Apple Shake (Qmaster 1.2) Distributed Rendering (10.3) - Manual (Page 6)

6
Sample Setup for a Full-Time Render Farm
For visual effects companies that require more render power and speed, a full-time
render farm setup is the best choice.
In this setup, the client computers and the cluster computers are two different groups,
networked together. The desktop computers are the client computers from which users
submit Shake jobs for distributed rendering. The cluster consists of an Xserve and a
number of
Xserve cluster nodes (which provide high-density processing power without
unnecessary server features and optical drives) on a rack. The Xserve is configured as
the cluster controller and as a service node, and includes a second drive for all source
and destination media files. The Xserve cluster nodes in the rack are configured as
service nodes.
Note: Instead of using a second Xserve drive for the media storage, you could use an
Xserve RAID.
The steps that follow describe how to configure this render farm environment, with
separate sections for Mac OS X Jaguar (page 7) and Mac OS X Panther (page 13).
Client Client Client Client Client
Xserve
(cluster controller)
Xserve includes
second drive
for media.
Cluster nodes
(service nodes)
All client computers and cluster computers
mount the same media storage disk on the Xserve.
Network
90180SET Page 6 Thursday, April 15, 2004 3:32 PM