Renderfarm OS 2005-05-12 - By Gene Crucean
Back
Cool... I thought you were going the "dd" route, but then you threw a
partimaged curve ball. :)
Thanks for that little tut Andy.
On 5/10/05, Andy Jones <andy@(protected)> wrote:
> Hi Jordi,
>
> Our farm is Windows 2000 on BatchServe.
>
> That said, I'd go Linux. No question. If what you're saying about
> being comfortable with batch rendering is true, you can probably get
> away with that for now if you have to, and with Linux, it's a lot easier
> to automate. Don't install Windows for the purpose of using
> BatchServe. Even if BatchServe were great render queueing software,
> you'd still be better off on Linux. The only reason I can think of not
> to use Linux is if you absolutely need some sort of shader that you only
> have compiled on Windows and you don't have access to the source. For
> free open source render management, check out DrQueue. I don't know of
> anyone who has used it yet. I'm still hoping someone will give it a try
> and tell me about it (anyone?). If you're on a production deadline and
> don't have time to experiment, maybe go with one of the other options --
> Royal Render, Rush, etc.
>
> For distributions, I can't speak from personal experience with XSI on
> Linux, but Gentoo is likely to give you the fastest possible system.
> Since you're installing on 10 machines, maybe it's worth the
> semi-fictional "extra trouble." Just make sure there aren't any
> proprietary drivers you need that will only install on particular distros.
>
> If you do choose to go with windows, google "psexec". It's a program
> that runs applications remotely, and can make your life easier if you're
> comfortable putting together some scripts.
>
> Here's something else that might be useful for you (one of many ways to
> do this):
>
> Procedure for imaging hard disk partitions:
> Install software on one system.
> Download and burn 2 Knoppix Live CDs.
> Boot the machine you installed with Knoppix (call this "source")
> Boot another machine with Knoppix (call this "server")
>
> On server:
> Become root
> > su
> Create a password for the user "partimag"
> > passwd partimag
> Partition the hard disk if necessary, with a Linux partition.
> > cfdisk /dev/sda
> Create a filesystem:
> > mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sda1
> Create a mount-point:
> > mkdir /mnt/sda1
> Mount the filesystem:
> > mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
> Run the following:
> > partimaged --daemon --port 4025 --dest /mnt/sda1
>
> You should now have a disk image server running on server. Make
> sure you know the ipaddress of server (ifconfig eth0).
>
> On source:
> Become root
> > su
> Run imaging program
> > partimage
> Choose the partition you want to image, give it a filename, select
> "Save partition into a new image file", enable "Connect to server",
> input the IP address of server, hit next.
> Log in as user=partimag, password=<whatever password you chose>
> Follow the rest of the instructions. If you get confused, man
> partimage.
>
> Once you have an image file on the server, shutdown the source, and use
> that cd to boot another computer (destination).
>
> On destination:
> Become root
> > su
> Run cfdisk and partition your hard drive.
> > cfdisk /dev/sda1
> Run the imaging program
> > partimage
> Do the same thing you did above, but choose "restore partition from
> an image file". Be sure to enter the same filename you used above.
> Log in as before.
> Once the partition is imaged, you should also restore the MBR.
> Follow the same options as before, but choose "restore an mbr from the
> imagefile".
>
> Hopefully I got all this right, and it's useful... Note, if you're
> copying NTFS partitions, Linux's NTFS support is experimental, so don't
> use this for transferring mission-critical data. Also, note that you
> can restore partitions to multiple machines at the same time. And for
> faster transfers, disable the SSL encryption option.
>
> -Andy
>
> Jordi Bares wrote:
>
> >we are using Fedora Core 2 for our renderfarm and workstations and works
> >really well.. some of the stats show the up and running time and tends
> >to be many many days without any performance degratation nor crashes.
> >
> >jb
> >
> >On Tue, 2005-05-10 at 09:41, tony@(protected) wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Hi all,
> >>
> >>I'm about to take delivery of a mini renderfarm (10 dual cpu ibms in a small
> >>rack enclosure), but was wondering what the best OS for it should be. I'm
> >>currently using xsi on winxp, so should I stick with that? How about linux?
And
> >>is there a particular flavour of linux i should use? I have limited unix
skills,
> >>but am sure i'm up to setting up a linux server.
> >>
> >>Also, I don't have batchserve. Up until now i've simply been using xsibatch
> >>command line rendering to set off distributed rendering. I'm comfortable
with
> >>it and find it adequate for my needs, but should I consider investing in
> >>batchserve or some sort of render management software now that i have this
> >>mini-farm.
> >>
> >>cheers
> >>Tony.
> >>
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