NAS Bottleneck Question

[jujubee]

I tried rendering an animation with all my files linked to a NAS. About 10 computers tried accessing saved IRMaps and LC files.

The machines just hung.

So my question is, is that normal? Would you expect the same behavior using Samba or Server 2003?

I ended up getting around this problem by locally saving all my files to each machine and it rendered fine.

[ene.xis]

at the office i have my paths saved into an windows server 2003 dedicated server and have no problem when using DR over the network.

[jujubee]

DR works fine.

However, I'm talking about a large animation file. 21 megs for the saved maps, 140 megs for the actual file, and loads of textures run over Backburner.

[ene.xis]

hum...last time i tried had no problem...
i might be able to run some tests tomorrow

[instinct]

It depends on the NAS and the files i guess, but a maschine hanging is expected behaviour if it is too weak to keep up :P

Seriously also a nice and performant samba maschine will bog down when under heavy enough fire of a decent sized farm. Not only networkwise but also CPU wise.

Regards,
Thorsten

[jujubee]

So I guess I'm just wondering if it's generally best practice to run larger files in local directories on each machine.

I do have a Gigabit network but it seems there are limits either from drive speed or processing.

Is there an easy way to drag files over to one directory than have that directory automatically copy the files over to all the other computers at once instead of having to do each one manually?

[thablanch]

no problem on the NAS here.

[idesign]

No problem on NAS here... Lacie Ethernet 2TB...

[instinct]

@thatblanch + idesign : how many slaves on one job and scene/maps/irrmaps size ?

Just wondering.

Regards,
Thorsten

[muzzy]

Test your network speed, and compare nas performance

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/compo...nas/Itemid,190

probably it is network speed issue

[jujubee]

Network Speed is at 1 gigabit on all adapters and switch.

[muzzy]

Network Speed is at 1 gigabit on all adapters and switch.

I am not a network guru but not all nas drives give the same performance, even though they have all 1 gigabit.

For your question..
Is there an easy way to drag files over to one directory than have that directory automatically copy the files over to all the other computers at once instead of having to do each one manually?

You can just write a simple batch file and run it when you need it

copy *.* \\slave2\shared /Y
copy *.* \\slave3\shared /Y
.....


/Y for overwriting existing files

[jujubee]

Very handy thank you - how do you work this .bat file? You drag all the files you want to copy over to the .bat then it copies it all on over?

[muzzy]

Very handy thank you - how do you work this .bat file? You drag all the files you want to copy over to the .bat then it copies it all on over?

copy all of your files in a separate folder and put your batch file into that folder and run it

I usually put all of them to windows shared folder, by default all slaves have that folder

[idesign]

Thorsten, our renderfarm in the moment is:

In the Rack everything 1 Gbit with a 48port/1Gbit Dell switch

1x Dell 2950 Server Dual QuadCore 1.6 Ghz w/ Windows Server 2003 x64

- 2x250 Raid 0 for system
- 6x250 Raid 5 for Maps, Models, Proxy's, etc

1 Lacie Ethernet Disk 2TB (with 2xLacie BigDisk 1TB via USB for Backup) for Work (dwg, max, cliente files, etc)

6x Dell 1900 Rendernode's Dual Quadcore 3.0 Ghz, 8 Gb, 15k system disk (xppro x64)

APC UPS 3000

Out of the rack, comunication with workstation's is 100 Mbps, but in near future, everyting go to 1 Gbit (new office).


This setup is new and in test.. normaly I render DR with 1 worksation and 4 slaves.. sometime's, a file don't work with DR (i have to do some test's - object problems ou size problems)