QmasterUM Homepage.
UP01080CPY Page 2 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 4:05 PM K Apple Computer, Inc. © 2005 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Under the copyright laws, this manual may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Apple. Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
UP01080.Book Page 3 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM 1 Using Apple Qmaster 2 The Apple Qmaster system provides automated work distribution and processing for high-volume projects created with Shake and other digital visual effects software packages. This document describes the Apple Qmaster application, one of several applications in the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system.
UP01080.Book Page 4 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM The Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System Computers that submit batches to Apple Qmaster are called clients. An Apple Qmaster job is a processing task in the form of a Shake file, or other file or commands, that uses UNIX commands to specify settings such as rendering instructions and file locations and destinations. Batch of render jobs Client computer Shake jobs are submitted.
UP01080.Book Page 5 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Service Nodes When you combine multiple nodes into a cluster, they function as one very powerful computer because all their resources are shared. You make a computer available as a service node by configuring it in the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. The steps involved in using System Preferences to configure a service node are described in “Creating and Administering Clusters” in the Distributed Processing Setup guide.
UP01080.Book Page 6 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Toolbar Buttons The Apple Qmaster toolbar contains the following buttons: Â History: Opens the History drawer, where you can view a full log of all batches submitted from your computer, check the current status of all processing batches, and resubmit any batches listed in the log. Â Set Environment: Opens a sheet where you can add environment variables and preflight scripts.
UP01080.Book Page 7 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Â Batch table: This is the middle area of the Apple Qmaster window which lists the individual jobs in a batch. It includes the following columns: Â Type: One of four job types: Shake, Maya, Generic Render, Shell (UNIX). Â Command: The actual command for the job. Â Working Directory: If relevant, the directory from which you want the command to be executed. Â Command menu: Use this pop-up menu to create commands.
UP01080.Book Page 8 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Â Delay: Use these text fields to set a delay in hours or minutes for any job in the batch. Click on either text field (left field = hours, right field = minutes) to enter the corresponding value. Click the stepper to step through minutes in increments of 5 at a time, or, if the Hour text field is selected, in increments of 1 hour at a time. Â Submit: Click the Submit button to process the batch using the parameters set in the Apple Qmaster window.
UP01080.Book Page 9 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Submitting Shake Batches Using Apple Qmaster, you can quickly create and submit a batch of Shake jobs. Note: You can also submit Shake batches as described in “Using Apple Qmaster to Submit UNIX Commands” on page 15, but the following method is the easiest way to submit Shake batches with Apple Qmaster. To submit Shake batches with Apple Qmaster: 1 Open Apple Qmaster. 2 Enter a name for the batch in the Batch Name field.
UP01080.Book Page 10 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Â You can change the value in the Minimum field to change the minimum number of frames in each Apple Qmaster segment. For example, with a minimum value of 10 (the default), Apple Qmaster would divide a 100-frame job into at least 10 segments of 10 frames each. If you changed the minimum value to 5, Apple Qmaster would divide a 100-frame job into at least 20 segments of 5 frames each.
UP01080.Book Page 11 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM 5 To add more jobs to this batch, repeat steps 3 and 4. Â To edit a command in the list, double-click the job. The command dialog in step 4 appears. Â To delete a job from this batch (before you submit the batch), select the job you want to delete and click the Remove ( – ) button. 6 As needed, set the following options for this batch: Â Submit To: Choose a cluster to process this batch.
UP01080.Book Page 12 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Submitting Maya Batches There is a special dialog within Apple Qmaster for specifying commands for the distributed processing of Maya files. Apple Qmaster can utilize separate clusters for Shake and Maya, or draw from a single pool of processing resources for both applications. To submit a batch of Maya files for processing: 1 In the Apple Qmaster window, choose Maya Command from the pop-up menu, then click the Add ( + ) button to add a job.
UP01080.Book Page 13 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM 5 As needed, set the following options for the batch in the Apple Qmaster window: Â Submit To: Choose a cluster to process this batch. Â Working Directory: If relevant, enter the working directory (from which you want the command to be executed) in the Working Directory column. Â Priority: Choose the priority level from the pop-up menu. The higher the priority, the sooner and faster this batch will be processed relative to other batches.
UP01080.Book Page 14 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Some fields and settings in this dialog are optional, but the following are required: Â The Executable field requires the location of the frame-based rendering application—make sure it is correct. Â Use the Choose buttons to navigate to and choose the location of the project and scene files for this job. Â In the Frames region, enter a Start and End frame for the job.
UP01080.Book Page 15 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Using Apple Qmaster to Submit UNIX Commands You can use Apple Qmaster for distributed processing of any UNIX commands, including any application that can be operated from the command line. Apple Qmaster provides a convenient way to issue commands, shortening the amount of typing you need to do by providing an interface for the global parts of the command. To distribute UNIX command batches with Apple Qmaster: 1 Open Apple Qmaster.
UP01080.Book Page 16 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM 5 As needed, set the following options for this batch: Â Submit To: Choose a cluster to process this batch. Â Working Directory: If relevant, enter the working directory (from which you want the command to be executed). Â Priority: Choose the priority level from the pop-up menu. The higher the priority, the sooner and faster this batch will be processed relative to other batches.
UP01080.Book Page 17 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM To configure an intermediary service node to run Apple Qmaster commands on extended nodes: 1 Open the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. 2 If this intermediary node will be part of a mixed cluster, with a different computer acting as the cluster controller, skip this step and go to step 3.
UP01080.Book Page 18 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM 5 In the dialog that appears, add an instance for each extended node you want this intermediary node to send commands to: a Choose SSH from the Add ( + ) pop-up menu. b Edit the Host name, Username, and (if applicable) Password columns so that they describe each computer you want to use as an extended node, then click OK. Edit the Host name, Username, and Password columns to specify the extended nodes you are adding.
UP01080.Book Page 19 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM If you configured this intermediary node as the cluster controller, your work is done and the extended node cluster is ready to start receiving and processing batches submitted by Apple Qmaster. If, instead, you want the extended nodes to be part of a cluster that includes regular service nodes, use Apple Qadministrator to add this intermediary node to that cluster.
UP01080.Book Page 20 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM To set environment variables in Apple Qmaster: 1 Select the command for which you want to set an environment variable. 2 Click the Set Environment button. 3 In the dialog that appears, you can add preflight scripts and environment variables or edit or remove an existing one. Click the Add (+) button, then enter a variable name and value.
UP01080.Book Page 21 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM 3 Enter the following command: sudo installer -pkg AppleQmasterNode.mpkg -target / 4 Do one of the following to start the Apple Qmaster processes:  Enter this command: sudo systemstarter start Qmaster\ services  Restart the remote computer. 5 Repeat these steps for each computer in your distributed processing network.
UP01080.Book Page 22 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Command options This table provides information about each of the enabling and disabling service-node and cluster-controlling services on a computer. Preference command option Description [-cluster] Turns cluster-controlling services on or off.
UP01080.Book Page 23 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Command options This table provides information about each of the command options for submitting jobs. Submission command option Description [-clustername ] Use to specify the name of the cluster to which you want to send the job. Using the cluster name, Apple Qmaster looks for the cluster on the network in order to use it. [-batchname ] Use to specify a name for the batch so that you can easily recognize it in the Batch Monitor.
UP01080.Book Page 24 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Example of Shake Command XML The code below is an example of XML code for submitting a Shake command. Notice that because it needs to be entered as one command line, every character after -options that isn’t alphanumeric must be preceded with a back slash (\). /Applications/Apple\ Qmaster.app/Contents/MacOS/Apple\ Qmaster -clustername elvis -command "Shake” -options \
UP01080.Book Page 25 Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:54 PM Command options This table provides information about each of the command options for monitoring batches. Monitoring command option Description [-clustername ] Use to specify the name of the cluster to which the job was sent. [-clusterid ] Optionally, you can use -clusterid to enter the cluster ID and port number instead of using -clustername.
