Renderman, MR, Farms and Servers

[slim]

I've been doing pro VFX for about 7 years now and the nature of my projects in TV and film are just screaming at me to buckle down and get some more juice behind my simulations and renders, and finally start setting up a file server/license server and a render farm.

The problem I keep running into is that I don't have as much knowledge with hardware as I do when it comes to being an artist. I have tried to ask on multiple forums and I am either told "it's too complex" or it turns into a pissing match between tech geeks trying to outdo each other instead of providing any decent info.

First off, my main OS is Mac, and my machine quadruple boots into OS X 10.5, 10.6, Windows 7, and Linux. My main 3D package is Maya, and even though to date 99% of my projects were done with Mental Ray, I have just started using RenderMan Studio. I also do a lot of video and audio/music work, hence the Mac, so I use massive amounts of data for an individual who owns a small company.

After doing my own research on and off, it definitely seems that building servers from scratch is the most cost effective, money:power. But when it comes to hardware there are so many options that I never have had to deal with since I use Mac hardware and have been for the last 15 years or so.

Since this is a long question, preliminary info would be nice on setting up a file server from scratch or from my existing machines, and also for beginning a render farm. I am leaning towards linux for the farm because of stability and the fact that it's supported by all the 3D apps I use. However, a dual-boot farm might make more sense since I can't render after effects files on linux.

The hardware I already have at my disposal besides my workstation is:

1) PowerPC G5 Mac (last of the powerpc generation) with dual proc (4-core I believe), 32GB of RAM and a Quadro card. maybe 2 TB of internal drives in it.

2) PowerPC G5 maybe 2-3 years older with 16GB of RAM and maybe 1 TB of drives

3) a really old G4 (one of the dark blue ones) that I haven't even fired up in years. so that's probably too old to do anything.

I was thinking of getting a dirt cheap computer as a license server, like a Mac mini, and then possibly converting one of the older Macs to a file server that runs OS X or Linux, and use maybe an 8-bay external RAID chassis loaded with 2TB SATA drives.

I would also need a very good router with NAT capabilities and a built in Firewall.

For a render farm, the bladed server approach seems to be ideal as it's more compact, uses less power and costs less than turnkey servers. Without a stack of cash to load it up though, I might have to start with a single blade and then keep adding to it when projects come in.

Anyway, there's the general idea and some things I think might be useful. Any info will be appreciated from those of you who know more about this stuff.

[beaker]

Food for thought. Do you want to spend a lot of time doing cg or being a sysadmin?

What is your time worth when your not doing work which is directly contributing to your business? Count up your hourly rate of figuring out linux vs paying for osx server software and have everything up and going hunky dory without having to do lots of hours figuring out which config file I have to edit in order to get this or that working. Yes I still have to do that from time to time under osx but it is about 1/10th the time I have to do it under linux. Also why dual boot when everything runs under osx? Now if you have a full time linux sysadmin who's only job is to do that all day long then yes, go with linux all the way.

To qualify I started out in college 15 years ago working as and Sgi Irix sysadmin and early Red Hat Linux so I know my full way around a command line and building linux boxes from scratch. I just don't feel like being a sysadmin anymore. I want to be an artist. If I have to pay an extra 1k for the Apple premium, then it is worth it to me because that is only 15 hours of me directly billing a client.

[ga01]

I second beaker, plan it carefully and resonably, other ways you'll spend most of your time administering around.
It happen to myself, I started as motion grapher, then got into comp and 3D, then I started a renderfarm, then I learned some linux, and started my own shop. And that was too much ... what I learned is that if you want to be proficent just simplify (because technology is everything but simplicity). Build a linux file server, and a backup solution for it (some external drives will do, or a big HD in another box), simplify the file server, less services, less hassle. Samba let you share whatever you connect at it. Regarding your apps, that will be the main time consumer as that's the problematic point, OS incomtabilities, shared configs, scripts, 3rd party licenses, random functions etc, etc..., and check check and double check, to get a reliable working solution will take you some months. (for intensive rendering skip Vitualization)

In my opinion is the best way to learn about it, but as was said, you must learn a lot of stuff, and thats time...

[slim]

I don't want to spend heaps of time doing this, but building up a Mac render farm may be too expensive. Having a rack full of Xserves would be nice, just expensive. I know there are ways to run OS X on PC hardware, but I wouldn't trust that for production.

I do want to keep it simple. No bells and whistles needed. Stability, efficiency and simplicity. The only annoyance I read about was configuring Linux properly and installing a bunch of crap so that the files are properly copied across from Mac and back to the Mac, especially if using Time Machine. I favor the manual approach because automated stuff seems to screw up at the worst time and then you need to weed through files to see what copied and what didn't.

I would definitely stay away from virtualization. slow as hell compared to booting into the OS.

So while ideally I would like to keep everything Mac, not sure if I can handle the cost. If the next few months turn out well I would probably grab a new 12-core for a workstation and then I could turn my current workstation into a render node.

[Mr. Z]

Check this up. Maybe you find it helpful.

http://helmer.sfe.se/

Looks silly, but it works.

[ganzou]

Check this up. Maybe you find it helpful.

http://helmer.sfe.se/

Looks silly, but it works.

Love it...not silly at all...just the kind of stuff I'm into. Altho if the guy is going for a fully custom built cabinet, I would have gone the extra mile and measure the cable length needed for each connection and trim the cable to keep them really tight. I've seen it done and it eliminates that rat nest and get tons of more airflow around the system.