How to make RenderFarm Update easy?

V-Ray V-Ray for 3ds Max General
1

Hello,
I’m trying, as a simple user, not as a IT guy, to find a way to update the farm easily.
I’ve been trough this:
http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthread.php?83006-Deploy-update-to-render-farm
and finally reading this:

but frankly speaking, all that seems really unaccessible for a common windows user.

I will be more than happy if somebody can came up with something straight forward as today I have to get all theses steps done manually :
- Stopping the VraySpawner service
- Installed the update “server slave only”
- register the VraySpawner as service
- Stop the VraySpawner service
- Add account into the Vrayspawner properties (account name + password + confirmation password)
- Apply to save the account
- Start the VraySpawner service

Thanks

2

We user refamo to batch automate our 50 nodes
This let you install vray on the farm with 2 clicks

For the spawners, we just start it from refamo when we need it, as we swipe from spawner to BB or both at the same time.

Way easier if you have your node login to a render user at logon, after you don’t need to worry about any credentials anymore

Make sense?

Stan

3

Thanks,
the slave didn’t logon when staring up, I just remotely start the slave trough IPMI and render straight without log in.

4

Im looking for a free solution, same problem as fraggle. Except once you add on Forest pack and Railclone etc, updating the render farm is a real pain

5

For sure it’s really time consuming and stone age method. Nowaday, there must be easier way to do it.

6

Each step that you pointed could be executed via command line (cmd). Here are the required commands :

- Stopping the VraySpawner service
net stop “VraySpawner 20XX”

- Installed the update “server slave only”
Please follow the instructions to perform V-Ray silent install via command line: Chaos Docs

- register the VraySpawner as service
“C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 20XX\vrayspawner20XX.exe” -quiet -service

- Add account into the Vrayspawner properties (account name + password + confirmation password)
SC CONFIG “VRaySpawner 20XX” DisplayName= “VRaySpawner 20XX” obj= “.\%USERNAME%” password= “password”

- Start the VraySpawner service
net start “VraySpawner 20XX”

Hope this helps.

7

Thanks, can all this command adress to several IP adress to be run by a one clik remote .bat file or any other one click process?
Sorry but I’m not a developper so I’m probably not using the right words

8

It’s possible to automate the entire process, but you will need a remote manager for that - Deadline or psexec.exe for an example
If you need any more details and specific instructions about this process please contact us via our support mail and we will try to assist.

9

thanks,
will send an email to the support.
psexec.exe is part of the PSTools? It’s a free cmd utilities, doesn’t it?

10

Or if you’re on a domain, setup that bat file in the logon script for the slaves, restart them and it will install

11

I would strongly recommend deadline. It can do all the functionality. Most installers though come with silent option so deploying them that way is perfect. It also has built in spawner capability so you can start/stop slaves with few clicks.

12

Thanks, but at 185USD per node, that cost more than Vray lic itself! It doesn’t make sense for me to spend more on the manger than on the render engine itself.

13

I know refamo isn’t free but it’s pretty good alternative to deadlines and makes managing the farm a breeze

We use it for 4 years and I wouldn’t change for anything else.

Stan

14

Stan - do you have a BAT file set up for updating the nodes with refamo?

15

I used to do silent install with bat files that I ran via deadline on all slaves at once, but once in a while it seems the way to install vray change a bit and then the bat file stopped working… And anyway I had to go on each slave just to make sure everything installed correctly. So now I just use a simpler bat file like this:

net stop “VRaySpawner 2016”
pushd \\Kurayami\softwarez\3D\3DSMAXPLUGZ\@@@2016
vray_adv_33501_max2016_x64.exe

So it just stops the spawner and start the vray installer. then I go on each slave via windows remote desktop and press the buttons, making sure everything install correctly on each slave. and then run this other bat file:

net start “VRaySpawner 2016”

For other plugins I create folders (like “plugins” and “scripts”) accessible from the network with all the files needed for the plugins to work and I use a bat file containing this command to copy the files at the right place on each slave (I run it via deadline):

robocopy “\\Kurayami\softwarez\3D\3DSMAXPLUGZ\@@@2016\toCopyIn3dsMax2016” “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2016” *.* /e

There is an app (with a free version) called ControlUp that can be used to execute commands on many windows clients at once. You should give ti a try: see the instructions for running sripts with it here at the bottom:

the software is here:

16

use, just point to the bat file from refamo, and this is what the bat file looks like :

cd "S:\Plugins\3dsmax Plugins\Vray\Vray 3.0"s:
vray_adv_33501_max2014_x64.exe -gui=0 -configFile=“xml_file.xml” -quiet=1

exit

Pretty easy :slight_smile:

Stan

17

I’m wondering how the commercial render farm are dealing to update thousand of node at once! I’m pretty sure, everything must be automatic.

18

Well this is a one click solution for unlimited nodes really.

I have a shortcut in refamo to this bat so just need to click on it and my 50 nodes updates straight away

I wouldn’t be surprised if commercial renderfarm are actually using this same tool

Stan

19

Thanks but how to you deal with the account setting, password, stop service, start service…
And I’m not speaking about max update with backburner mess, because if I remenber well, VRAY DR need backburner otherwhise it won’t work (even if not using it).

20

We don’t deal with all that, never really understood why ppl where trying to make things complicated.

Just set your noe to log in automatically into a username (ie:“render”) at startup, and then start and stop the soft without the need of credentials.
The same way as on your workstation, when you start max or bb, do you need to enter credentials? No, because you’re already logged in, so it uses the current logged in user to start the soft.
Going through the “service” way is a by pass done by windows to launch applications under a certain user if he isn’t logged in.
This was designer for server environment and it’s obviously possible to apply this to max/vray/bb etc, but just by auto login your node to a user, you don’t need to worry about any of that.

Afterwards, it’s just a matter of start the software and stop it through refamo, as you would do if you had to start it the same way as on your computer. Your shortcut on your workstation points to a exe file, with refamo it’s the same, using cmd

Hope this make sense

Stan