Mr Fs Maya scene file hya_Test_Projects scenes light_reflection_scene mb Gp Project directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects Frame destination C Users leo Desktop Maya_Test_Projects images am Addiionalfags e Cc Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination The full path where you want to store the slices and the assembled image Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 94 Maya Renderman Maya Rman Maya Arman Maya scene file Project directory C Users lea Desktop Maya_Test_Projects Frame destination Lisers leo Desktop Maya Test Projects images Start rame End frame Bytame f Numberby ED Stop by EMEN Digits e AddionaMags 7 Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Number by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Step by Step for the final frames numbering Digits Number of digits to use for the frame numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render c
42. a iedde 84 Newtek EightWaVOe steven tt S RUE pusiste em un Tama dL End ta ee 85 MAPAS SCIO M TU DU aan tacaats 86 Maya 3Dellg Db ae eat dened ee Red Dus eee deus Duce ds Dus uen utu EA nones Mul ed urs unit uM Es 87 MYG ia te Ale dabe ca sedanobey Seed adabeeusalawednlalad deer dthate uate dancin 88 MARLIN GIONE rte ee sneer DTE T 89 MISES ETT T TA du EUR 90 VA i LAY CU esie d n DU Dots tu uto dubii Anu MESA Mta Uma d bun ddp svn tub 91 IMEEM nate a ea techie dale anak AEAT 92 Maya Mental Ray Maya Mr cc ccscccccssssccecessececeesececceesecceseesecessueecessenesecesseaesessgneses 93 Maya Mental Ray Frame slicing Maya Mr F5s ccccccssscccceessececeesececeeecesseeneeeeseeeeeees 94 Maya Renderman Maya Rman essen enne nnne nnne ns 95 Maya Renderman 2 0 or greather Maya RMAaN2 cccccccssseceecesseceeeeeceeeeesceeeeeeeeeeees 96 Maya Renderman Frame slicing Maya RMan FS ccccccsssecceceeseceeeesececeeeeeeeeseeseeeees 97 Maya Software Render Maya SW 5st inier aerae kn ore rh toa saa arae aeg Vera ERU vuYr Pa Ua ras 98 Maya Software Render image slicing Maya Sw Fs eeeeeen e 99 Maya Turtle v 4t Maya Turtle AF o dos QR E DRE si n er arua n 100 Maya Turtle up to v 3 Maya Turtle nennen nennen 101 Maya Vector Render Mave VI issues Ac ea seen 102 hi IRA cA e cc 103 Muforofome t 104
43. acPoini2 127 501 WMiniewe amp Nomra 1 Jeused c MarPiiN np THe 1 Mns 5x 0000000 T Nowra 1 neri s MacPiN nis 120 1 Windows D ODDO B Noma 1 zased nh ere tes ayeri MarPrN nis 187 1 Windows ess 15 X OD CI a Noma 1 zased Erie Maye Nr Fi e MacPro ri 171 Win Sows mes Oa nt Noma 1 Feused ree Son m O m 1 Qusa wow A WMNOWT VPE p OW e a f 17 es se T LITT iab Trim Tul WenworkTDw EnaDied Endine Not Memed y Raws Mot inered Poot rine Fam ser Mot pene v Lasse i g eA oio o Bn enc Namea Deopatment Net titeredl na E J oa J E suU wur 1 m woo Hame oe ee Erom Dcpammoot Pisiy Mcr ng nett Jcsnaben pool s Exclude pooks Renucuec Engine Suriedon Progress nhare PRO ikos shotl_sartlione 50 1 OO Deswedironm Dervedihiomp Maya JAM Moor A Booe Pooks CJ r Sot zaredone 48 1 Un Leswed mom Dervedmom p D Nae Kis D l kan m X sn areae 4b 1 mu Dees romp Dervedmomp o Maya IAT ar j r Mo zaredone ar 1 Um Lemweadamomp Dervedmomp a Maya ai lt a Dependence m ucoesemcaured Oy o oiea 3 1 ring De e rumgr Derved Bu p a Maya SEES 253 Cempe etesen Deen Oy shoi omaka F 1 on Leswed ramp Dervexibiom p a Maya BEIT 1251 Compeed Loge croc chook REN B dy shotit _ooiaea 3 1 m Deswed romp Derved iom p a Maya 26W11 t251 EEEE 4 A shots ooctaleNa as 1 om Desvwed ong Derwed
44. ail Job testM7 9 Gather chunks history Absolute frames Relative frames Status Requeued Starting time Ending time Time span Rendered by Results 1 000 to 34 000 1 to 34 Completed C 27 10 11 13 30 27 10 11 13 32 00 Hours 02 M rendert youar 35 000 tc 68 000 35 to 68 Completed C 27 10 11 13 30 27 10 11 13 32 00 Hours 02 M render3 youar 69 000 to 100 69 to 100 Completed C 27 10 11 13 30 27 10 11 13 32 00 Hours 02 M render2 youar Each packet is numbered with its internal ID and reports the following information e Absolute Frames Those are the effective frames of your sequence chunk They may not reflect the number appended on the frame name e Relative Frames Those are the frames numbers that will be generated They may not reflect the absolute frames but will match with the final files The first packet reflects the value of the starting frame value of a job e Status This field reports the current status of the chunk It can assume 4 different state and reflects the colour of the icon on the left of the chunk s ID Possible states are On hold In progress completed or completed with warnings e Requeued When a chunk is re queued using the automatic missing frames feature this field will be increased each time the process occurs e Starting time This field shows the starting time when a chunk has been submitted to a client It remains blank for a On hold packet e Ending time This field
45. allows to submit a new job edit an existing one save and load presets stored in XML based files or access the presets manager that stores easily recallable settings from a persistent list Maya ene fie ieulDouklop Maya_Teal Proiectzcones ight refiecton seeneamb Prucciditccivy C io ekoa Tea Projects Ga art trame 1 Grd rare i My Iri mi n The properties on the submission view depends on the selected engine but they share some common ones explained below General section e Job name Specifies the name for your new job or the ones you re editing e Engine This drop down combo box shows the available render engines By selecting one of them the submission view will update its fields reflecting the engine template properties e Job project Specifies the project of the job custom string e Job department Specifies the department of the job custom string e Job status Overrides the default status in the queue e Job priority Specifies the priority level for the job Jobs with higher values will be processed first e Include Pool s Hosts Specify one or more render pool to use for the render you can also specify single hosts e Exclude Pool s Hosts Specify one or more render pool to exclude from the render you can also specify single hosts e Depend from job ID s If you want to prevent the job processing until one or more jobs are completed write their IDs there comma separated
46. ame i e you re allowed to use a DHCP to assign the addresses to the render farm e Maximum concurrent tasks threads Defines the maximum amount of tasks Image assembling pre post job actions runnable by the Dispatcher e Requeue chunks on disconnection If an instance is disconnected and flagged offline tells Muster to requeue the chunk assigned to that particular instance e Global chunks timeout in minutes Defines a global amount of time in minutes to use as a timeout value for chunks processing e Maximum chunks requeue Defines a global maximum amount of times a chunk can be requeued e On chunk failure abort client activity If the timeout for a chunk expires Muster tries to abort the client activity that may be locked e Substitution Paths are case sensitive Defines the sensitivity of the substitution paths case If you want to impersonate a different user during Dispatcher file access operations like Image slicing assembling you can force it here filling the Username and password fields The following window shows the Network properties e Clients network port Defines the TCP IP network port used to listen for incoming instances connections e Management network port Defines the TCP IP network port used to listen for incoming management connections 116 Notificators network port Defines the TCP IP network port used to listen for incoming notificators connections Heartbeat resolution Defines an i
47. ances e Check for missing frames This field activates the automatic missing frames feature available on the Dispatcher At the end of the job processing the Dispatcher will scan for missing frames and requeue them automatically Additional information can be found in the Missing frames section e Image name prefix If you use the missing frames features you need to specify here the expected filename prefix as well as the frames path Image slicing options section This section is available only for single frame jobs It contains the following fields e Frame number Put here the frame to render as a single sliced image e Number of slices This value specifies the number of separate slices to create basically it means how many machines will render the frame At the end of the rendering the slices will be reassembled by the Dispatcher e Image width Specify the width of the final image e Image height Specify the height of the final image e Aspect ratio Specify the aspect ratio of the final image This value applies only to certain engines e Anti alias overlap The anti aliasing filters may work incorrectly on the image borders To provide slices that may produce a valid result you may need to increase the amount of pixels rendered on the border of the slices Increasing this value will generate images that are a bit larger but correctly reassembled Additional pixels are rendered on the slices but the final image will reflect the expe
48. ay need to activate this option for a correct feedback of the frames numbers e Paint detailed job progress arrays Paints a progress bar that reflects the status of each chunk This may be resource intensive so depending on the size of your queue and the number of the jobs you may need to deactivate this option 67 Calculate progresses for folders Calculates the folders progresses by averaging the progress of the childs Ask confirmation on unsafe operations If activated when you make an unsafe operation like deleting a job in the queue Muster Console will show a confirmation dialog Show notes on instances as popups If active when you hover with your mouse on an instance icon you ll see a popup with the host s notes Show notes on jobs as popups If active when you hover with your mouse on a job icon you ll see a popup with the job s notes Queue interactive search When changed the search filter into the queue Muster recalculates the result on each keystroke this may be cpu intensive when dealing with big queues Hosts views double click action Choose an action to perform when you double click on a hosts instance Jobs view double click action Choose an action to perform when you double click on a job Chunks views double click action Choose an action to perform when you double click on a chunk Load frame range from Lightwave s scenes If you re working with Newtek Lightwave you can tell Console to load the frame range
49. b template to the client s exclusions list if it finds an error in the log 121 Logs errors Add job to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the job to the client s exclusions list if it finds an error in the log Exit code warnings enable check Tells Muster to enable checking of processes warning return codes Return codes considered warnings are specified in each template Exit code warning Pause job Tells Muster to pause a job if it finds a warning in the exit code Exit code warning Pause client Tells Muster to pause a client if it finds a warning in the exit code Exit code warning Add job template to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the job template to the client s exclusions list if it finds a warning in the exit code Exit code warning Add job to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the job to the client s exclusions list if it finds a warning in the exit code Exit code warning Requeue chunk Tells Muster to requeue a chunk if a warning is found in its exit code Exit code errors enable check Tells Muster to enable checking of processes error return codes Return codes considered errors are specified in each template Exit code errors Pause job Tells Muster to pause a job if it finds an error in the exit code Exit code errors Pause client Tells Muster to pause a client if it finds an error in the exit code Exit code errors Add job template to client s exclusions list Tells Muste
50. cProWin 192 168 7 53 x Network Hhr Behaviours Dispatcher address 192 168 7 53 Dispatcher listening port Connection resolution Client management port Heartbeat in seconds C Enable management password Broadcast presence and usage every 60 seconds Forced user impersonation If you want to impersonate a different user regardeless of the service daemon settings fill the following fields We strongly suggest to check the manual to understand tne meaning of the values Just leave the fields blank if you re not sure Username Password OK Cancel Dispatcher address The IP used to connect to the Dispatcher service Dispatcher listening port The TCP IP port where the Dispatcher is listening for incoming Render client connections Connection resolution Attempts to reconnect after a disconnection when the amount of seconds is passed Client management port The TCP IP port where the Render client are listening for management connections incoming from Consoles Heartbeat in seconds Send a pulse to the Dispatcher to let it know the client is alive Depending on this setting and the one in the Dispatcher global preferences a client may be disconnected and flagged as offline if there s no activity for a certain amount of time Enable management password If you want to block incoming management connection on a client to prevent unauthorized changes just put a pa
51. can for hosts CtrleShift N e Change password Shows a dialog that lets you change the password for the currently logged user e Register host s Shows a dialog that lets you add a new host to the hosts instances Views e Scan for hosts Tells the Dispatcher to start a scan and find unregistered hosts in the current hosts instances views 38 The view menu has the following options Resync view b 9 Create new view b Dispatcherremote logs Ctrl Shift Statistics view Ctri Shift w History view Ctrl Shift e Resync view Reloads the selected views e Create new view Creates a new view and associate it to the current workspace e Dispatcher remote logs Opens a dialog that let you browse the logs on the Dispatcher e Statistics view Opens the statistics view dialog that lets you browse the Dispatcher Statistics in real time and eventually export them e History view Opens the history view dialog that lets you browse the history of the Dispatcher activity and eventually export and import the data The help menu has the following options a Help F1 a Licensing Buy online 3 Request a license T virtual Vertex site i9 Check for a newer release 49 About e Help Launches Acrobat Reader and opens the user s manual e Licensing Opens a dialog that lets you change the current license e Buy online Connects to the Virtual Vertex store e Request a license Connects to
52. ch rendering you re going to use You ll also need depending on the licensing scheme a valid batch render license for each node unless the software provides batch render licenses for free 141
53. cted size e Maximum instances This field specifies the maximum number of render instances used by the job A value of 0 instructs the job to use any available instances 62 Broadcast options section This section is available only for broadcast jobs It contains the following fields e Packet type Single instance Every instance by choosing this field you can tell Muster to send the job to every running instance or only one process for each IP address Single host options section This section is available only for single host jobs It contains the following fields e Delegated host You can specify the instance name or IP address of the host to be used Overrides e Process valid exit codes Overrides the expected valid exit codes comma separated e Process warning exit codes Overrides the expected warning exit codes comma separated e Process error exit codes Overrides the expected error exit codes comma separated e Valid process log s texts Overrides the expected string or regular expression to match valid log s texts e Warning process log s texts Overrides the expected string or regular expression to match warning log s texts e Error process log s texts Overrides the expected string or regular expression to match error log s texts e Chunks timeout Overrides the job chunks timeout e Chunks maximum requeue Overrides the maximum number of times a chunk can be requeued e Mail address Overrides the
54. ctory will be overwritten Where do you want to install Muster usr local muster6 Creating directory usr local muster6 Do you want to install the Dispatcher service yes Do you want to install the Renderclient service and the client components yvyes Copying content to usr local muster6 If you choose to install the Dispatcher service you ll be prompted for Dispatcher installation properties Do you want to configure the Dispatcher service y Do you want to start the Dispatcher engine on service startup y Do you want to enable the Dispatcher integrated web server y Which database engine you want to use for the Muster queue sqlite mysql Please provide the filename for your local database muster db Please provide the filename for your local history database muster history db Do you want to configure Dispatcher network ports no Writing Dispatcher configuration file to usr local muster6 dispatcher conf If your choose to install the Render client service you ll be prompted for Render client installation properties Do you want to configure the Renderclient service y How many instances do you want to spawn 1 Please insert the IP address of your Dispatcher service 127 0 0 1 Please insert the Renderclient network port configured on your Dispatcher service 8680 Please insert the Renderclient network port used for management connections 8685 21 Do you want to let the client broadcast its presence on the
55. d 11 oh project 66 michele fur i i7 Completed 11 o Job departmert lum 9 65 michele Pe 19 Completed 11 i job status Default B Q9 64 michele lam i2 Completed 11 lum job priorty 102 9 63 michele glo 8 Cumpleted 11 Incl I s ag 53 michele Lar nowded ponlte Q9 59 michele tes Excluded pool s l2 Completed 11 9 57 michele tes o Depend from jab s ID 0 2 Completed 11 56 michele tes pasendasc mode Success required i8 Completed 11 p Q9 55 michele tes B suo d scartor chai Defaults E i5 Completed 11 RP o 39 eom Locs error check Defaults 4 o 52 michele sh p m Completed 11 ti gli Environment 4 j v ez y je A Ae Tan ror Show 25 r entries crnuwnrng r W Z3 u zI enues nrsc rrevius 1 Ne Last Produced by tein Copyright 2000 2012 Virtual Vertex All rights reserved ot 5 r marks are property of their respective owners Using the web server you can even query the Dispatcher internal history You can perform some basic queries and then export the results in an Excel file for further processing The web interface of Muster 7 is fully compatible with touch based tablets like the iPad making it the best tool for on site monitoring 134 Using Mrtool command line utility Mrtool is a command line utility used to query and submit jobs to the dispatcher service It can be used to write custom submission scripts and proprietary plug ins It also acts as a gen
56. d from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Started on 04 11 11 14 07 04 11 11 14 24 02 11 11 16 47 02 11 11 16 48 28 10 11 12 50 28 10 11 12 51 28 10 11 12 51 28 10 11 12 53 28 10 11 12 55 28 10 11 12 57 03 11 11 15 28 e amp mx 19 3 09gGoe qi2d amp egogogo 7 testM7 Derived from p Derived from p Maya 27 10 11 13 30 J Ho Each column of this view shows a specific property of the job The columns headers can also be used to sort the information Just click on one of them and the view will be resorted The default sorting is priority based As you can see each folder can contain multiple jobs For viewing purposes they can be collapsed or expanded by clicking on the arrow on the left of the job status icon Jobs are arranged on a priority basis This means that the jobs with the higher priority will be the first to be sent to the available instances When a job is a child of a folder it inherits some properties from its parent In the specific if the parent folder has a certain priority even if the job has an higher one it will be started only when the parent priority matches the current queue status The priority of the job is valid when compared to the jobs be
57. der Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 105 Mentalray Standalone single file Mr Singlefile Mr Singlefile Mental ray fie santane 77 Ena fame Byame ee Adgtional tags Wa Mental ray file The mi file to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 106 script file Nuke 4 5 or 6 Nuke 4 jaya_Test_Projects scenesjlight_reflection_scene mb _ End frame Sort arguments 7 Additional tas TT Script file The job file to render Nuke 6 Script file aya Test Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Soot ares SII J fags S J Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Script arguments Arguments to pass to the script Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 107 Shake Shake Shake job fie Maya Test Projects scenes light reflection scenemb Start frame
58. destination email address to send notifications e Override job notifications By checking this field you can override the default notification event related to jobs notifications e Override chunks notifications By checking this field you can override the default notification event related to chunks notifications Actions e Action Specifies the executable to launch as a pre or post job chunk action 63 e Check return code Tells Muster to check for the action return code and abort processing according e Override timeout Overrides the default timeout for the action Managing submission presets The submission panel lets you store and manage properties presets Preset are retrievable through a pop up menu and are stored on a template basis Defaults Add preset Manage presets If you click the Add preset menu entry the current values of the submission dialog are stored as a new preset and you re prompted for the preset s name By clicking the Manage presets menu entry you can Rename Delete or Duplicate existing presets Presets I New preset NEVERMANN ooo eL Maya Sw Fs Maya Turtle a ee TETEE TANE lt OK Cancel Presets are always stored on a template basis there s no way to duplicate a preset done for a different template than the one it belongs to 64 Managing workspaces and views Muster Console supports customizable workspaces A workspace contains a set of views and their
59. e Guit The next picture shows the window that appears when clicking the configure menu item ANOA Notificator Preferences Network and notifications Desguattfier vervi hent mame cor tp kie Piri 1352168753 5683 Protocol mode Direct connection Authentication uwr admin Ubser filie admin Z Enable jebs notitications z Enabic warnings nodficattons z Enabic info notifications z Show bubbie when supported Ez Automatic aknowledge notifications when raising the application a Image viewer application Launch Image viewer automatically rm orar E Phry sexu rd con jobi conmmpiistati am 7 Play sound on warring f gt g J Z May sauna an inta This is an explanation of each parameter e Dispatcher Server This is the IP address or name of the Dispatcher service e Port This is the port where the Dispatcher listens for notifications connections e Protocol mode You can configure the Notificator to directly connect to the Dispatcher service or listen for broadcast messages on a UDP port If you are going to connect an high number of Notificator clients using UDP broadcast will reduce your network usage 131 for messages delivery Keep in mind however that UDP broadcast cannot know where the message is delivered so the substitution path system won t work in UDP mode Authentication user To perform custom substitution paths an authentication user name in needed User filter I
60. e entire lifecycle of the job you can click the Gather chunks history button and have a tree based view with the results of each chunks in the history This let you also check why a particular chunks has failed and also recover the logs of the failed or requeued chunks Chunks detail Job testM7 9 Absolute frames lielative frames Status Requeu Starting time Ending time Time span Rendered by fiesults 1 000 to 34 000 1to 34 Completed 27 10 11 13 30 27 10 11 13 32 00 Hours 02 M rendert youar 1 000 to 34 000 1to 34 Completed 27 10 11 13 30 27 10 11 13 32 00 Hours 02 M rendert youar 35 000 tc 68 000 35 to 68 Completed 27 10 11 13 30 27 10 11 13 32 00 Hours 02 M render3 youar 35 000 tc 68 000 35 to 68 Completed 2 10 11 13 30 2 10 11 13 32 UU Hours 02 M render3 youar 69 000 to 100 69 to 100 Completed 27 10 11 13 30 27 10 11 13 32 00 Hours 02 M render2 youar 69 000 to 100 69 to 100 Completed 2710 11 13 30 27 10 11 13 32 00 Hours 02 M render2 youar 72 The frames check window The missing frames window will pop up when you right click on a job and select Manual frame check Theres pelh and reli fee Test Proens ineyes igl reflection scene jT _ Fares range Aweregeging Stans a i id Trassas Goud 15 4 O AO TUI Wee Tul rus chick The dialog lists the job frames grouped in a logical way Each missing or good sequence of consecutive frames is rep
61. e A Ip Address Progress I 8 E J stance name kAj l _ Memory usage Cpu usage w 4 MacProWin 12700 DODOODOB00 iMacProWin 1 127 0 0 1 ODODOBD0 e3 iMacProWin 2 127 0 0 1 ODODODOO Normal Paused iMacProWin 3 127 0 0 1 OODODODO Normal Paused lt iIMacProWin 4 127 0 0 1 popo Normal Paused iMacProWin 5 127 0 0 1 OD0DO008000 Normal Paused While this is an image of a typical view in instance mode Instances view amp mx gt Network flow Enabled w View mode Instances Platform Not filtered Status Not filtered w Pool Entire Farm B 2604 0 2 0 6 Instance name A Ip Address Platform Progress Memory usage Cpu usage S T J E 1 10 Process Priority Priority Status Curren e3 iMacProWin 1 127 0 0 1 Windows OODODODO 5 Normal 1 Paused Fr iMacProWin 2 127 0 0 1 Windows OOODQDOGO00 6 Normal 1 Paused Fr lt iMacProWin 5 127 0 0 1 Windows OODODOO0 9 Normal 1 Paused Fr iMacProWin 6 127 0 0 1 Windows ODOGDOGO00 10 Normal 1 Paused Fr 1 iVacProWin 3 0 0 OQOQOQO Q The colored dot at the left of each instance shows the actual status of the machine When the machine is idle and ready to render it is green When it s idle but paused it s yellow When it s rendering it s red After your first installation you should have at least one instance with a green dot If it s yellow you may have configured the client to start paused You ll change it
62. e Render client persistently just click the Install Service button You can tell Muster to scan the local workstation for installed batch renders just clicking the Rescan local applications Remember that this process may be time consuming and will scan in know locations on your system drive or your entire file system if you choose perform a full scan on any local drive You can always skip this step and configure the paths to the render engines later through the Console After the service installation and configuring the engines check the IP address of your Dispatcher and then click Start Service The services control panel applet can be minimized It will stay in the Finder bar and can be recalled on demand right clicking on the icon 20 Linux installation Muster comes on the linux platform as a gzip compressed tar file Assuming you downloaded Muster on a temporary folder inside your home folder open your shell and type Lar xvr Master 0 0 52 11nuUx oz This will explode the archive into your current directory Now you can start the textual installer with the following command Sudo 7install The installer will prompt you for the modules you re interested in and copy the required files in the installation directory Muster 7 Copyright 2000 2009 Virtual Vertex Welcome to the installation script for Muster 7 The script will attempt to install Muster on your local filesystem Pay attention The destination dire
63. e automatic pool assignment based on the host name and or the IP addresses You can also set a queue level priority to give an additional priority value to the jobs depending on the pool they target or an instance level priority to define an additional priority to instances belonging to a pool 127 Substitution paths Substitution paths engine is a fundamental tools for cross platform rendering As you probably know the way the system manages file paths is completely different between Windows and Unix based systems like Linux and Mac OS X When you submit a job you tell Muster where the file for this job is where is its project and where you want to store the files You embed this information using the path coding of the platform you re running the Console on But what happens when the job is submitted to an instance or the Dispatcher requires access to the file contents i e Image slicing assembling Muster uses the substitution paths configuration It exchanges back slashes with forward slashes where required and transform the paths according with the rules you configure This is an example of the Substitution paths dialog Server side Windows side Linux sice Add new Duplicate 4demove JL gt Path name mayat Path scope Client mma S Sarvcr side mnt mcyat lavori3d Windows MriayaNavori3d Linux Imnt meya lavori3d Nac Nolumes lavori3d No ma
64. e dei ideo bes ouv qe tsp diae Es ovn EANES 63 Overrides 2 slash secsatiy cR 63 hYedjegcPcer c c 63 Managing submission DIGSELS ou iE ERU ince M Ne MO UMEN M ML M NEUE 64 Managing workspaces and VICWS ccccescccessccceenecccenecceencceaencceeeececeneceeeeeesenceesegecetsneeeeees 65 CUSTOMIZING a VIe Ws tesis odios ebrii oim Lad uti ow liane deve mue Eee eed uda 66 Muster Console preferences cccccssseccccsssecceceseccccenseccceessececeueececeeeeeceseeseecessenecesseneceesegaes 67 liei Ee Via Coli eet c p 71 Browsing the network statistics orenian e eter erstes a es E v Ve e Pee aerate TV TR EUST 75 Managing the HISEOEV a onsec o anoles eue Pei er bea pb bond s Ee e oe lta cov lube ttes Mots dU des pedes 76 Engine specific submission view options ccccccceseccceeescceceesececeeeeccceeeesecesaesecesseeceeseenes 77 3D Studio Wax 3 DS MI a E E N 77 3D Studio Max Frame slicing 3DS Max 9 Fs 77 Ater ETEC oarnein E 78 E LUCIO E E EE A E E EE E A E E E MU E nates 79 one PAIGUD c 80 COPD US IOD octets Sis it Une Ie ales awd Seat cetus niea ars er dde fotcno E baad c rabo ote aee 81 Digital FUSION sie bero etude do cud basse ii ves Tube ud Lon evo ta Duns daes du uoa do nese tates 82 NVidia Gelato Gelato Multifile esses 83 Generic SCHDE eec taeeeimsai ci de ened pa aa dunt eiae o aba UR dL SAEC ARR eon C Ye 84 Generic DroOddedst SCDE asus eros De ecto a A an Td adtun iO os deo at tosui ia
65. e following window shows the General properties E Ear Digparchaer selection engine on BUTUE E Meedoen mees E Un Irmpiates eg erd age Detinguich irstemcrems bey eters _ Miexdrnum concumern bas Breeds s E Hiequeue CHUTES on disennnecnon Fi Globe chores nent irrm rutes T8 MALT chunks noc a B Dhn dh bathe sban cina sach her can ba canti n nerd ia imesaesninate a tenant Lar fr AnnRRR aortic thas nin frame cece raa zx h T4 TTEKZE IEEM din Even you car configura such kind cf behantour by assigning an uber to the pervia Mina or staring thea naaman xz z rltanact Lr Rurh Sea na is Ligas d for higher pxanianiby kaad affinis Lamr re fields birk 8 vue nod sume about wid eure etim Lrzsmenrmre Heo LI Suranunon BING Bre case sename e Start Dispatcher selection engine on startup Tells Muster to automatically start the Dispatcher selection engine after the boot sequence e Remove orphaned instances When an instance connects Muster checks the total amount of instances for that node and remove previously registered ones if present 115 e Ontemplates editing backup snapshots When you change the templates on the Dispatcher service an entire snapshot of the current status is backed up on a dedicated folder into the templates folder e Distinguish instances by This tells the Dispatcher what parameter to use to distinguish the render client instances If you change from IP address to host n
66. e size exceeds a certain amount of Megabytes e Enable system events Tells Muster to log events related to the Dispatcher activity e Enable users events Tells Muster to log events related to users actions e Enable hosts events Tells Muster to log events related to hosts activity e Enable hosts failure events Tells Muster to log events related to hosts failures e Clear the log on Automatically clear the logs when it reaches the specified amount of entries e Send the log on e mail at Sends a dump of the log on the mail specified in the mail configuration section when it reaches the specified amount of entries e Log processes command line Adds the command line used to start the process at the top of each log file e Log processes return codes Adds the process exit code at the bottom of each log file 119 The following window shows the Actions properties Dispatcher Preferences Job Actions Failures Chunks Actions Failures Pause job Add job to exclusions list m kj i i Lock job Add template to exclusions list Requeue chunk Abort processing Actions timeout in seconds 120 Default actions 7 Global pre job action C Global post job action C Global pre chunk action C Global post chunk action Procs faults C3 Mails and web OK Cancel e Job actions failures Pause job Tells Muster to pause a job if it encounters a failure during an action execution
67. efines exactly what rights the user has e Enable home folder Tells Muster to create a folder as an home for the user e Limit views and actions on home folder Each action of the user is limited inside his home folder The root of the queue is hidden to him and he cannot see jobs belonging to other users unless an Administrator moves them inside the user s home folder e Allowed templates Limits the usage of specific engines e Limit by pool Limits the usage only to instances belonging to specific pool e Maximum allocable instances Defines the maximum number of concurrent instances allocable by an user e Reset password Resets the user s password 129 e Web connections platform Defines the platform to use for paths substitution when the user connects to the web server e User substitution paths Defines user s custom substitution paths 130 Muster Notificator Reference Muster Notificator is a small application that listens to Dispatcher service and pops up reporting several different events It can even open an image viewer to display single frame renderings once they are available Muster Notificator runs in the taskbar or in the upper bar of the Finder on Mac OS X By right clicking the Notificator icon in the task bar you can access a pop up menu that lets you configure the Notificator acknowledge pending event flag it as silent no balloons popup or close it Restore Acknowledge pending events Silent Configur
68. enice ignatcher engine initidizer suecnessully k Xe munit m2 1270011 mustessoner Sonico Frmecheck on jcb shott_cascloncbickingO pli kate Eon ariei m ep Na 25 127001 musteen Genie Procaasing of on shotl_carelionelakiecCs eftt compiarad Submit Edi Presets nad Saw d Hd iz inim The Muster Console interface is made by four different view panels The Instances hosts view This is the upper view in the screenshot above This is basically a list of your available and unavailable rendering instances and can be configured in Instance or Host view mode Consider an host like a physical machine while an instance is an entity inside Muster One host is able to spawn multiple instances In this way you can have simultaneous batch renders running on the same host and use multi core and multi processors machines even the batch render doesn t support it In Instance view mode each instance has its own entry in the list while in host view mode instances are grouped under their host node Operations that are pertinent to a single instance can be done in Instance view mode while operations that are pertinent to the host like starting and stopping services are permitted in host view mode only This is an image of a typical view in host mode Instances view oR mx gt Network flow Enabled View mode Hosts Platform Not filtered w Status Notfillered Pool Entire Farm p EASRA EE EE DDA Instance nam
69. eral command line interface to the Dispatcher service To obtain a list of available commands just type Mrtool h on the command line The Maya connector plug in uses Mrtool to submit batch job An in deep analysis of the mel script can be a good starting point for writing custom submission scripts The next lines show some examples of Mrtool usage we strongly suggest you to read the Mrtool section on the reference manual for a full listing of the flags Querying the Dispatcher service on local host using user admin without any password Mrtool s 127 0 0 1 q a u admin Querying the Dispatcher service jobs Mrtool s 127 0 0 1 q j u admin Pausing a job Mrtool s 127 0 0 1 u admin jobp JOBID Pausing an instance Mrtool s 127 0 0 1 u admin cpu INSTANCEID Submitting a Maya job on the queue Mrtool s 127 0 0 1 u admin b e 1 n Myjob f Ser Myprojects scenes test mb proj Ser Myprojects sf 1 ef 100 bf 1 Querying the jobs queue with a custom formatted output with a custom job attribute Mrtool s 127 0 0 1 u admin q j jf id file project MYCUSTOMATTR 135 Maya Connector plug in The Maya connector plug in is installed automatically by the Muster Installer on windows platforms For Unix platforms you need to manually install it by copying the mel files the icons and the shelves to the relative Maya directories After installing you must
70. es light_reflection_scene mb sattame End frame Numering by 1 Addtionaltiags Ga Combustion job file The job file to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame Numbering by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 81 Digital Fusion Job file Star trame E j Ena trame Digital Fusion Kopay Test Projecisloconesight rection scene mb Job file The job file to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame Digital Fusion 5 1 82 NVidia Gelato Gelato Multifile Gelato Multifile Gelato file list pr 7 C776 Start frame a End frame By frame MNN o Additional flags e Gelato file list prefix The prefix full path and filename up to the numbering portion to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Output file Overrides the destination for the rendered images Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 83 Generic script Generic script go L Additional flags gi The first available host will execute the generic scri
71. et as Service is stopped gm The service is starting You do not have the rights to query the remote service S Service is either uninstalled or an unknown error happened querying the service T and J If you see a red cross xc in this column it means that one or more templates or jobs have been add to the client exclusion list The exclusion list prevents further assignment of the job to the client to avoid infinite loops on faulty jobs L Shows the status of the real time log When it s enabled you ll see a log icon i in this column ID This is the internal identification number assigned by the Dispatcher to each host Process priority This is the scheduling priority for each process launched on the host Priority This is a priority number assigned to each instance When idle instances with the higher priority will be selected first in the job assignment logic Status Shows a textual status of the instance Current job If busy this field shows which job is currently assigned to the instance Current chunk If busy with a multi frame job this column shows the current job s chunk Notes Shows notes assigned to the instance 41 e Mac Address Shows the MAC address of the NIC of the node If you have multiple NICs installed you ll see multiple addresses separated by a pipe e Command line If busy shows the command line sent to start the current process If you want to filter the view contents you can use the options o
72. f you want to discriminate messages on a user basis you ll need to put your own username in this field Enable jobs notifications Tells the notificator to report jobs notifications Enable warnings notifications Tells the notificator to report general warning notifications Enable info notifications Tells the notificator to report informative notifications Show bubble Shows a bubble in the system tray where supported when a new notification is available Automatic acknowledge notifications when raising the application Tells the notificator to automatically flag notifications has acknowledged when you raise the application Image viewer application Defines an image viewer to view rendered frames Launch image viewer automatically Tells the notificator to automatically launch the image viewer when a new single frame has been assembled by the Dispatcher Play sound on job completation Plays a sound when a job is completed Play sound on warning Plays a sound when a warning event is available Play sound on info Plays a sound when an informative event is available 132 Using the integrated web server eoe Muster 7 Integrated Web server login zi T3 J nte 192 168 7 53 58 7 53 9690 dologin ht he KQ Google Muster 7 Web interface Password Login Produced by Virtual Vertex Copyright 2000 2012 Virtual Vertex ias cg reserved All other marks are property of their respective ow Muster integrates a
73. ferent task The purpose of the Dispatcher is controlling the remote hosts using low bandwidth messages When applicable the Dispatcher server should have a privileged connection to the rendering hosts or at least separate the corporate network traffic An optimal setup could be made by several routers routing different packets across different network interface cards on both the server and the clients Having an high number of clients talking with the Dispatcher for both controlling and I O messages could increase the latency of the transmission itself wasting precious seconds of unused calculation waiting for incoming commands e Priority 3 Cross platform When using different operating systems you should take into account the issues deriving from shares mount points The substitution paths tool in Muster helps you exchanging the paths but a good planning of your shares is something you should take into account in the initial farm design 139 Troubleshooting If you re stuck and not able to render successfully with Muster please take a look at the following common issues If this doesn t help take a look at the Virtual Vertex forum or drop a line to vvsupport vvertex com e Error 211 on Maya Input output error or scene loading error This is the most common issue Muster as explained runs as a service If you didn t assign an user to the service or the user has not enough privileges to access the network shares your render will
74. fully featured internal Web server You can navigate to the web server interface by opening your browser and then following the links http localhost 9690 for unsecure connections https localhost 9691 for secure connections where localhost can be changed with the IP address of your Dispatcher host After login using your account data you ll get a similar screen E Muster 7 Web interface Maha eue ht Qmm Job Hoawy Derpatcbas ug Sebmil a mw p im Add a foder Job Quo Refrish Fecal Print Search Td Cheer Mama Froject Decacnant Do T A Bebes Frode Furhsims Bonin Fjne Sharting Preqres End 1I 8 80 mieie vrxialonchialale 11 AP n3 michele furThinTis Maya Me 2g WAAR 5 84 E Completed I Moye Mri 112 2011 15 53 40 Conpewd 1 Masa Mefa 11 23 2011 15 51 17 Completed D A ES mache larlraxplirmp AP nA michele fur p nsu muc Kescmrdtur M ME Baya Mah DA SATIA Completed 1 AP n4 michele p uhina Baya Pah DR 15 44 42 Completed o 11 fume cele Late nI michele Iu B 53 mec Larrsochryalur Maye Mp2 WPM P5544 TR Completed o rg dp n michele beef Teme Teiraris Maye Mja WMA 12 51 42 Completed Pd m ENS ENS ER 5 a ERE c Bux d T michele peePTeack hern Maya Mefa DABAN 15 34 13 Fnmpeded M A 56 mebede wslik iere Meye Mij 11 18 201115 11 48 Compeiod 1L dj uu michele peeP Teck Chan Maya Me 2 DIRADI LAARA Dnmped M Ei d X3 aimn cheEarra omes L Se mehe EE AAT Meye Mri h 11 03
75. g frame e End frame The final sequence ending frame 88 Maya Gelato Maya Gelato Maya scene file est Projects scenes light reflection scene mb ano C Users lea Desktop Maya Test Projects Frame destination Lsers leo Desktop Maya Test Projects images Sanare 073 End frame Byrame f Mumberby Qn m U Digi NNNM Addionalags E Project directory Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination path for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Number by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Step by Step for the final frames numbering Digits Number of digits to use for the frame numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 89 Maya Hardware Maya Hw est Projects scenes light reflection scene mb e CJUsers leo Desktop Maya Test Projects Maya scene file Project directory Sat ame e End fame ame e Mumberby Wn NS p Addtionaltiags nn C Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination path for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence
76. ht of the Maya scene filename field in the Maya Sw section of the submission panel notice that this section has been dynamically built if you had a different render engine selected Pick up the file from the network you should have something like MASTER RENDERFARM MUSTERTEST SCENES TEST MB inside the field Muster will detect automatically the project path and will set it to MASTER RENDERFARM MUSTERTEST Set the starting frame to 1 and the ending frame to 10 Because we want to send the job to an high number of instances set the packet size to 1 The packet size value controls how many frames are assigned to a single instance for each render session a chunk Under production a value of 4 is often a good compromise Click on submit and you should immediately see the job appear in the queue If it has a yellow ball just right click on it and select Resume 35 Congratulations you ve sent your first render job In a few minutes you should get all your instances back to idle and the frames successfully rendered inside the images folder of your project During this example you watched the output from the batch renders using the real time log feature But what about checking the logs of completed packets No problem just open the Workstation Logs menu item right clicking on your host and you ll get the Log s inspector Remote logs of host iMacProWin 192 168 7 53 Time Chunk ID cn liename iMacProwin o 131954
77. htomp a Maya BEMOMI 1253 Erwirenment AK shotd_sertaleNa n 1 on Lesved romp Derwedtomp a Maye SE WE1I 1255 Has l l dk chers ooriakNo FI 1 0m Ceed emp Dervedhiomp a Moya 2510011257 m oO i i wo mawT 2 1 oo Crave Farm Of Cemedfonp Dervedionp 3 Moa Suina ERES C 4 eaMT g 1 w Ceed iomp Derved ion p a Maa 200011 330 o a7 AMT eyerl 3l 1 am Teed iomp Derwen iinn pi a Maa MNI 0555 Dv i testi layer 23 1 nin Deswediemp Derveribnmpn n Maa WNI 528 Cene o x esM leyen 2i 1 Di Cemed kromp Derved bom p a Maya 2510111553 ee i x esti layer a3 1 om Ceed iomp Dervediomp a Mae omw as ae Oo w o Wet 4 1 on tem Harm o ST yet j Ez m ned ramp Derved om pe Motstanet yet OMe a TESINT lever m 1 OUO Leswed romp Derved ion p a Maya Taiji tao Compesd Ll aca me exor es s Packer rire 75 Logs vew Ge amp Bx Madrum nan Q 7 Maswstfew crates Some MM INSS Cusine Of neti Checktor mssi Scere M me fanem amp weri Dn 1254 132 I5 T 51 iR Spa local amin Rent performed on joris aye 1043 E ramos poner IMINSNI ESTO 2 oA 1254 132 5B 7 51 it sape local abin Remesnesd job stoke oo les Wa nani i248 127001 Macon Sevice Dispetche engine initializes success ully Frame necking nofinns We Dati 1216 177004 Macon Gembe Disperhe engine intielizec successiuly Pe OTT 21 1270 01 Madoin fen zs Dispecer shutdown completed re Em CGN 7 34 127 001 WMacPsoWin S
78. igher network usage than UDP This configuration requires a clever pre setup brainstorming and in some cases changes to the network routing and configurations Before going further we must clarify an important concept The data flow sent between dispatcher and render farm hosts is composed by synchronization and management messages This means that the files used in your scheduled jobs are not transferred through this connection How content composed by scene files textures and renderings is transferred across hosts Files are read and written using the standard network shares This means that a machine that has enough disk space must be dedicated for this task Depending on your network configurations and your bandwidth you can dedicate the same machine running the dispatcher service or a big file repository running on a file server with a big disk array Of course choosing the OS disk configurations and physical layouts depends on personal preferences and budget limits The flexibility of this system allows further expansions and rearrangements even during productions phases Just keep in mind those important key concepts e f you choose a Windows machine to host files keep in mind that each host accessing files uses a new connection to the file server Microsoft operating systems that are not part of the SERVER family allows only 10 concurrent connections to a shared folder In a production environment sometimes a few connections remains
79. ing the contents generation you often pick them up from your local file system In opposition a distributed rendering requires contents to be available on the network You should always pick up the external references from a network path or consolidate them with your project structure and then move the entire structure on the network e You should also consider baking data performed randomly like Global illumination photons dynamic caches particles caching and simila By linking a cache object you ll be sure that any host will perform a valid frame that matches with the frames rendered across the farm Also check the product documentation there re certain technologies that cannot be rendered on different hosts e If you experience strange results or general problems when rendering through Muster we suggest you to test the batch render directly from the command line Keep in mind that batch renders sometimes may have different behaviours than a rendering from the main software interface you should always refer to the software documentation and check for differences hints about using the batch rendering 138 Configuring your network Distributed renderings relay on the network for any kind of data transmission That s a good reason to consider your network physical layer as the primary bottleneck in the entire rendering process As a network administrator you can follow several steps to ensure your network is working at its maximum ca
80. inistrator group This is different from the Domain Administrator group In you decide to customize user creation or the Muster installer is 17 unable to perform the setup for some domain policy you should do this setup manually on each machine even if you assign the user to the Domain Administrators user group When you perform the default installation Services should be already configured by the Muster installer If you skip the user creation depending on your Windows version you should open the Services Control Panel applet and assign log on information to the installed services After configuring the user account the next step consists in performing a final check to verify that the Muster account is able to access your shared folders From now on we ll assume that we have created a shared folder located on a file repository server called MASTER and that the server exports a share called RENDERFARM Logon a random machine where you ve installed Muster and configured the account Instead of your personal account use the Muster account If you ve created a custom account use it After logging in try to open the shared folder i e NMASTERNRENDERFARM create some files inside it try to rename them and finally try to delete them If everything was successful you have well configured well the user account and it s able to access your file server 18 Apple MAC OS X installation Muster comes on the MAC OS X platform as a self moun
81. is not able to always understand what s going on during a batch rendering process The output from the batch render always contains enough hints to understand why a particular job is failing You can start playing with the various Muster parameters or move to the reference section of each module to gain a deeper knowledge of the software If something went wrong we suggest you to check carefully each section of this chapter and verify your steps If you still can t get a valid result check the Troubleshooting section at the end of this manual 36 Muster Console Reference Interface components The following section will give a brief over the interface components provided by Muster Console the complete real time graphical front end to the Muster Dispatcher Service The Muster Console window has a menu a toolbar and five view types e The instances host views e The job queue views e The log views e The submission views The Muster menus offer the same functionalities of the icons in the toolbar but divided in logical groups The file menu has the following options a Disconnect Ctri Shift C Preferences Ctrl Shitt P Import Ctrl Shift Export Ctrl Shift E Quit Alt F4 e Connect Disconnect Shows the connection dialog or terminates an active connection e Preferences Opens the Console preferences window e Import Imports a queue snapshot into the Dispatcher queue e Export Exports a snapsh
82. le frame Save as dela Close The texture relocation feature checks all the textures linked in your current Maya scene file textures and attached image plane images and then relocate them in the current project directory If an image is found outside the regular sourceimage folder It s copied back to the original position After the texture relocation the scene is saved in the scenes directory of the current project When you want to send the scene to your Muster Dispatcher Service you can click either on Render current frame or on Submit Job If you send the entire job the frame range will be taken from the Connector dialog as well as all the other Muster parameters If you send a single frame resolution will be taken from the current render global settings When sending a job the connector automatically performs texture relocation and copies all the project structure in the network path specified in the Network path where you want to publish the project field The job is then submitted using the network location path 137 General guidelines for distributed rendering Distributed rendering requires some additional setup to be accomplished successfully Rules on preparing the jobs change on a software basis and it also depends on the production workflow By the way we can provide some general rules to follow if applicable e Check files external references Jobs often requires external files When you pick up those files dur
83. le from the drive map itself There s no way to embed a drive mapping information when submitting the job from Linux or MAC OS X In a mixed OS environment you should relay on static drive mappings configuration and disable this function Settings for host iMacProWin 192 168 7 53 x midi In Behaviours Logon check Make client unavailable on user logging Wait for tasks termination L C Track remote accesses as local logins ogs 9 Allow control access to screen savers Processes check Fae N k aa Se ew Q Available when the following procesess are running delimited Q Available when the following processes are not runnina delimited i Templates Default behaviour Mappings amp Paths Available by default g Wait tasks termination on status changes Time rules To Starttimi Add rule OK Cancel The availability rules define when a particular client is available for rendering You can choose its default availability by checking or unchecking the Available by default tell the client if it has to abort the running process or wait its termination when its availability change by checking or unchecking the Wait tasks termination on status change and configure specific time lapses by clicking the Add rule button You can also tell the client to be available or not available depending on the presence or the absence of a particula
84. light reflection scene mb Project directory C Usersfeo Desktop Maya_Test_Projects Frame destination Users leo Desk start frame End frame By frame Adgtionalfags 7777777777777 Gad Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 92 Maya Mental Ray Maya Mr Maya Mr Maya scene file Project directory start frame End frame By frame Number by Step by Digits Additional flags Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Number by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Step by Step for the final frames numbering Digits Number of digits to use for the frames numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 93 Maya Mental Ray Frame slicing Maya Mr Fs May
85. longing to the same parent The same concept applies to the job destination pool If it s set to target the entire farm but its parent specifies a specific pool the job will override its setting and will be sent to the pool specified by the parent folder The Console will show this with a pool name called Derived from parent If you select a different pool for the job the derivation will be overridden An explanation of each column follows e Job name This specifies the job name as well as its current status In a similar fashion to the clients queue the icon on the left of the job name can assume 10 different states B9 The folder is currently paused The setting propagates to the childs The folder is active The job is on the queue and ready to start 53 The job is paused Until you resume it it will never start The job is in progress The job is in progress but reported some kind of warnings The job has been completed but reported some kind of warnings RPG Thejob isin progress but reported some kind of errors v The job has been completed but reported some kind of errors 7 The job has been completed successfully o The job is locked No operations are allowed on it until it s unlocked g The job is archived It won t be visible until you change the view s filters Thejobis running a pre post job action or the image assembler L Shows a lock when the job is locked T The job has a timed action like pa
86. ltiple instances are started on the client an instance number is appended to the standard name More information on instances are contained in the render client reference section In addition to the host name the icon on the left shows the current status of the machine It can assume the following states in instance view mode o9 The instance is idle and waiting for jobs c1 The instance is paused Theinstance is busy processing a job o9 The instance is disconnected 5 The instance is connected but unavailable by configuration rules The instance is connected but reserved by a logged user or the following states in hosts view mode on the host nodes Ss Console is actually directly connected to the host Console is not connected to the host 447 Console is attempting a connection to the host 40 IP address This is the IP address of each machine Multiple instances of the same client will share the column value Platform Operative system running on the client Memory usage This is the actual usage of RAM and swap file on the host Cpu usage This is the actual usage of processors on the host Procs This is the number of virtual processing units on the host Hyper threading machines report multiple virtual units S This is used in host view mode only and reports the status of the Render client service on the host It can assume the following states ae Service is up and running age The Service status has not been queried y
87. master file controls all the automounts for the system leave everything about this file alone except for the extra line at the end pico etc auto master enter it Automounter master map it tauto master Use directory service net hosts nobrowse nosuid home auto home nobrowse Network Servers fstab pe Sstatacc Nolumes auto smb This will tell the automounter to mount the shares defined in the etc auto smb file under the Volumes directory You can force an automout update with automount vc enter The next step requires a similar work on the linux platform You can mount a share manually using the mount t cifs command line syntax but we would like to do is have the share mounted statically You can accomplish this task by editing the etc fstab file and adding this line LIT921690 01007Dabta mit date smbrs username SUsername password SPassword 0 0 Remember to change the SUsername and SPassword placeholders with your network credentials Ok we almost done the work We have the shares ready and mounted on each platform The last step to perform requires the configuration of Muster to tell it how the shares are visible on each platform so it can exchange paths when required This is done through the Configure paths voice 26 in the Management menu Once you open the dialog you have to create a path like the one shown in the next picture Substitution paths Windowsside X Linux side Mac side
88. n the filtering bar Mebwork Flow Enabled View mode PlatFarm Mot filtered Status Not Filtered Pool Entire Farm e e Network flow Enable or disable data flow to the view If you disable the network flow each host view will be disabled and you ll reduce the amount of network traffic between the Dispatcher and the Console You should always disable a certain view network flow if you don t need the windows to be constantly updated e View mode Changes between hosts and instances view mode e Platform Filters the contents by looking the instance s platform e Status Filters the contents with the status value e Pool Filters the contents showing only instances belonging to a certain pool Settings of the filtering bar will be stored persistently if you re working on a custom workspace If you re working with the default the settings will be reset on the next session Check the workspaces section to learn more Remember to disable the network flow on views you re not interested in This will reduce the amount of traffic between Console and the Dispatcher 42 Managing the hosts instances By right clicking on a host or instance in the instances view you get a popup menu that allows you to perform different actions The same applies to groups if you select multiple items Refresh CTRL B Pause CTARL P Process priority Ld set notes CTRL F Healtime log streaming Ld Workstation logs CTAL J Alarms Purge tem
89. nch Expands the entire tree selected branch e Collapse branch Collapses the entire tree selected branch e Move item s to root Moves the selected item s to the root level e Move item s Moves the selected item s inside the selected folder e Pause Pauses a job A paused job won t be sent to clients for processing e Resume Resumes a paused job e Time actions Pause or resume a job at a certain time e Reinit Reset the job to its initial state If you have instances working on the job the processes will be terminated e Nodes working on Perform actions on the instances currently working on the job e Open output folder If the job specifies an output folder the command opens the folder to view the files e Chunks details Opens the chunks detail window Manual frame check Opens the manual frame check dialog Rename Renames the job Set project Sets the unique job project string This may be used later for filtering and arranging the jobs Set department Sets the unique job s department string This may be used later for filtering and arranging the jobs Set priority Sets the job priority Jobs with an higher priority will be processed first Jobs that share the same priority are sorted by the ID number Smaller IDs will be sent first Set maximum instances Set the maximum number of instances allowed to work simultaneous on the job Set dependencies IDs Set a list of jobs dependancies If a job depends from another job it
90. ncludes free upgrades for a period of 30 days after the date of the purchase Releases of patches are available for free to all the registered users of the patch family version At the time of this writing Muster is sold only in electronic form We suggest you to save in a safe place any installer and patch for your registered version Getting started Muster is a suite of applications specifically designed to manage complex and multi platform render farms In the digital content creation industry the term render farm is used to describe a set of computers fully or partially dedicated to the creation of digital images This process is commonly called rendering and the resulting images rendered images The rendering is typically the last stage in 3D animation and 2D compositing software workflow and is a CPU intensive task the time required for the generation of a single image can range from minutes to hours In video or motion picture productions where contents are made by several minutes of digital effects several days may be required to complete the production phase Spreading the render of image sequences on a set of computers dedicated to this task helps reducing rendering times but tracking their status and managing errors can be really complicated It s here that comes Muster Muster is a client server suite of applications that provides production s supervisor the right tools to manage their render farm made by hundreds or a bunch of
91. new one when selecting the file Maya will link it as sourceimages MusterTexture tga THIS IS A RELATIVE PATH Key concept Check always that your textures are linked in a relative way There are several scripts on the web that do exactly this Some of them allows you to automatically move an out of the project texture inside the project structure In Maya our Connector script does this automatically Even if we link our textures in a relative way we must be sure that the rendering hosts will be able to access the entire project structure If we leave it on the C drive of our workstation it will be impossible for the hosts to access the project So the next step requires to copy the entire MusterTest folder on our file repository MASTER RENDERFARM for this example 28 Because we want to render an animation animate the rotation of the ball across 10 frames and then save the scene as test mb inside the SCENES folder You are ready to start network rendering with Maya and Muster Those concepts applies for any rendering application What we call a project may be called in a different way but the concept is always the same Some applications are also able to automatically relocate the external references if they are inside the same or a child path of the job file We strongly suggest to read the batch rendering documentation of the software you re going to use with Muster for further information 29 Muster Console walk trough
92. no view is visible This is a typical views popup menu you may get Hide view Instances view Queue view Logs view Submission panel 65 Customizing a view If you want to customize the columns of a view you can right click on its headers and invoke the popup menu Customize headers If you click the Customize headers entry you ll get the following dialog Configured columns Available columns D Process Prinrity Priority Header text Custom tag Instence name builtin instancename Content alignment Default size px 70000 SO o5 200 7 Cancel The customize view headers window lets you choose exactly which column you want to show its position in the list its content alignment and the default column size Customizing the view s columns and the view s filters is a good way to have multiple views with different contents available in the workspace If you re working on a custom workspace the settings changed by this window will be stored persistently with the view 66 Muster Console preferences The Muster Console can be configured selecting Preferences from the menu or clicking the relative button on the toolbar The general section has the following options E Ch Ee guiden om eter ga A Ausomasically check sendocs status on arp ue Manrasaman nor Sen Keepy Tean C OU DECUUC E sways Give iracn nn brodeazz fram clicees orci cames cm and
93. nstances are available for rendering If some of them have a yellow ball it means they are paused Just select them right click on one and select Resume They should change to the idle status and show a green ball As a last step we want to exactly check what s outputted from the instances during their render so right click on the instance you re going to use and select Realtime Log Streaming gt Enable and Open view By selecting this menu item Muster Console will open an output window that will dump the output from the processes spawned on the remote host Realtime log streaming from instance iMacProWin 1 192 168 7 53 File read in 1 seconds Result C Users Ieo Desktop Maya Test Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Total Elapsed Time Since Start Of Maya hh mm ss 00 00 10 Page faults 123 434 Mb Max resident size 122 531 Mb Peak total size Estimated 7 514 Mb Peak arena size 123 434 Mb Current 6 875 Mb MEL 0 063 Mb Arrays 0 124 Mb NURBS Surface Shapes 0 002 Mb arguments 0 328 Mb Data Blocks 0 124 Mb Transforms Rendering using 8 threads Automatic near far clipping values 6 46748 81 1367 Clear We are ready to select our rendering engine from the submission view In the general section locate the Engine combo box and select Maya sw as the render engine This will tell Muster to render using the Maya software rendering Next select the job file by clicking the button on the rig
94. nterval to be used to send pulses to the clients to check they are still alive Clients RX buffer Defines the amount of bytes storable in the network buffers Clients TX buffer Defines the amount of bytes storable in the network buffers Management RX buffer Defines the amount of bytes storable in the network buffers Management TX buffer Defines the amount of bytes storable in the network buffers Notificators TX buffer Defines the amount of bytes storable in the network buffers Maximum attempts Defines the maximum number of attempts the Dispatcher does to wake up an host using the Magic Packet technology A value of 0 disables the wake up globally Warm up in seconds To give time on a full reboot you can specify a warm up in seconds required before starting the Wake up logic Delay between each attempt Defines the delay between each wakeup attempt Update internal statistics each Defines an interval to use to update and store the internal status of the Dispatcher Broadcast network statistics each Defines an interval to use to broadcast the internal status of the Dispatcher to Consoles 117 The following window shows the Queue properties Database driver Choose the driver to use to access the Muster database Sqlite Mysql or Sql server You re allowed to use Sql server only on a Windows based Dispatcher Database address The IP address of the database if applicable Login username The login name to access the databa
95. ob to client s exclusions list Exit codes errors Enable check 7 Pause job Pause client O Add job template to client s exclusions list O Add job to client s exclusions list C Requeue chunk O Requeue chunk e Mails and web e Logs warnings enable check Tells Muster to enable checking of warnings inside the logs produced by a process Searched keywords or contents are specified in each template e Logs warning Pause job Tells Muster to pause a job if it finds a warning in the log e Logs warning Pause client Tells Muster to pause a client if it finds a warning in the log e Logs warning Add job template to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the job template to the client s exclusions list if it finds a warning in the log e Logs warning Add job to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the job to the client s exclusions list if it finds a warning in the log e Logs warning Requeue chunk Tells Muster to requeue a chunk if an error is found in its log e Logs errors enable check Tells Muster to enable checking of errors inside the logs produced by a process Searched keywords or contents are specified in each template e Logs errors Pause job Tells Muster to pause a job if it finds an error in the log e Logs errors Pause client Tells Muster to pause a client if it finds an error in the log e Logs errors Add job template to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the jo
96. ommand line 95 Maya Renderman 2 0 or greather Maya Rman2 Maya Rman2 Maya scene file fest Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Project directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects enn Start frame m n End frame ro YF By frame 1 0000 Number by OOOO Step by a Digits G Additionalfags 7 00000 a Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Number by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Step by Step for the final frames numbering Digits Number of digits to use for the frame numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 96 Maya Renderman Frame slicing Maya Rman FS Maya Aman Fs iya Test Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Project directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects Frame destination C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects images AddiW onaMags nd Gad Maya scene file Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination The full path where you want to store
97. onalfiags C S Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Digits Number of digits to use for the frame numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 101 Maya Vector Render Maya Vr Maya Vr Maya scene file fest Projects scenes light reflection scene mb mun Project directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects Start frame 1 End frame 100 J By frame p M Number by p Step by 1 Digits n Additional flags 4 Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Number by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Step by Step for the final frames numbering Digits Number of digits to use for the frame numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 102
98. onfiguration will not work for Muster or will work if you copy all your plug ins in the same folder for your entire farm It must be modified in this way assuming that Z is your network folder and that you ve copied your copy of Lightwave in Z RenderFarm Lightwave BEDtIy Class AnimLoaderHandler Name AVI avi 113 Module Z RenderFarm LightWave programs plugins Input OutpubNV V AVI Jp j t EIL Class AnimLoaderHandler Name QuickTime Module Z RenderFarm LightWave programs plugins Input OutpubENNVOTTools p Lt ENGEY Class AnimSaverHandler Name AXStoryboard Module Z RenderFarm LightWave programs plugins Input Output VideoTap p Infolagq 409 4X storyboard j t Ener y Class AnimSaverHandler Name AVI avi Module Z RenderFarm LightWave programs plugins Input OutpubNXVXAVI p Save the file always as Iw3ext cfg and put it in a shared folder i e Z RenderFarm and specify this folder in the Lightwave section of the templates settings on each client 114 Dispatcher service Reference The configuration of the Dispatcher service is done through the Console You can configure the following items functionalities e Dispatcher preferences e Render pools e Unix substitution paths e Muster users database e Muster mailing lists Dispatcher preferences The dispatcher preferences window lets you configure every behaviour of the Dispatcher service Th
99. orted with a summary of the average size in bytes The frame parser can be configured to check only the existence of the files or to check the file size To start the frame check just press the Start frames check button Remember that if you have not specified a frames path and prefix during job submission you may need to specify them in the frames check dialog The prefix of the file must be include the path and any character that precedes the number that identifies the actual frame number For example if your final renders are saved inside the folder Myserver myrenders and have a name similar to this Scenel 0001 tga Scenel 0002 tga Scenel 0003 tga the prefix you ve to supply is Myserver myrenders Scenel_ After running the frames check you can automatically queue the wrong packets pressing the Queue wrong packets button or just queue the list s selection using the Queue selection button If you want to configure the parser select Configure behaviours Frames Check settings Check for frames files sizes O Exact match Range 30000 minimum bytes 50000 maximum bytes OK Cancel 73 The parser can also check the files sizes between a minimum and a maximum value This is particular useful if you are rendering frames in a compressed file format where file sizes can change between each frame If you disable the size parser Muster will check only the frame existence 74 Br
100. ot of the current queue e Quit Exits from the Console application 37 The management menu has the following options HA Configure Dispatcher Ctrl ShiftM 2 Configure Users Ctri Shift U 22 Configure Pools Ctrl Shift o ee Configure Paths Ctri ShifteA Configure Mails Ctri ShifteL r Edit templates Ctrl Shitte T e Configure Dispatcher Opens the Dispatcher configuration dialog that lets you change the Dispatcher server options e Configure Users Opens the Users configuration dialog to manage the Dispatcher server internal users database e Configure Pools Opens the Pools configuration dialog to manage the Pools database e Configure Paths Opens the Substitution paths configuration dialog that lets you change the paths used to apply the substitutions between different hosts and platforms e Configure Mails Opens the mail configuration dialog that lets you define distribution lists to be used with the Dispatcher mailing notification system e Edit templates Opens the templates editing dialog that lets you change and propagate the templates on the fly e Change Engine status Starts and stops the Dispatcher internal engine e Soft restart Dispatcher Perform a soft restart of the Dispatcher service forcing a reload of the configuration and a reconnection with the slaves The action menu has the following options Change password Ctri Shift W v Register hostis Ctrl Shitt H 8 S
101. our job is so slow to render you may hit the global timeout and never get it completed Just tune the global packets timeout in the Dispatcher preferences or override the timeout in the job s properties e Muster complains about a missing executable During the setup phase Muster may fail to detect installed packages you may need to manually configure each client with the correct paths to the render engines e Muster complains about a missing license Certain packages requires at least a batch render license Check that you own such license and you ve configured each node in the way described in the software producer manual 140 System requirements Muster Dispatcher Service version 7 X Windows XP sp 2 SERVER 2003 sp 1 VISTA 7 Mac OS X 10 3 9 or greather Linux Kernel 2 4 or greather 1024 MB RAM 200 Free Mbytes on System Disk TCP IP compatible network card Muster console version 7 X Windows XP SERVER 2003 VISTA 7 Mac OS X 10 3 9 or greather Linux Kernel 2 4 or greather 1024 MB RAM 100 Free Mbytes on System Disk TCP IP compatible network card Muster Render client for Windows version 6 X Windows XP SERVER 2003 VISTA 7 Mac OS X 10 3 9 or greather Linux Kernel 2 4 or greather 1024 MB RAM 100 Free Mbytes on System Disk TCP IP compatible network card System requirements are related to Muster components only The render clients must meet the system requirements published by the producers of the bat
102. owsing the network statistics Each time you open the Console it receives some statistics from the Dispatcher on a regular basis You can access such statistics through the Statistics view menu entry in the View menu Visible time freme Entira cufie Dispatcher status Server nant ime ARJ 1 11 13435 last unnate nan 1411 13 57 Server version 7 00 Builc 5918 Network protoco vers on 700 Clients connections 6 Notficators conrections 1 Management connections 2 Http connections D Hitps connentions n Active htt sessions n N li ivaturs connectors Active web sessions FTTP connections FTTPS conrections You can use the button menu in the upper right corner of the window to export the current data You can then reload the data using the History view explained later 75 Managing the history The history view can be used to retrieve the processi itself store queries and reload saved archives ng and the usage history of the Dispatcher You can access the history browser by selecting History view from the View menu History staile Jebsocs wstory ewadabie trom 26 10 11 10 00 t2 OX 1 11 12 57 lotal turner ot samples 17847 Jobs seztory evullabic roret 28 16 11 1628 w Total umber of hietodzec chunke 2 Julos Mistury Range Tate rana e Fec 2810111008 s OVI 1387 Browserange Cieerrange kirn Mectory Resp ffe iue I 0411 11 13 57 Frr 2810111628 08 1 ITI 1357
103. pabilities and modify your settings and topology to increase performances This section gives some hints that may apply in a common environment Every network environment has its own characteristics that should be analyzed according e Priority 1 Your file repository As explained in the tutorial files that are going to be processed by multiple hosts must have visibility over the network in a common way Building a shared file repository is the first step you ve to take into account There re several ways to accomplish it you can choose either a NAS or a server depending on your budget limits just make sure that you do not impose any concurrent connection limit like it may happens when sharing files on a Windows XP system The Windows XP system isn t designed to act as a file server and the default Microsoft policy is to limit the concurrent connections to a maximum of 5 This is a common pitfall of new users that are not aware of such kind of limit and get back strange results process hangings and similar A good solution could be moving to a Linux system using the Samba service and or install a Windows server operating system with enough client licenses Again this strongly depends on your budget and your existent network topology e Priority 2 Connections to the dispatcher server The Dispatcher service should be considered as something different than the file repository Even the service can be installed on the same machine it performs a dif
104. pt and it s a one shot script You can use an host name inside the destination pool to target the script to a specific host e Script file The script file to be executed This will be executed through CMD exe on Windows and through bin sh from Mac and linux e Script flags Flags to be passed to the script e Additional flags Additional flags to be passed to the script Generic broadcast script Generic broadcast script o amp Additional flags Uni i Every host registered inside Muster will execute the generic broadcast script You can filter the number of hosts involved by specifying a destination pool e Script file The script file to be executed This will be executed through CMD exe on Windows and through bin sh from Mac and linux e Script flags Flags to be passed to the script e Additional flags Additional flags to be passed to the script 84 Newtek Lightwave Lightwave Lightwave scen lya_Test_Projects scenes ight_reflection_scene mb ann Content directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects Sarfame fT End frame Byrame f Lightwave scene file name The job file to render Content directory Full path to the root directory of your project Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence 85 Maxwell Render Maxwell Render Jab file est Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Start rame f
105. r process This is very useful to let Muster co exists within other software that requires full control of the host Keep in mind that rules are always evaluated with other configurations like being available while a user is logged or during the screen saver activity To make a client eligible for being available the entire set of rules must be satisfied 50 Settings for host iMacProWin 192 168 7 53 x Shutdown policies Shutdown action Shutdown I Shutdown disabled with logged users is Logs haan i Behaviours Track remote accesses as local loggings Shutdown the host when idle for O Shutdown the host when paused for s Network Matches shutdown rules with availability We Scheduled shutdown Templates Type From To Start tim Add rule Day range Monday Monday 00 00 es a i Mappings amp Paths by Availability nd enc T e Wakeup OK Cancel The shutdown section let you configure rules to automatically shutdown an host Using the wake up feature you can setup your render farm to shutdown on idle timing and wake up on demand when the full power is required This is a great feature to reduce costs e Shutdown action You can choose if the shutdown action is effectively a full host shutdown a sleep action or a restart This is particular useful on Mac OS X where there s no way to wake up a powered off Mac You can put it into sleep instead
106. r scene you should check carefully that it s linked in a relative way A relative link basically means that the path refers to the file assuming the project path prefix Let s make an example with Maya Open Maya and create a new project called MusterTest For this example we ll assume that the project has been created inside C MayaProjects Create a test texture with your favourite painting software and save it as MusterTexture tga on the root of your C drive Next open Maya and create a NURBS Sphere open the Hypershade and create a basic Phong shader Create a new texture node on the color channel of the shader and select MusterTexture tga on the root of your drive As you can see after selecting the texture Maya store the path to the file as an absolute path This happened because the file is not inside the project structure but lives on an external path If we try to render this scene using Muster the render won t be able to load the texture unless you launch it from the workstation that generated the files and contains the files in their original position You ll end with an incorrect result on the others nodes because they won t be able to load the files from their root drive You can solve the problem copying the textures inside the sourceimages folder of the Maya project or create a dedicated folder that must be inside the project structure like C MayaProjects MusterTest At this time if we delete the file node and create a
107. r to add the job template to the client s exclusions list if it finds an error in the exit code Exit code errors Add job to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the job to the client s exclusions list if it finds an error in the exit code Exit code errors Requeue chunk Tells Muster to requeue a chunk if an error is found in its exit code Logs errors Requeue chunk Tells Muster to requeue a chunk if an error is found in its log 122 The following window shows the processes execution faults and chunks timeout properties Dispatcher Preferences Processes execution faults Chunks timeout faults _ Pause job C Pause job Q Pause client O Pause client Add job template to client s exclusions list O Add job template to client s exclusions list Add job to client s exclusions list C Add job to client s exclusions list Requeue chunk 7 Kill clients rendering the job Gr Actions b Logs and exit codes e Mails and web E Mappings OK Cancel Process execution faults enable check Tells Muster to enable checking of faults during processes executions Process execution faults Pause job Tells Muster to pause a job if it reports a fault during processes executions Process execution faults Pause client Tells Muster to pause a client if it reports a fault during processes executions Process execution faults Add job template to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the job template
108. re 2011 12 38 MedaN usterRender gl Od nevembee 2011 12 38 1 vetera readme rtf 2 novembre 2011 12 38 C rau week 2 madme na novembre 2011 12 38 i All images Lg Conbenti O2 nowernbee 2011 12 38 UB ud oret F bet ote 24 novembre 2010 22 34 ug Real Studio 2011 Release L 1 11 aprile 2011 13 45 M oom BE wailities 19 ottobre 2011 11 06 439 k a l e UO then start the Services application that lets you start and stop the services and install them as persistent system services 19 AAC Muster Services Control Chenrs istening part SUED Management kstering port IGARI Database engine Embedded Sare loca file E DB address 177501 DB ame manier History DB name movies hidory DB Username manier U8 Password 7 Enable memory cache incall Servier J Service status Not running _ View Log tart conhg Start service Renderclient Dispatcher From the Services applet you can even configure some basic parameters before starting the services like the Dispatcher database and the network ports If you re not going to install the Dispatcher just move to the Render client tab AOC Muster Services Control Uispatcher address 177001 Dinpetchws cinis pert 2080 Cirt meraperrers pert S685 instance status Pnonty inszall Service Serve status Not running Vrew Log tatum Mean luca appicaburs Marl Serme Rerichect fert Dispatcher To install th
109. re s no way to query a Windows service status from a Linux or Mac OS X platform 69 The alarms section let you define local alarms thresholds on the hosts O Date alucca sow WO DEG 3 ow cwn The graphs colours section lets you define the maximum amount of statistics hold in memory by the Console and the colours used by the various graphs The skin section let you modify or define new skins to be used by Console The syntax of the skinning language is based on the QT CSS cascading style sheets For further information on how to modify the skins please reefer to the QT4 CSS style documentation available on the QT website at qt nokia com Sb re me epOcc4CI ORC wale erm esos ogee mace Apeccallclaclcios open o adum jt oor aec Duc mete Com If you need to reset the Console preferences or store them for future reference they can be found into the registry for Windows HKEY CURRENT USERWMSoftwareVVirtual Vertex Muster 6 Console and inside your home folder Muster on Linux and Mac OS X 70 The Chunks detail The Chunks detail is a very useful summary window that lets you manage packets called chunks that build a job On multi frame and image slicing jobs each chunk is a logical representation of a processing phase On broadcast jobs each chunk is dedicated to an instance or an host Single host jobs do not have chunks This is a typical view of the chunks detail window Chunks det
110. rectory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination The full path where you want to store the slices and the assembled image Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 99 Maya Turtle v 4 Maya Turtle 4 Maya Turtle 4 est_Projects scenes light_reflection_scene mb amm Project directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects Frame destination Userseo Desktop Maya_Test_Projects images Sarame Qn End rame Bjame f Siep by NEN Addtionalfags E Maya scene file Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Number by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Step by Step for the final frames numbering Digits Number of digits to use for the frame numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 100 Maya Turtle up to v 3 Maya Turtle Maya Turtle Maya scene file est Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Project directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects Frame destination Start frame End frame By frame Digits Aggiti
111. render command line 78 Alias Studio Alias Studio Render Renderer v Job file Maya Test Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Start frame EA Endframe 1007 7 777777 S By frame SSN Numberby T Step by G Digits rc Addiionaflags TTT L Render Specifies the Alias Studio renderer to use Job file The job file to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Number by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Step by Step for the final frames numbering Digits Number of digits to use for the frame numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 79 Cinema 4D C4D Cinema 4D Job file rest Projects scenes light reflection scene mb _ Start frame M d H End frame Iro By frame SR Additional flags GD Job file The job file to render Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 80 Combustion Combustion Combustion job _Test_Projects scen
112. rver e Connection timeout Global timeout for each web server connection e Maximum bandwidth in bytes Maximum bandwidth allocable by the web server for each connection By clicking the Edit templates button you can modify the templates used to generate the mails for each notification Mail templates lt html gt lt head gt lt tithe gt Muster Job completed lt title gt lt head gt Dody table classs job notification gt lt tr gt lt td gt dob SAT TR ob namex SA TTR job_id started on ATTR job_starting_time completed successfully on eATTR ob end adn taz lt i gt lt table gt lt body gt lt niml gt OK 125 The following window shows the drive mappings properties Dspatcher Preferences Windows network drives 7 Eneble avtornatic mapping Automapped drives disconnec ion policy On service shutdown Logs Logs and exit coges Procs faults Add new Edit selectec dq oF petions I z c3 Mails arid web If your Dispatcher is Windows based and you want to statically map some network drives just configure them in this section by using the drive mapping editing window Configure Drive Manping x Drive z x Network path Server01 Data Gig Connection policy Disconnection policy On service shutdown x LOK Cancel You can tell the Dispatcher to mount or unmount the drives at specific times l e by
113. s status later The instances hosts views can be filtered using the combo controls at the top of the view itself You can also customize the columns by right clicking on the view headers If you re working on a custom workspace see the workspaces section each change you make in the view will be stored persistently and left untouched at the next Console startup This allows you to build your very customized workspace with multiple views filtered in different ways Before going further we ll check that the hosts we are going to use have the correct paths configured Just switch to host view mode right click on a node and select Configuration Configure Once you get the configuration window move to the Engines section locate the Maya sw template we are going to use for this test and verify that it s correctly pointing to the Render exe file required to launch Maya batch renders Also check that it points to the correct Maya version the one that you used to produce the scene file and that s enabled with a checkmark near the engine name Click on Ok and your configuration will be stored persistently on the host 32 Seuirgs for nost iMacPrcWir 192 168 7 33 H Behaviours rA Mappings amp Paths Availability e Shutdown G Wzkeup Templates local variables P BIRM AE Max 2010 5 B5 Max 94 Fs b Are Effects P Alas Studio Chema 4D d b Combustion b amp Digital Fusion b E Digital Fusion 5 1 P E Gelato M
114. scene file n iya Test Projects scenes light reflection scene mb nm C Users leo Desktop Maya_Test_Projects images m Agaitional fags a Output folder XSI scene file name The job file to render Output folder The full path where you want to store the slices and the assembled image Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 112 Managing Lightwave jobs If you re going to render with Lightwave some additional setup is required To find the plug ins referenced by a job you ve to create a custom Iw3ext cfg file where plug ins entries are located on a shared drive You can find this file in the root folder of your user account In this way every slave will find the plug ins and you ve also the ability to start the Iwsn exe from a remote drive without installing Lightwave on the farm This is a sample lw3ext cfg file Bnutry Class AnimLoaderHandler Name AVI avi Module c NNLightWaveNNprogramsNNpluginsNNInput OutputNNAVI p j Entry Class AnimLoaderHandler Name QuickTime Module c NNLightWaveNNprogramsNNpluginsNNInput OutputNNQTTools p j i EDCEIYy Class AnimSaverHandler Name 4XStoryboard Module c NNLightWaveNNprogramsNNpluginsNNInput Output VideoTap p InfoTag 409 4X Storyboard Entry Class AnimSaverHandler Name AVI avi Module c LightWave programs plugins Input Output AVI p This c
115. scripts will work in a different distribution Setting files permissions Do you want to install and configure init d startup scripts for the installed Muster daemons yes Copying scripts fedora muster6d to etc init d muster6d Enabling runlevels Copying scripts fedora muster6rcd to etc init d muster6rcd Enabling runlevels Installation completed You can start Muster with usr local muster6 dispatcher usrJ local mustero rc or invoking the mustered and musterorcd init d scripts Muster Console GUI can be started with usr local mustero xConsole and the Services applet with usr local muster6 xServiceControl Depending on the script availability and your choice you may end with automatically started services or you may need to start them from the command line Just follow the paths and hints that the installer will provide at the end of the installation process 22 Cross platform setup scenario This section explains the steps required to setup a full cross platform environment The following picture shows the setup of our fake render farm remember to swap the names of the shares with the ones matching your environment Client host running Muster Console Client host running Muster Console Client host running Muster Console on Windows on Mac on Linux Dispatcher server and file server Running on Windows The server exports a share using the Windows filesystem under SERVERO 1 Data fo oO E
116. se Login password The password to access the database Database name The name of the Muster database History database name The name of the Muster history database Enable in process cache Enable the in memory caching of the database data improving performances but increasing memory usage Build jobs status array Builds an array of statuses for each job to display the status of each chunk in the progress bar Submit jobs in paused status New jobs are submitted paused Flag completed jobs as archived If active jobs are automatically flagged as archived at the end of the render Flag jobs as archived after Specifies an interval for the automatic archive feature Prefilter parent pool If activated a folder that specifies a destination pool will filter the hosts available to childs jobs regardless of the settings of the pool of the childs jobs that may apply an additional filter Notifications Defines which kind of notification you want to be sent to Notificators 118 The following window shows the logs properties Ugiogzidecatche actons Pick rn 1er e Severity level Specifies the severity level for the activity logs e Destination folder Specifies a destination path for the logs e Clear logs older than Tells the Dispatcher to automatically clear the logs after a certain amount of days e Clear older logs when the size exceeds Tells the Dispatcher to automatically clear the logs when their cumulativ
117. seen sane E Shwe Seating pain n mhers tty ramas E Paint Cenaliad ph yess arrays LJ Calculate prageozses Iur vior 4 Ask contematon on uzae operaburs E Show werk on PEANAS AR popu E Show notas on joe ar nonuns A Qucuc mieractve goarct Hass wanes Judicis click BLOF unge salus Jods views Goudic click acon Chunks acta Crna Views iihia nio armen Onan nores ing e Check for updates on startup Tells the Console application to connect to the Virtual Vertex site checking for updates each time you start it e Automatically check services status on startup When active the Console will attempt to query the service status of any host available in the hosts views This may be network and resource consuming so depending on the size of your farm you may need to disable this and check the services statuses manually when required e Management port This configures the management port used to connect to the Dispatcher service e Keep management connections always active When you configure a client a direct connection is established to get its properties and to send the configuration back If you check this option the connection is persistent e Listen on broadcast from clients to grab Cpu and Ram usage If status broadcast is enabled ona render client console checks for this traffic and updates the usage counters according e Show floating point numbers for frames If you re going to work with floating point frames numbers you m
118. shows the ending time for a completed chunk e Time span This field shows the effective amount of time taken by a completed chunk for its processing e Rendered by This field shows the name of the instance that has rendered the chunk If chunks are flagged as completed by an user the field shows Forced by console e Results If a packet completed with some kind of error it will be reported inside this field otherwise the field will stay blank 71 To manage chunks right click on them and you ll get the following pop up menu Hequeue chunk CTRL R Open chunk s log CTRL L Open chunk s log in external viewer CTAL E Operations permitted by this menu are simply the requeuing of a completed chunk or the setting of the chunk in a completed status When forcing a chunk to a different status render clients that are currently rendering the chunk may receive an abort message If you select the Open chunk s log item the logs of the hosts that processed the chunk is opened and the related file selected automatically A special type of chunk is the Image assembler one This is a chunk that s always found at the end of a single frame job It s included inside the chunk view only for consistency but actually rendered by the Dispatcher service when the previous packets have been completed Its purpose is to assemble slices created by the instances The chunks view reports just the chunks of the current job status if you want to compare th
119. ssword in this field and future connections will ask it to the users Broadcast presence If you want the client to be auto discoverable by the Dispatcher on the network flag this option After you successfully configure your render farm you should disable this option to avoid packet storming on your network 48 You can also specify a different username and password pair to be used when launching external processes Unless you ve a particular reason you should leave those fields blank and relay on the configuration of the Services on Windows and the startup scripts on Unix Settings for host iMacProWin 192 168 7 53 x tty Templates local variables Wil Behaviours 3DS Max Z 3DS Max 2010 7 3DS Max 2010 Fs 3DS Max 94 Fs 7 After Effects Alias Studio Cinema 4D Combustion Digital Fusion Digital Fusion 5 14 Gelato Multifile Generic broadcast script 7 Generic script Ez Lightwave Ez Lightwave fs 7 Maxwell Render Mappings amp Paths 7 Maya 3Delight d 7 Maya Cloth E7 Maya Gelato 7 Maya Hw by Availability gt Maya Layer Maya Mr S Z Maya Mr Fs Maya Rman Maya Rman Fs 7 Maya Rman2 b V Maya Sw Maya Sw Fs T Maya Turtle e Wakeup Eg Mey 4 A Shutdown The Engines section of the client configuration dialog let you configure variables required by each batch render template The values are template specific but there s always a variable pointing to the ba
120. starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Number by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Step by Step for the final frames numbering Digits Number of digits to use for the frame numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 90 Maya Layer Maya Layer est Projects scenes light reflection scene mb CJUsers Aeo Desktop Maya Test Projects Lr nx Arrn T m Fg I um Iw rio eto fee oo a cs Ine euet tmmrl aua metr Lrrnmimnmntrelhmunegst J acl aJ Ey LC PY PEELV CL pL L e Maya scene file Project directory Sanfame a End frame 1100 By frame C Number by Step by 1 Addiionaltags C GD Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Number by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Step by Step for the final frames numbering Digits Number of digits to use for the frame numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 91 MayaMan MayaMan Maya scene file est Projects scenes
121. stop with a file read error This may also happen when your file repository has not enough client access licenses i e Windows XP with more than 5 hosts e Objects are black and or textures are missing You ve linked your textures in a relative way on your local host The slaves on the network don t have the same texture on their locate drive and are not able to read the data Move your textures on the network and or re link them on the shader e Red dot under J or T column The job failed When it encounters a critical error Muster prevents further processing and puts the job in the client exclusion list job based or template based depending on the error The behavior is normal and avoids an endless loop in the farm You can fine tune the sensitivity of the system in the Dispatcher preferences l e a warning in the log may be normal and you may not want to lock the render for a warning so just disable it in the Dispatcher preferences e Jobs are not starting Your Dispatcher selection engine may be stopped Check that the blue bar is moving Check also that the engine you re using is actually supported by the idle hosts right click and selected supported templates that you re not targeting a pool with busy hosts and that you ve not configured limits on the users preferences templates and pools limits e Jobs are never completed chunks are always re queued after a certain amount of time Muster has a global timeout value for the chunks If y
122. t you add or remove an host on the fly from a specific pool as well as inspecting configurations copy configurations and create configuration presets You can create several presets for each platform and manage them using the configuration presets dialog 45 Configuring the hosts Accessing the configuration menu clicking on Configuration gt Configure the Console attempts a direct connection to the host to configure its behaviours Once a successfully connection is made you ll be prompted with the configuration dialog as follows Settings or hos iMacFroWin 192 163 7 53 Instances processes pricrities and overrides Number of insances l6 Default instances priority 1 Instance number Friorty Process Priorty Afiniy mas C agg xj General behaviours Processes stert timeout 0 Defeult child process priority Normal m Templates Stat instances in paused status Suppress logs storage and parsing O Terninate processes trees Change priority on processes trees Abort tasks on connection drop Mappings amp Paths by Availabilty T i Shutdown a s Wakeup UK Cancel 5 j e Number of instances Number of instances to spawn on service boot e Default instances priority The priority of the instances by default Nodes with an higher priority will be allocated first You can override the priority on an instance basis using panel below e Overrides window You can create se
123. tch render executable You can change this value to use different versions of your software and you can check uncheck the checkbox near the template name to enable or disable the support of that particular engine Settings for host iMacProWin 192 168 7 53 x RC i Substitutions paths M Behaviours BI Logs Fe Network Windows network drives Enable automatic mapping Templates Automapped drives disconnection policy On service shutdown v Drive Network path Connection policy Disconnection policy Z Server01 Proj On service sta On service shutdown Availability Shutdown Wakeup This Window let you specify one or more substitution paths to be used when dealing with the client If you re configuring a Windows client you can setup static drive mappings too Having a drive mapped in your interface does not propagate the setting to Muster As specified in the 49 beginning Muster lives in its own user address space That means you ve to tell it the drives to map By changing the way the client maps the drives let you keep under control the amount of connections to your file server limiting the amount of client licenses required You can also activate the automatic drive mapping for Windows that embeds and automap a network share within each job Drive mappings information is embedded in the jobs only when submitting them from a Windows workstation and picking up the fi
124. telling the Dispatcher to unmount the drives after the job completion you can keep under control the total amount of connection to your file server and limiting the client licenses required 126 Render pools TaZ 60 0 1 1 132 168 0 4 12 6A0 4 132 680 4 132 168 7 53 132 165 7 5 182 1687 5 132 1685 122 16A 7 5 132 168 74 B A Render pool is a logical group of instances By defining render pools you can tell Muster to use a specific subset of instances hosts to render a particular job limit the usage of the resources for a particular user and wake up some instances when they are effectively required by configuring the wake up on Lan feature You can use the Dispatcher Pools dialog to create new pool duplicate them and assign available instances to existing pools The list on the right shows you the available instances As soon as you click on a pool in the left view the instances still not part of that pool will be shown and you ll be able to assign them using the left arrow button If you want to remove an instance from a pool just click on it and click the right arrow button This will remove the instance and put it back in the availability list You can configure pools on the fly while the Dispatcher engine is active Existing jobs will automatically inherit the new settings C kiz kard prierity Hearts leves pnonty Autopuul retmesk Aupa Pcemame greta Pools can also have special features lik
125. ters the contents by showing only jobs for certain templates e Status Filter the contents by showing only jobs with a certain status e User Filter the contents by showing jobs belonging to a certain user At the end of the filter bar there are two buttons The first one lets you create a new folder while the second one lets you filter the contents of the view by searching a particular string in the jobs names 55 Settings of the filtering bar will be stored persistently if you re working on a custom workspace If you re working on the default the settings will be reset on the next session Check the workspaces section to learn more Remember to disable the network flow on views you re not interested it This will reduce the amount of traffic between Console and the Dispatcher 56 Managing the jobs By right clicking on a job in the queue view or making a multiple selection you get a popup menu that lets you take control of one or multiple jobs Mere verd x CT e g eni CTM 2Z Now s wor Onan msme ritur CT 0 Chan tex hedei CT wc Mons Trane chc CIILA Rarara CTRI 5 fer prejars CT A Set spart nent CTT D wet prior CIIL Simuunun panoe CIHL W Set dependencies D CIHL E Change depend mode afr pons CTRI er aac bane px SE Caner Sel poke CTML This is a brief explanation of each option e Expand all Expands the entire queue tree e Collapse all Collapses the entire queue tree e Expand bra
126. the slices and the assembled image Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 97 Maya Software Render Maya Sw Maya Sw Maya scene file est Projects scenes light reflection scene mb nm Project directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects Frame destination Users leo Desktop Maya_Test_Projects images i Sanfame 0000 End tame ame Numberby Step by EE Digi RH Addtionalfegs Gp Maya scene file name The job file to render Project directory Full path to the root directory of your project Frame destination Overrides the destination for the rendered images Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame By frame Frames step in the final sequence Number by Specifies the number to use to start numbering the frames sequence Step by Step for the final frames numbering Digits Number of digits to use for the frame numbering Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 98 Maya Software Render image slicing Maya Sw Fs Maya Sw Fs iya Test Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Project directory C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects anal Frame destination C Users leo Desktop Maya Test Projects images Addiionaltags T7777 Ga Maya scene file Maya scene file name The job file to render Project di
127. ting dmg compressed image Once you double click the dmg image the following window will appear ALENS ASLEGX If you re not going to upgrade your existing installation the only required step to install Muster n the MAC OS X platform is dragging the Muster folder inside your Application folder If you re going to upgrade an existing installation please be sure that your existing services are stopped through the Services applet Once you copy the Muster folder inside the Application folder locate it using the Finder DEVICES Name Dare Modified Ei ux DM Adobe Premiere Pro C33 Od agedte ZULI Linde a Mcinteu OC2 D Adobe Soundbooth C55 31 onobre 2010 00 10 b Dg AjA Adobe Lriliries 21 febbraio 2011 18 41 es 3 AJA Utilities 14 germaio 2011 00 00 SHARED D Akamai Today 12 38 ECFA TAT 9 Autodesk 03 agosto Z011 15 08 IS CiccioN as L3 Stender Q3 ottobre 2011 14 97 BE Ciccinkas Time Machine E Final Cur Fra Additonal Easy Setups 13 maggio 2009 15 14 BR NASUAFPS D Work oe 21 luglio 2011 12 08 B NASSamba P fd MUAMP 04 agosto 2011 10 59 L2 MAMP PRO 2 0 1 03 agosto 2011 16 44 debts b 9 Matrox Codec Utilities 03 dicembre 2010 16 18 12 Dropia fg Microsoft Office 2011 02 novembre 2011 12 12 Ed cen Um O2 nevernbre 2011 12 38 oh tea Console 02 novembre 2011 12 38 P Monificamor O02 novembre 2011 12 38 k Dxxcumentt Benites 2 novernbre 2011 12 38 SEARCH FOR Gulati 2 nowemb
128. to the client s exclusions list if it reports a fault during processes executions Process execution faults Add job to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the job to the client s exclusions list if it reports a fault during processes executions Process execution faults Requeue chunk Tells Muster to requeue a chunk if it reports a fault during processes executions Chunks timeout faults enable check Tells Muster to enable checking of timeouts of chunks Chunks timeout faults Pause client Tells Muster to pause a client if a chunk expires Chunks timeout faults Add job template to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the job template to the client s exclusions list if a chunk expires 123 e Chunks timeout faults Add job to client s exclusions list Tells Muster to add the job to the client s exclusions list if a chunk expires e Chunks timeout faults Kill clients rendering the job Tells Muster to kill any rendering activity if a chunk expires The following window shows the mailing and the web server properties Dispatcher Preferences I 2 Mail notifications settings M Queue Dra SMTP server 127 0 0 1 O SMTP server requires authentication Account s Logs Send to default Mailing benaviours Gr Actions Job completion Edittemplates Chunk completion O Send the log on e mail at b Logs and exit coces es Internal web server
129. to the kind of the event A The log entry is an error This may come from an instance activity or a dispatcher notice o The log entry is a successfully event This may come from an instance activity or a dispatcher notice ps The event comes from an user action i2 The event comes from a system action Dispatcher If you want to filter the view contents you can use the options on the filtering bar Network flow Enabled w Source Notfiltered Clearlog Exportlog w E e Network flow Enable or disable the data flow to the view If you disable the network flow each host view will be disabled and you ll reduce the amount of network traffic between the Dispatcher and the Console You should always disable a certain view network flow if you don t need windows to be constantly updated e Source Filters the contents showing logs entries originating from a certain entity You can clear the current log content by clicking the Clear log button If you clear the log it will be done on the Dispatcher side meaning that each Console will get its log cleared 59 The submission view The Submission view allow you to check and edit existing jobs properties and submit new jobs The job properties list is dynamic and changes according to the selected job and its properties template At the top of the view a combo box lets you choose which view automatically fills the list with the selection The buttons at bottom of the view
130. tter if you have a longer or shorter path just put the path prefix to be exchanged and Muster will do the work You can also configure a path exchange exclusively for one host think about an host mounting the shares in a different way or on a different drive or for one particular user think about a user connecting from home with a total different mounting scheme Even paths substitution may be case insensitive depending on the settings in the Dispatcher preferences always be sure to specify the paths with their correct case Linux and Mac OS X are sensitive to cases so even the exchange of the path may happen correctly you may still encounter issues if the case doesn t match the target file system 128 Users management Muster has its own users database The following window is used to manage trusted users Lispatcner users a 4 lollo _ Add user OK Cancel Once you add an user or you want to configure a new one click on the Rights button This is the user rights configuration window m Varr A ALSO Mane Owe joins 3 CI znapie home Tode Nena irn nein w mart D b i Change jotz pnertcs TAG Can pre Alowcd temolases Uoiote D gt Golcaging to cthorc ei rini nmm ers LIILID ist WEIT poe oelongng to others Cim is meyur cmt bv own pes nes N8 836 n3de 038 1 Hezi perat View enanarrinns clacton Wineiews C mevai e User rights This list d
131. ultifile b Generic b oadcast script b E Genere script b Lightwave b E Uonwavets d z Maxwell Render b E Maya 3Ddight b E Maya Rman b E Maya Aman Fs d z Maya Rmana b Maya Sw b amp Maya Sw Fs b amp MayaTurte As said before this configuration will apply to any instance belonging to the host and does not require a restart of the service Your changes will be available immediately The next view the one shown in the central pane contains the dispatcher job queue and it s called Queue view Jobs can be organized inside folders so it s possible to have collapsed or expanded nodes The icon on the left of the node shows the status of the node itself and in case of a folder the overall status of the childs This is a typical queue view Queue view Network flow Enabled _ v Engine Notfitered Status _Notfiltered Pool Entire Farm User Not fiterea oY xXx 1 3 OQ 0 1Y 12R6G0 Bo Mo Panes fined popes ete eC ee D THe shot cartellone 7 shot cartellone 7 shot cartellone 7 shot cartellone X sho 4 portaleNo X shot4 portaleNo X shot4_portaleNo X shot4_portaleNo amp shot4 portaleNo X sho 4 portaleNo T Priority Working nodes Jestination pools Excluded pool s O 0 Derived from p O 0 Derived from p O 0 Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p Derived from p
132. use or resume at a certain time ID The ID is an internal progressive number assigned to each job by the dispatcher You should take care about this number when setting job s dependencies Project Specify a custom string related to the job project Department Specify a custom string related to the job department Priority This is the priority for each job The priority decides where a job is located inside the queue Destination Pools This field shows the destination pool sfor the job Excluded Pools This field shows the excluded pools for the job Requeued At the end of each job Muster can optionally check for missing frames In case of a failure one of more fractions of the job may be requeued The requeued jobs will increase this counter You can limit how many times a job or its fractions are requeued to avoid infinite loops for a faulty job Engine This field shows the targeted engine for the relative job Started on For a started job this field shows the exact time when the job has started 54 e Progress For an in progress job the field shows in percentage the overall progress of the job The progress does not include the in rendering packets but it s computed only on completed packets Depending on your settings the progress bar may show the status for each chunk in a visual way e Completed on For a completed job this field shows the exact time when the job has been completed In case of an in progress job the field
133. ve You can check the full scan checkbox to scan inside any local drive If so the scan may take a longer time You can alternatively push the Skip button to skip the automatic configuration and configure the cient later using the management console Perform a full scan on any local drive InstallShield If you choose to install the renderclient service you can tell the installer to look for known applications in your local file system and registry Remember that this process may require a certain amount of time and will scan in know locations on your system drive or your entire file system or your entire file system if you choose perform a full scan on any local drive You can always skip this step and configure the paths to the render engines later through the Console Pressing the next button the installer will start the installation process It will copy the files in your file system starts the services if required and then completes If you did not configure a user for the services read carefully the next section about services users rights 15 Defining Windows Services user rights on your network A key concept of Muster is the understanding of how it works on the network and the steps you ve to perform to avoid common pitfalls related to network access from the services When you work on a shared folder the process that requests a file must supply valid credentials to the file server Credentials means
134. veral overrides on an instance basis as well as setting a specific process affinity mask for each instance e Default child process priority This defines the system default scheduling policy for each process spawned by the client Values map to OS specific values e Process start timeout This defines a timeout value while Muster tries to catch the rendering process PID If the timeout expires the process is terminated and the chunk requeued and or reported as failed e Start instances in paused status This starts the client in a paused status Keep in mind that you should keep this feature disabled if you re going for a fault tolerance automated render farm Having this option enabled will prevent client activity after a forced reboot until an administrator resumes it 46 e Terminate processes tree When the client tries to terminate a running process the kill command is sent to the entire process tree if available e Change priority on processes tree When the client tries to change the process priority the command is sent to the entire process tree if available e Abort tasks on connection drop Tells Muster to abort any running process if the socket TCP IP connection between the client and the Dispatcher drops e Suppress logs storage and parsing If you want to skip the error processing and the log parsing enable this function This should be used for debug purposes only Settings for host iMacProWin 192 168 7 53 x s
135. w jobs inspect parameters related to jobs inside the queue load and save presets The Submission view is a dynamic property sheet It will change contents depending on the currently selected render engine Subissi pans A Lowe aortun irom wow fieoDedesp Vaya Test Projecescencalliaht refiection scene mb e Cuo eo Maya Tesi Praecs um You can configure the submission panel to automatically load the jobs selected in a particular queue view Just enable the Load selection from view option at the top of the submission dialog To explain its functionalities we will submit our first job Before doing that we have to check that the internal Dispatcher engine is running The Dispatcher engine is the abstract object made by its internal functionalities By stopping the Dispatcher engine you stop any kind of future activity on the Dispatcher It won t stop any 34 render in progress but will prevent the submission of new ones Stopping the Dispatcher may be useful in those situations where you need to configure something on the Dispatcher itself and you don t want any activity until you complete the configuration You can immediately check the activity of the Dispatcher by looking at the lower right corner of the Console If you see a blue moving bar the Dispatcher is active If not just start it by pressing the F10 key or selecting the Change Engine Status menu entry in the Management menu Now check that our i
136. where you can configure the service properties and the service log on properties EEE Eee Muster Dispatchzr Service 7 Propert es Loccl Computer Ss Mustzr Dissatcher Service Properties Local Computer Gereral Loz On Nscovery Dspendencie General Log On Necovery Depencenzies Service nane Muster Dispa char 7 Leg on as Display name Muster Dispatsher Service 7 Local Sustem account Alow scrvizc to interact wth desktop Desc iption Musler com Serer Seivire This account vertes comadmir Biuwse Path o exesutabls Passau d 9999040409409999 C STrocran F lessvy rtual Yertex uste dispalcher exe s Confirm password 9 9999494949999 Startup type Automatic Help me confiqure user account oq on options Help ue vurificure service slailup upliu is Service stalus S artsd Stor Y cu can spacily the stait parame ers that apply when vou stert the service from here LL 3K j 2anesd prb OK Cancel j Apply During the setup process Muster installer will prompt for the username and password used to install the services or alternatively you can select to use the local system account Even this account will let you to start the services it won t give any rights to the services to access the external network That s why you may need to manually create a dedicated account There are two scenarios creating the user on a Windows Domain or creating it on a Windows
137. will wait until it completes before being eligible for processing Change depend mode Change the result mode required by the dependancies Set pool s Change the destination pools of the job Set excluded pool s Change the excluded pools of the job Set owner Change the job owner Set notes Set the custom notes on the job Overrides Let you change the jobs behaviours overrides Set template Change the job current template Inspect drive mappings Let you check if available the drive mappings embedded in the job Lock Locks the job Any operation is forbidden until the job is unlocked Unlock Unlocks a locked job Delete Removes the job from the queue Delete requeued jobs Removes the jobs requeued from the selected one Send job to Send job properties to one of the available submission views of your workspace 58 The log view Logs view BX Network flow Enabled w Source Not filtered Clearlog Exportiog w 1 Event Time Source IP Source Hostname User Event 08 11 11 16 06 127 0 0 1 iMacProWin Service Dispatcher engine initialized successfully 07 11 11 12 22 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Frame check on job shot1_cartelloneMakingOf gligliato 52 started 07 11 11 12 22 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Processing of job shot cartelloneMakingOf gligliato completed 07 11 11 12 22 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 1 belonging to job shot cartelleneMakingOf gligliato 52 successfully processed by host render2
138. x to continue if it encounters an error during the batch render Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 3D Studio Max Frame slicing 3DS Max 9 Fs 3DS Max 9 Fs 3DS Max 2010 Fs 3DS Max scene aya _Test_Projects scenesilight_reflection_scene mb 3DSMaxscene ya Test Projects scenes fight reflection scene mb _ came destinati Project directory mm OD ary con Additional flags TTT Gas aroas ES 3DS Max Scene The job file to render Frame destination The full path where you want to store the slices and the assembled image Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch render command line 77 After Effects After Effects After effect job file est Projects scenes light reflection scene mb Compostion na T DL Santame 00 End frame 100 Additional flags Eon After effect job file The job file to render Composition name Specifies the composition to render Render settings template If you want to override the render settings template write the name of the template to be used Output module template If you want to override the output module settings write the name of the module to be used Start frame The final sequence starting frame End frame The final sequence ending frame Additional flags This field can be filled with additional flags to pass to the batch
139. youar 07 11 11 12 22 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 2 belonging to job shot1 cartelloneMakingOf gligliato 52 successfully processed by host render 1 youar 07 11 11 12 20 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 3 belonging to job shot cartelleneMakingOf gligliato 52 successfully processed by host render3 youar 07 11 11 12 19 192 168 0 11 MAYA1 michele Removed job s ID 51 07 11 11 12 19 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 1 belonging to job shot1_cartelloneMakingOf gligliato 52 assigned to host render2 youare net 07 11 11 12 19 192 168 0 11 MAYA1 michele new job shot1_carelloneMakingOf gligliato 52 submitted 07 11 11 12 19 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 3 belonging to job shot cartelleneMakingOf gligliato 52 assigned to host render3 youare net 07 11 11 12 19 127 0 0 1 musterserver Service Chunk 2 belonging to job shot1 cartelloeneMakingOf gligliato 52 assigned to host render youare net amp amp fa amp amp The log pane is the most important Muster window Messages reported by render clients or status error messages reported by the Dispatcher are displayed here You should pay attention to its output to be able to track error and or render failures The log shows the time the event has occurred the text of the event the user that thrown that event Service refers to Dispatcher Service the machine originating the event and its relative IP The lines have different colours according

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