Backburner & 10 connection limit in winXP

[paulison]

Im looking into options for adding more machines to the renderfarm.

Currently we have up to 9 PC's rendering and we have hit the 10 connection limit problem with windows XP when running the manager on it.

Today when I accidentally exceeded the 10 connection limit the manager reset and all machines stopped rendering for a few mins and the frame each computer was working on restarted (ouch - 1 hour per frame)

One option is to get a machine with windows XP server? or windows 2003 server (any of windows server range should do the job right?)

Ideally though, we already have a fileserver running linux and samba etc and would like to somehow run the manager on this.

Does anyone have any experience setting up backburner on a linux box? surely there is some freeware/ official discreet linux based manager software available? If anyone can point me in the right direction that would be a LOT of help!

Thanks,

Paul

[ezrhythm]

i would looove having backburner on linux! YEY!
To tell you the truth i'd even love to have renderers on linux too
Or maybe the whole thing... anyway.

I am waking up now...

yeah, windows2003 server will do the job.

[dellis]

We use a linux box to overcome this problem. Redhat 9 running Samba. The windows server route is expensive if i remember correctly....not really worth it when linus is free and really, really stable. You don't need to run backburner on linux(its not even possible....i don't think) you just have to put all of your texture maps on the linux box and you should render to the linux box as well. This gets rid of the 10 user limitation in windows.....casue all the machines will be pulling from and rendering to the linux box. The theoretical (excluding hardware constraints) user connection limit on linux is some crazy number....one i'm sure you're render farm will never hit....6 billion is coming to mind.....i could be wrong though.

[plastic_]

windows server 2003 costs under 500$ if i remember right.

does backburner manager really work on a non-server windows version with more than 10 computers?
isn't it connected to all renderslaves too?

[paulison]

hmm cool yeah but I think the manager itself has to be on a machine that can handle more than 10 connections (even if it isnt reading and writing frames). Am I wrong?

Looks like windows server is the easiest solution, but yeah...$500 saving is still worth something if it can run on linux

im sure someone out there knows how....

[trick]

Dellis wrote

...This gets rid of the 10 user limitation in windows.....

This would mean that there is NO (open) connection between the renderslaves and Backburner ???

[ezrhythm]

manager must be on the server....

[RErender]

Dellis's scenario sounds right, manager/server do not maintain constant connection, they ping each other when it is necessary. True though that on a large farm the chance that more than 10 servers would need to contact the manager at the same time, in which case running manager on a windows server OS is the best bet.

There are some other render managers out there, completely doing away with backburner, some are peer to peer so there is no manager load, also there are some that will run on linux (tooo bad Max won't).

[Davy]

hi!

I bumped into this post and I have to post as well...

my advice is to use linux for your servers,
in have 3 linux servers in my studio for my renderfarm, 1 maps and frame server, one backburner server and one backupserver...all have gigabit for fast network,

first, windows server edition IS expensive as you pay per bundle of nodes, so if your renderfarm grows you need to buy extra bundles for your server version to increase your connections...

linux on the other hand is free and can have as many connections as you want

I even have my backburner running on linux with no troubles so far but a windows xp pro can handle it too but I prefer linux anyway...

I love linux and I am quite surprised why it took so long for me to finally switch to linux for my servers
its just a GREAT operating system and very cool...AND FAST!

hope this can help as well,
davy

[plastic_]

hi!
first, windows server edition IS expensive as you pay per bundle of nodes, so if your renderfarm grows you need to buy extra bundles for your server version to increase your connections...

well i didn't buy node licenses. i have one cheap windows server version and purchased windows XP OEM versions on the other boxes. i had no problems connecting to the windows server. i don't understand the windows server node license stuff and i don't care because everything just works.

[dellis]

Plastic,

I think that when you buy it, it comes with five nodes(???)....that's probably why it works.

[Davy]

indeed
normally windows server works with connections, a standard cheap server version has 5 nodes, you have to buy extra bundles to have more connections possible...
or buy a lot connections at ones which is very expensive...

so linux is a great alternative

[plastic_]

yeah i think it is a 5 node version...the thing is...we have about 14 nodes.
it still works.
i asked some admin guy about it and he told me that windows server doesn't really care for node licenses unless you're using active domain stuff for user profiles, or whatever.

[jacksc02]

hi!

I even have my backburner running on linux with no troubles so far but a windows xp pro can handle it too but I prefer linux anyway...

davy

How did you get backburner to work on linux?

[jacksc02]

hi!

I even have my backburner running on linux with no troubles so far but a windows xp pro can handle it too but I prefer linux anyway...

davy

How did you get backburner to work on linux?