Windows Server 2003

[percydaman]

Anyone have any experience with Windows 2003 server? Here at work we're taking a look at it for its greatly increased memory capacity for our renderfarm. Because we're buying enough of them we can get them pretty cheap.

If anyone has any experience or heard of some info about it, it would be greatly appreciated.

[ihavenofish]

i believe windows server 2003 it has 2 types of memory advances.

the first is the pageing thing which extends the virtual address space to 36 bit. i forget all the details of how it works, but the application you are running must be designed to take advantage of it. windows 2000 advanced/datacentre server has the same feature. its intended for massive database applications which can spawn multiple applications using 2GB each. i am fairly positive that max will not make use of it (i used to have a quad xeon with 16gb ram capability so i looked into all of this). also to note, this function is only enabled with specific intel Xeon systems. (i dont recall any support for this type of extended memory with opterons)

the second type of memory enhancements is the amd64 64 bit adress extensions. these are the same as in the upcoming windows xp64, and to my knowledge are still in "technology preview" stage. in this mode, 32 bit software must be modified to make use of the additional ram. i dont know if max has this function enabled. as far as i have heard, it doesnt. again, to note, this function is only enabled with a cpu that supports amd64 extensions. those being either an amd athlon 64, opteron, or the latest intel chips with these extensions.

so, on the surface, i dont know if theres any reasoning for upgrading to this OS at this time, unless you are having serious winxp issues and absolutely require the 3gb switch that win2k pro does not have (2k server does btw)

hope that helps a little
later

[plastic_]

i use windows server 2003 (the cheapest version) on the box where the backburner manager is running. the only real reason to do so is the 10 connections limit of winxp.
no problems or issues with vray.

[RErender]

As far as I know, programs are able to address up to 4GB in XP64 without any modificaton, I have been running it for a while now and have enjoyed watching memory usage going all the way up to 3.9 GB without a crash (unfortanately I only have 2GB of ram :P)

[ihavenofish]

interest.. perhaps max is already adjusted for this.

i cant find the article right now, but related to another project i researched the 64 bit windows deal a fair bit. explicitly it states that legacy 32 bit software will run in the old style 4gb address space, split 2gb for application, 2gb for kernel. minor modification (not a 64 bit recompile) is required to get a 32 bit app to use a full 4gb.

soo, if you see max going up there in the task manager (max alone, not total usuage) then perhaps discreet has already included this modification, in wich case... yay!

/me kicks his p4 2.8 for not being 64 bit enabled.

[UBIKmh]

Maybe this can help:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;268363

I'm currently looking into this topic, had enough of these memory issue, but so far none of the dealers could give me the same answers on this topic (yes but ofcourse it possible, no but of course it's not possible) .
I'm now waiting for somebody from Microsoft to call me and give some real answers on this. They promised to call me next week (takes them a while to find somebody who know anything, I guess).

I'll keep you posted on this if I know more.

Marc

[ihavenofish]

yes... thats pae.. what i had on my quad xeon.

max cannot make use of it. very few off the shelf apps can. things like sql server use that by spawning dozens of 2gb processes

the technology as i understand it simply maps the page file to physical ram. it unfortunately has no imapct on a single processes memory limitations.

meh

[Robert]

we have a dual xeon server with mss2003 installed on it. I both run manager and a number of plugin servers on it. I have installed Max for rendering and it works just fine. No problems so far...

robert

[UBIKmh]

OK here's a collection of pages I found (with some help) at Microsoft about these issues:

Memory options:
http://www.microsoft.com/Resources/D...asp?frame=true

4GB technology
http://www.microsoft.com/Resources/D...asp?frame=true

PAE
http://www.microsoft.com/Resources/D..._pae_intro.asp

X64
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...4/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/default.mspx
http://www.amd64.com/
http://www.intel.com/cd/ids/develope...4bit/index.htm

I have a lot more links but I think this is enough to read for the weekend.

And lets hope for a standalone 64 bit version of Vray soon .

Marc

[UBIKmh]

Eric,

How about this XP64, does MAX and Vray run on it without any problems?

Marc

[RErender]

Yep, works fine, as stable as any other current Windows. As far as compatibility I have used DR, mixing XP64 and XPpro without issue. Only caveat at the moment is that driver support is a bit sketchy, but most mainstream hardware is now supported.

And lets hope for a standalone 64 bit version of Vray soon .

[UBIKmh]

Oh that's good news, now I have to find somebody here in the Netherlands who can build me such a machine. Don't know if Dell would have some.

Marc

[ihavenofish]

the machines are easy to come by... just get and opteron, athlon 64, or intel emt64 extended xeon/p4.

for the os you need to ask microsoft. you have to sign up for the preview (1 year demo) on their site.