Picked up Boxx RenderPro 2

[andybot_cg]

The issue I am having is networking it. I had an electrician out and he patched in a data cable, but it doesn't work. I tried connecting it straight to my workstation, but I wasn't getting anywhere. I have been working 12 hour days 7 days a week, so to tell you the truth, I haven't invested that much time. Yes, I did get the software.

No, you need to connect two Ethernet cables to a router or hub connected to a router. Something with DNS that will assign IP addresses to the two ports. One will be the IPMI connection, and the other is the network connection for Windows. With the Boxx software, you have to select the correct IPMI network address. To change the address in the interface, you need to have administrator privileges. Once you're logged in and the machine is on, there's a tab that is for launching the remote connection window. There you can log in to the machine.

[glorybound]

Yes, but I'm all wireless and my internet router is across my house in the garage; I have a mesh network covering the house. I might need to set it up in my garage or get my data port working where I have a small router ready to go.

[andybot_cg]

Yes, but I'm all wireless and my internet router is across my house in the garage; I have a mesh network covering the house. I might need to set it up in my garage or get my data port working where I have a small router ready to go.

What!? I don't think you're gonna have much luck running DR over wireless. AFAIK the RenderPro's don't have wireless networking.

[glorybound]

Yes, that I know. That's why I had the electrician path in my data cable. The cable isn't working, so I tried connect straight to my workstation, which is supposed to work, but isn't.

[francomanko]

I basically just plugged my workstation and rendernodes into a single switch with cat6 cables, then the switch goes into my router....real simple.

[glorybound]

I basically just plugged my workstation and rendernodes into a single switch with cat6 cables, then the switch goes into my router....real simple.

My router is in my garage across the house. The house is all roughed with data ports but for some reason, the one the electrician connected isn't working, He had his tester, attached to both ends and it showed a signal. I am wondering if my ISP limits how many connections I can have. I remember reading that somewhere. Currently, I have wireless, smart hub and security. I might try disconnecting something to see if my data starts working.

[andybot_cg]

My router is in my garage across the house. The house is all roughed with data ports but for some reason, the one the electrician connected isn't working, He had his tester, attached to both ends and it showed a signal. I am wondering if my ISP limits how many connections I can have. I remember reading that somewhere. Currently, I have wireless, smart hub and security. I might try disconnecting something to see if my data starts working.

Sounds like you need to test this connection yourself. Do you have a laptop with an ethernet port. You can turn off wireless on the laptop and check if you get connected when you plug in the ethernet cable. It could be that the terminals on the cable your electrician installed didn't get wired correctly. In any case, I would test that first, there shouldn't be any limit beyond having enough network addresses on your local network (you don't have several hundred devices attached do you?)

[glorybound]

Yeah, I have thought through how to troubleshoot, I just haven't done it. All my devices don't have ports, so I purchased an adaptor for my Pixelbook. I plugged my workstation, which is wireless, directly into the data port, but it didn't work. I swapped some cables to the port, but no good. I'll have to go out to the garage and plug things straight into the router.

[gunny263]

Boxx are expensive because of their support. If/when it fails, they overnight a new one. Yes, you save money by building one yourself from scratch. I build all my own systems but the company I work for has zero tolerance for failure so they go with Boxx. Now, I don't know about the secondary market and how Boxx treats warranty/support contract coverage in Bobby's case but sounds like he kinda needs/wants a company that will support the hardware. Someone referenced SGI's above. I had one of the mini-me O2's and that thing was bulletproof. It ran 24/7 for 3 years with absolutely zero problems. After 3 years, the power supply failed and I had a new one overnighted and installed before 10am the next day.

Bobby, I'd suggest you post an ad to your local craigslist or taskrabbit for a networking contract job to get you setup. It should take no more than a few hours to get you up and running.

[glorybound]

I got tired of my Craigslist people not following through. I mean, really? A dozen people reached out, but I had two no-shows and the others just didn't follow through. I put the BOXX Render Pro in my garage, where all my equipment is and it couldn't have been easier to get in and setup. It'll be fine there until it gets cold, which it drops to well below 0 for weeks on end and it isn't unusual to drop into the -30's. I have a few months to get my network stuff figured out. I'll run a benchmark and I'll let you people know the numbers.

[glorybound]

Okay, here is the benchmark. The build-in BOXX viewer was so slow I had to install Chrome Remote Desktop, which gives me instant feedback.

https://benchmark.chaosgroup.com/cpu...20x32&id=16709

and this is the benchmark on my main workstation
https://benchmark.chaosgroup.com/cpu...264MB&id=16710

[JezUK]

So are you happy with that Bobby ?

Would you say it's money well spent ?

[glorybound]

I have to figure out how I am going to share a folder between the two. My main workstation is wireless and the RenderPro is sitting on the router. The RenderPro cost me $2000 and is 1/2 as fast as my $5000 workstation, so it might be worth it. If I can pick up another one then I'll double my render speed. Of course, I'll have the software license to deal with. I haven't been able to launch 3DS MAX, because the RenderPro doesn't have a video card, so I'll have to see how that works.

[glorybound]

Got the share to work. I created a folder on the RenderPro, with the same name as the folder I have on my main workstation. I mapped that folder, so now I'll just copy all files over there and I'll map all the files to that local folder. Actually, I think I'll sync the two folders. When I render it'll look for the same local folder on each machine. I think this is how I did it when I had the 10 machine render slaves.

[glorybound]

BABAM! Just added 32 more cores to my arsenal, baby. Getting things to work took a while. I am having flashbacks to when I had ten workstations. Then, sometimes I had to wait hours for my slowest workstation to finish the buckets it had, but I think the split buckets will solve that. Also, back then, I wasn't paying $450 a node... good grief!