Render Farm Setup Help

Installation and configuration.
kjacobs
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Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2017 5:30 am

Render Farm Setup Help

Post by kjacobs »

Hello,

I recently discovered your CGRU Afanasy farm management software and have been working to setup a small test render farm. I am running in a ubuntu linux environment and have successfully setup the main "server" computer and have the WebGUI and watch features working correctly. What is not working is adding more computers to the farm. I have installed CGRU on the slave computers and set the server to the IP address of the main server computer, but it never connects and never shows up on the main computer webgui. The slave webgui also does not ever connect to the main server webpage. I have tried reading the documentation for setting up a farm, but I am obviously missing something. I noticed the install never creates a farm.json file. I tried using the sample on the website....but that also did not work. Do you have simple step by step instruction for how to add slave computers to the farm???

Thanks,
Ken
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timurhai
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Re: Render Farm Setup Help

Post by timurhai »

Hi.
To specify afserver address, create config.json file in a CGRU root folder:
http://cgru.info/installation#configuration
Where you can type computer name or IP address.
You can run:
start/AFANASY/_afcmd.sh | grep af_servername
to test that it works.
Than run afrender in console:
start/AFANASY/_afcmd.sh | grep af_servername
And look at its output.
You can also run afserver in a console too:
start/AFANASY/_afserver.sh
And watch its ouput when afrender tries to connect to it.

btw
Do you have correct network setup?
Try to ping server name and IP address from a slave machine first.
Timur Hairulin
CGRU 3.3.1, Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, MS Windows 10 (clients only).
kjacobs
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2017 5:30 am

Re: Render Farm Setup Help

Post by kjacobs »

Hi Timurhai,

Thanks so much for the reply. I finally did figure out how to get the client computer attached to the server. The network is fine and server address was set correctly. I needed to also run the afrender command on the clients to get then connected.....missed that somewhere....LOL.

The next item I am trying to figure out is the extra "render" user created when Afanasy is installed. On 2 different linux mint computers, the "render" user is created but I cannot login to that account. If I create the account manually, I can access the "render" account.

I have also tried using the "Set User" option on the menu to set the user to "render".....it does not appear to allow me to set the user to "render". It reverts back to the current user of the computer. What is the "Set User" option used for?

A number of my client computers are other desktops in the house. When the client computers connect to the master....they register with user "root", not user "render". I have tried a simple render project and I see the clients and master begin the project....however, the clients (ie user "root") drop out of the project and the master continues to the end. I am guessing this is because the users do not match???

Anyway....I am getting closer. Again any help is appreciated....

Thanks,
Ken
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timurhai
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Re: Render Farm Setup Help

Post by timurhai »

On afrender installation service afrender is set up. As most linux services it has a user to run by. As most linux services it creates a user on a package installation w/o any password. To swith from root to any user password is not needed. All services are started under root, than just switch to somebody else if needed.

Afrender node user is not the same as a running service user. It can be changes from a GUI. It is needed to store artist for "Nimby".

If you want to run afrender service by some other user edit "/opt/cgru/afanasy/nonrootuser" file.
Timur Hairulin
CGRU 3.3.1, Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, MS Windows 10 (clients only).
kjacobs
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2017 5:30 am

Re: Render Farm Setup Help

Post by kjacobs »

I am still struggling with getting slave machines to do some work when sending a job to be rendered. The slave machine shows up fine and ready to go on the "render list", along with the server (which I also have set to render). When I start a job, both machines start to render frames......but the slave never moves past frame 1, then it stops and goes no further. The server continues to render frames to the end of the project.

I checked the task log for each machine and the master shows each frame start and finish. However, the slave shows frame one starting and finishing over and over many times, until it quits.

Any idea why the slave machine will not continue beyond frame 1???

Thanks,
Ken
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timurhai
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Re: Render Farm Setup Help

Post by timurhai »

If some machine stops to render, may be it produce errors and was put in the job(block) blask list.
On any error/unknown situation, you should read (send here) task "Log" and "Ouput".
Usually the error is explained in a task ouput.
Timur Hairulin
CGRU 3.3.1, Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, MS Windows 10 (clients only).
kjacobs
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2017 5:30 am

Re: Render Farm Setup Help

Post by kjacobs »

I got a chance to try another test render, with the same result. The master continues to render, but the slave stops after trying frame 1. Here are the task logs from each machine. The first is the slave computer....

Code: Select all

Tue 26 Dec 18:49.40 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 1]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.42 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 1]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.42 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 1]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.46 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 1]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.46 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 1]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.50 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 1]
Here is the task log from the master....

Code: Select all

Tue 26 Dec 18:49.40 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 2]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.44 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 2]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.44 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 3]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.48 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 3]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.48 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 4]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.52 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 4]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.52 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 1]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.56 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 1]
Tue 26 Dec 18:49.56 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 5]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.00 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 5]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.00 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 6]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.04 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 6]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.04 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 7]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.08 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 7]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.08 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 8]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.12 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 8]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.12 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 9]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.16 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 9]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.16 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 10]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.20 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 10]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.20 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 11]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.24 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 11]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.24 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 12]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.28 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 12]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.28 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 13]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.32 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 13]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.32 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 14]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.36 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 14]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.36 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 15]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.40 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 15]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.40 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 16]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.44 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 16]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.44 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 17]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.48 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 17]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.48 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 18]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.52 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 18]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.52 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 19]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.56 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 19]
Tue 26 Dec 18:50.56 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 20]
Tue 26 Dec 18:51.00 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 20]
Tue 26 Dec 18:51.00 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 21]
Tue 26 Dec 18:51.04 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 21]
Tue 26 Dec 18:51.04 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 22]
Tue 26 Dec 18:51.08 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 22]
Tue 26 Dec 18:51.08 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 23]
Tue 26 Dec 18:51.12 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 23]
Tue 26 Dec 18:51.12 : Starting task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 24]
Tue 26 Dec 18:51.16 : Finished task: [blender:1000] render: Test[BLENDER_RENDER][frame 24]
It appears that the slave tries frame 1 a number of times, while the master starts with frame 2 and moves on to frame 4....then the master comes back to do frame 1.....the continues with the rest of the job.

Ken
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timurhai
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Re: Render Farm Setup Help

Post by timurhai »

This is task "Log". Server stores all actions that it performs with a task.
Task "Output" is a Blender process ouput, may be Blender tells you itself why it can't render?
You shoud ALWAYS see task ouput on ANY sitiation.
Timur Hairulin
CGRU 3.3.1, Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, MS Windows 10 (clients only).
kjacobs
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2017 5:30 am

Re: Render Farm Setup Help

Post by kjacobs »

Hi again,

Could you explain where to find the Task Output in Blender???

I must be honest.....I am building this small render farm for my daughter, who is very familiar with working in Blender.....from an artist standpoint. My daughter has not heard of the Task Output in Blender or how to find it. I am an IT tech by day and trying to put together the farm side of the project, but have limited knowledge on actually using Blender. We have worked with using Blender's network render function, a Crowdrender add-on function, the 10 year old Loki Render project, and even DrQueue (quite a pain to setup).....all with varying degrees of success. Afanasy looks to be perfect for the application.....once we get past this small hangup with the slaves dropping.

I will get some logs to look over once I know how to find them....LOL. Thanks again.

Ken
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timurhai
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Re: Render Farm Setup Help

Post by timurhai »

Double click on a job - you will get its tasks.
Double click on a task - you get all task info window.
"Ouput" tab.
Timur Hairulin
CGRU 3.3.1, Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, MS Windows 10 (clients only).
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