Renderfarm Setup Tips?

CarlosOlivaG4 asks: "We're in the process of acquiring and setting up a renderfarm, and I'm hoping the Slashdot community might light us up a little here. We'll use 6 to 8 nodes first, but would like to be able to expand it in the future." There was an earlier version of this question, but it dealt more with the hardware of the farm's nodes, rather than the network and software infrastructure on which these nodes would be based.

"In the hardware side, we still haven't made a choice between using AMD's Opteron or Apple's Xserve G5 (they have some very nice and price convenient cluster nodes which seem to be ideal for this kind of job), with Linux. As for the networking between them, is Gigaethernet enough or should we be going for Fiber? The software used to manage the render queues is another important point as well: I've been looking into Rush, and even though it's a commercial package, it works on all of the platforms we currently use (W2k/XP, Irix, OS X and Linux). But then there is also Dr. Queue, which is open source and is supported on at least the *NIX members of the aforementioned OS's. Other options include RenderPal and Pixar's RenderMan, but I would prefer an F/OSS alternative. Finally, it's worth noting that we'll be using the renderfarm for Maya and Adobe AfterEffects."

Comments

Small cluster

[Donny Smith]

First, that is a very small cluster with embarrassingly parallel compute tasks (rendering of individual frames), so you should be able to find the answers on your own using Google.

Secondly, from your questions it is obvious you're no rendering farm guru so why did the task of planning/researching the configuration get assigned to you? You should rather work with the users to collect and write down the goals (what is the purpose of this cluster, how do users use it, what are their expectations, how it's going to be managed, etc.) and find a small and focused SI who will propose you a better solution than you can come up on your own even with help of Slashdotters.

It's impossible to give a good answer to your questions since you've provided very little info, but in addition to the render nodes, one NFS node for file server and a single gigabit network will do.

Don't skimp on the software and don't use F/OSS just because you "prefer" it (Why do you prefer it? It doesn't sound like you're going to dive into the source and improve it or something.)
Instead of focusing on the coolness, focus on creating a user-friendly and maintenance friendly system. Do geeky stuff at home.

Re:Do it properly

[JDevers]

Do you have any idea what you are talking about? Name an SGI system that isn't based on Intel/Linux, is even remotely competitive (in performance, not price), and is actually intended for this sort of work.

I'm guessing most major 3D design companies don't "do it properly" when they build clusterfarms out of consumer level gear? This guy is talking about 30-40 NODES, the equipment will cost less than an SGI service contract alone. A 30 node cluster doing 3D rendering doesn't really need uber-I/O, the bottleneck will be at the CPU/FPU level 95% of the time.

What is wrong with arrays running at 7200RPM? They generate more heat than a 5400 RPM, but not as much as 10K or 15K drives which are common in five 9's servers...

Re:Software?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't go blindly marching in the direction of FOSS especially in something that is valuable enough to setup a renderfarm for.

(emphasis mine)

I don't see how asking for advice from a largely FOSS crowd is "blindly marching" in any way. It's called research. Try the FOSS first since you're not going to encounter a hard-sell pitch, then deal with the sales people for the proprietary stuff later.

The biggest renderfarm in the world is useless if your people can't use it.

Ahhh...I see...

Always remember that software is only good in its ability to meet the goals of the organization it supports.

Wow...fascinating.