issue with distributed rendering

[ANDREW_CHAN]

I have successfully set up 3 machines as slaves for distributed rendering. all 3 are in7 64bit machines (as well as the host machine). The problem is after a while, the slaves drop off and stop rendering. It seems like they all do it at the same time.


I noticed in the 3ds max forum there is a setting: Restart Servers on Render End that needs to be ticked, but I don't see this option in Rhino.

Is there anything I can do to make it more stable?

Andrew

[Micha]

I'm not sure - you could run the spawner process as service process. Service processes automatic restart if crashed.

[ANDREW_CHAN]

Hi Micha, it doesnt look like the slaves are the problem. they aren't crashing. they lose connection, then it looks like they are waiting for a connection. i think its the host machine not reconnecting with the slaves after a disconnection.

[ANDREW_CHAN]

i just raised the priority of the spawner process on the host in task manager to high. (didnt see an option to run it as a service process). i have a feeling it might work! I'll keep you posted.

[Micha]

You need extra software to create service processes from exe files.

[ANDREW_CHAN]

fyi (and for anyone who might read this thread) raising the priority of the spawner process made the system unstable, and then unresponsive. I had to force-restart the machine after I did that!

[schultzeworks]

Are the DR-nodes all on wired connections? We never got wifi nodes to work; they typically were not stable enough and had the exact problem you mentioned.

We then ran gigabit network cables to every DR-node, and they stay connected 99% of the time.

[ANDREW_CHAN]

2 were wired and 1 was wireless. they all dropped out. apparently this was a known bug that has been fixed in the latest version of the rhino plugin that was released not that long ago. cant wait to find it!

[blueskydesigngroup]

Never had that problem. Unless it presents as buckets which turn up grey or not as desired? In which case I have. Occurs with the same node every time (or with too many connected at one time), unsure why.

[ANDREW_CHAN]

my issue was that if i used the host machine while it was rendering, the slaves would disconnect. if i left the host alone i didn't have a problem. ideally i would like to be able to use the host and run distributed rendering at the same time.

[blueskydesigngroup]

How would it tell you it's disconnected? In the progress window or would the buckets just stop rendering?

[ANDREW_CHAN]

yes, the buckets stop rendering, and when I check the spawner window on the slave machines it tells me it disconnected.