Renderfarm OS 2005-05-13 - By Andy Jones
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Partimage actually has that functionality built in. You can choose no
compression, gz or bz2. I usually just use gz.
-Andy
Alan Jones wrote:
>You could also pipe this into tar and .tgz it on the fly if you really
>want to save space (at the cost of speed of course).
>
>Cheers,
>
>Alan.
>
>On 5/13/05, Andy Jones <andy@(protected)> wrote:
>
>
>>Yeah, you get much smaller images this way without having to zero out
>>all the empty blocks.
>>
>>-Andy
>>
>>Gene Crucean wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>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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