[Orange-tech] Re: XSeed Cluster for Blender project

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi Mark,

Toni has a week off, so I'll take over a bit... :)

I'm now working on final planning, worksheets, etc. A lot of  
preparations are still being done, modeling and animation techniques  
especially. Next week we'd like to start with rendering tests.

This is the method I like to propose we proceed.

1) ssh account
We need an account to login to a master server, where we can  
upload/download and start render commands. It can be any system, we  
don't need direct access to xseed slaves I guess.

2) database sync
We will prepare a main directory (with subdirs) where all (.blend and  
texture) files reside for final rendering. This data should become  
synced regularly (overnights?).
Our files will use relative paths, so should work on any system.  
However... how does it work for the xseed slaves? Is there a common  
path with NFS or so? (Probably a detail for Toni to sort out next week)

3) final renders sync
Output of the render slaves should go to a common place too, in a  
similar directory structure as the to be rendered .blend files. Same  
issue here, can the render slaves write to a common disk?
We'll have to experiment with download times for final images. :) The  
total amount of images can easily go into a TeraByte, hope there's room  
for it.

4) Blender binaries
The slaves should also use a Blender version we've installed (=  
uploaded & unpacked) ourselves; development here goes continuously.  
Again that means it might work best if each slave can get the binary  
from a central location.

5) DrQueue
Installation of this software should be done by you (your team). I'm  
not familiar with it, but I know Toni already set it up locally, so he  
can provide feedback.

Thanks!

-Ton-


On 21 Nov, 2005, at 20:14, Prof. Mark Alan Matties wrote:

> Hi Toni,
>
> I'm working on getting the latest (cvs) version running here. Running  
> Subversion here is a good idea - I'll try to get it going  as soon as  
> I can.
>
> Regards,
> Mark
>
> Toni Alatalo wrote:
>
>> On Wednesday 16 November 2005 16:20, Ton Roosendaal wrote:
>>
>>> would really appreciate if your team can start the initial  
>>> discussions
>>> with Toni for how we can setup the farm and do first tests.
>>>
>>
>> yep we have a hair animation test now that would need to render on a  
>> capable system.
>>
>> to do this we need to have the current Blender cvs version working  
>> there - if you provide instructions & give the needed account info  
>> etc. we can set that up.
>>
>> this first test is with a small single .blend file -- later we must  
>> figure out a good way to do the data synching there. we are using a  
>> local Subversion repository here, and one option is to try to get it  
>> synched for there too. that way with the actual files only changes  
>> need to be updated, when we tweak the final sources based on the  
>> tests that get back.
>>
>> we have DrQueue working locally here for previews now, don't know if  
>> you are using it or just the XGrid tools.
>>
>> ~Toni
>>
>>
>>> On 16 Nov, 2005, at 15:44, Dr. Mark Matties wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Ton,
>>>>
>>>> Sorry for the email issues. Please continue to send to
>>>> mmatties at cs.bowiestate.edu and cc to mamtties at fullyconnected.net.
>>>>
>>>> Regards.
>>>>
>>>> Ton Roosendaal wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Mark, Daryl,
>>>>>
>>>>> Sorry for spamming so many email addresses, but the address
>>>>> mmatties at cs.bowiestate.edu doesn't give us replies... I hope all is
>>>>> OK  there? Do we need another mail address to contact about the
>>>>> render farm  issues?
>>>>>
>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>>
>>>>> -Ton-
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>>>> ---
>>>>> -- --
>>>>> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org
>>>>> http://www.blender.org
>>>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>> ---
>>> --
>>> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org
>>> http://www.blender.org
>>>
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>>
>>
>
>
> -- 
>
>
> Mark Alan Matties, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor of Computer Science
> Director - BSU Xseed Supercomputer
> Program Coordinator - B.S. in Computer Technology
>
> mmatties at cs.bowiestate.edu
> (301) 860 3974 (vox)
> (301) 860 3979 (fax)
>
> Snail Mail:
> Bowie State University
> Dept. of Computer Science
> 14000 Jericho Park Rd.
> Bowie, MD    20715
> Fall 2005 Office Hours:
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>
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------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org  
http://www.blender.org