Apple Qmaster 4 User Manual
Copyright © 2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The owner or authorized user of a valid copy of Compressor software may reproduce this publication for the purpose of learning to use such software. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this publication or for providing paid for support services.
Contents Preface Chapter 1 5 5 5 6 7 8 10 14 15 16 29 31 Welcome to Apple Qmaster About Apple Qmaster About the Apple Qmaster Documentation Additional Resources Using Apple Qmaster The Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System The Apple Qmaster Interface Installing Apple Qmaster, Shake, and Other Applications Setting Up Rendering Services and Shared Storage Submitting Batches for Apple Qmaster Processing Using Nodes Without Apple Qmaster Installed Setting Environment Variables in Apple Qmaster 3
Preface Welcome to Apple Qmaster The Apple Qmaster system provides automated work distribution and processing for high-volume projects created with digital visual effects software packages such as Shake. This preface covers the following: • About Apple Qmaster (p. 5) • About the Apple Qmaster Documentation (p. 5) • Additional Resources (p.
• Compressor User Manual: In addition to explaining how to use Compressor, this document explains how to set up and maintain an Apple Qmaster distributed processing network for use with Compressor or digital visual effects software packages such as Shake. • Apple Qadministrator User Manual: This document describes the Apple Qadministrator cluster management application only. You use this application to manually configure clusters using managed services.
Using Apple Qmaster 1 The Apple Qmaster application is the client software you use to submit jobs and batches (for Shake and related software) to the larger Apple Qmaster system, an automated work distribution and processing solution for high-volume projects. Note: The “Apple Qmaster and Distributed Processing” chapter in the Compressor User Manual is the primary documentation for the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system.
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 project shared by Final Cut Pro or Motion, a Compressor or Apple Qmaster batch, a Shake file, or other commands, that uses UNIX commands to specify settings such as rendering instructions and file locations and destinations. Network Batch of processing jobs Client computer Jobs are submitted.
Clusters When a client sends batches to the Apple Qmaster system, all the processing and subsequent moving of any output files is performed by a group of Apple Qmaster–configured computers called a cluster. To set up Apple Qmaster services, you either configure computers to work with This Computer Plus, create a QuickCluster in Compressor, or use the Apple Qadministrator application to create one or more clusters of service nodes, with one cluster controller included in each cluster.
The Apple Qmaster Interface The Apple Qmaster application described in this document is one part of the larger distributed processing system described in The Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System. The Apple Qmaster application is the client software you use to submit jobs and batches to the system. Both this application and the larger system are known by the same name (Apple Qmaster).
• Notification: Opens a dialog where you can set (or reset) an email address to which the status of a batch completion or failure can be sent. Apple Qmaster does not currently support SMTP servers that require authentication. The following list shows the processing service type followed by the notification label used in the emails and logs: • Local Compressor service: servicecontroller:com.apple.stomp.transcoder • Distributed Compressor service: servicecontroller:com.apple.stomp.
• Command pop-up menu: Use this pop-up menu to create commands. You can choose one of the following types of jobs. • Generic Render: For more information, see Submitting Batches with the Generic Render Command. • Maya: For more information, see Submitting Maya Batches. • Shake: For more information, see Submitting Shake Batches. • Shell: For more information, see Using Apple Qmaster to Submit UNIX Commands. • Add button: Use the Add (+) button to enter a job (with the selected job type) in the Batch table.
• Priority: Use this pop-up menu to set the relative priority (urgency) for a batch. This pop-up menu allows you to set the priority level (High, Medium, or Low) of a batch, relative to other batches. It defaults to Medium. High-priority batches get processed before medium-priority and low-priority batches. • Delay: Use these text fields to set a delay in hours or minutes for any job in the batch. Click in either text field (left field = hours, right field = minutes) to enter the corresponding value.
Remote Computer Address Dialog This dialog is displayed when you click the Add or Remove button in the main Preferences window. Use this dialog to enter IP addresses or ranges for manually selected computers. • Host and Host IP Address Range buttons: These buttons control whether this dialog is in IP Address mode (in which you enter a specific address) or IP Address Range mode (in which you enter a range of addresses). • Host: Use this mode to enter a host name and IP address for a specific remote computer.
To use Apple Qmaster with Shake, or other frame-based rendering applications, you must follow these installation and licensing guidelines. • To submit batches for Shake: A copy of Shake must be installed on every node in the cluster. For command-line rendering on Mac OS X, a license is not needed. • To submit batches for Maya: Install and license a copy of Maya on every node in the cluster.
Shared Volume Media Management with Shake It may be necessary to relink your assets once you move your project to the shared volume. This varies depending on the types of files, plug-ins, fonts, and environmental requirements. Things that commonly need to be changed are the FileIn and FileOut paths, and env variables such as NR_INCLUDE_PATH and NR_FONT_PATH. UNC should be disabled, as these paths are typically not resolvable to nodes in the cluster when arbitrary host names are used.
• To submit batches for any application that can be executed from the UNIX command line: See Using Apple Qmaster to Submit UNIX Commands. 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, but the following method is the easiest way to submit Shake batches with Apple Qmaster.
Each setting corresponds to a commonly used Shake command, with the exception of the Minimum setting. See the Shake documentation for further information about the Shake settings in this dialog. See About the Shake Plug-in Dialog for more information about the the Minimum setting. With the exception of the Minimum setting, each setting in the dialog corresponds to a commonly used Shake command or option. Refer to the Shake documentation for more information.
The Shake job appears in the window. The job appears in the window. 5 To add more jobs to this batch, repeat steps 3 and 4. 6 As needed, make any final changes to the batch, such as either of the following: • To edit a command in the list: Double-click the job. The command dialog in step 4 appears. • To delete a job from this batch (before you submit the batch): Select the job you want to delete and click the Remove (–) button. 7 As needed, set the following options for this batch.
Saving Time with Apple Qmaster The Apple Qmaster interface includes some additional features that you may find convenient. • Duplicating jobs: To duplicate a job, select it and click the Duplicate button, which is next to the Remove (–) button. This is especially useful if you want to submit similar jobs. You can make copies of the same job and then edit values in Apple Qmaster as needed.
• Ignore script failures checkbox: This checkbox allows you to determine whether Apple Qmaster should continue rendering all the frames of the script in the event that Shake returns a non-zero UNIX command result. (In Apple Qmaster 2 and previous versions, a job would always fail if any segment returned non-zero.) By default, this checkbox is not selected. Select the checkbox if Apple Qmaster should ignore non-zero UNIX command results. • Start field: Sets the start frame for the job.
• Off: Turns off motion blur. • On: Turns on motion blur. • Shutter checkbox: Refer to the Shake documentation for more information. • Shutter slider and field: Refer to the Shake documentation for more information. Additional Shake Plug-in Dialog Details • Monitor pop-up menu: Though the Monitor pop-up menu corresponds to a Shake command option, it requires some explanation in the context of this dialog. The pop-up menu lets you choose whether or not to display each frame as it renders.
3 In the dialog that appears, enter the relevant information in the required and optional fields. The full command is displayed here. Some fields and settings in this dialog are optional, but the following are required: • The Maya field displays the default location for the Maya application—make sure it is correct. • Use the Choose buttons to navigate to and choose the location of the Maya project and scene files for this job. • In the Frames section, enter a Start and End frame for the job.
Important: By default, Apple Qmaster ignores Maya plug-in error messages. If you use Maya plug-ins, you can change this by removing or renaming /Library/Application\ Support/Apple\ Qmaster/MayaCommandPlugin.commandPlugin/Contents/Resources/mayascript. Advanced users can customize MayaScript to suit their environment and workflow. Media Management in Maya Projects Most Maya assets are contained in the project directory.
Submitting Batches with the Generic Render Command You can use the Generic Render command in Apple Qmaster for the distributed processing of projects from other frame-based rendering applications (such as After Effects and LightWave). The plug-in dialog allows you to adjust parameters and to add more command-line options to each job. To submit a batch of files for processing using the Generic Render command 1 Open Compressor and choose Apple Qmaster > Create Rendering Jobs. Apple Qmaster opens.
• Click the Add (+) button to create an additional template, and adjust it by adding additional command elements from the pop-up menu. Note: You can change the order of the command elements by dragging them left or right. 5 If necessary, add command-line instructions in the Options field. Any text entered here will be appended at the end of the command. 6 Verify the full command in the Command text box and click OK. You can further customize the batch instructions by adding command-line options here.
[EXECUTABLE] -project [INPUT] -comp "Comp 1" -RStemplate "Multi-Machine Settings" -OMtemplate "Multi-Machine Sequence" -s [START FRAME] -e [END FRAME]-output [ITEM]/test[####].psd Where: [EXECUTABLE] = /Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ 6.5/aerender [INPUT] = /SHARED_VOLUME/Projects/AEProjs/Wine_Country/QMproject.
After Effects provides Render Setting and Output Module templates specifically for this environment. You can use custom After Effects render and output templates if you wish, but the output must be an image sequence. After Effects stores its custom template information in ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe After Effects 6.5 Prefs/. If you would like to use your custom Render Setting and Output Module templates in the cluster, copy this file to the same location on each node in the cluster.
4 For each job you want to add to the batch, click the Add (+) button, then type the UNIX command in the Command column. The UNIX command might specify, for example, the application, an output destination, and a couple of command-line options. Type the command in the Command column. Note: If you need to delete a job from this batch (before you submit the batch), select the job you want to delete and click the Remove (–) button. 5 As needed, set the following options for this batch.
Will Your Cluster Include Only Extended Nodes or Be Mixed? If all the nodes in the cluster will be extended nodes (nodes that do not have Compressor installed), the cluster needs one intermediary node that also acts as the cluster controller. There is no need to use the Apple Qadministrator application at all if you are creating a cluster that contains only an intermediary node and extended nodes.
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. 6 In the Apple Qmaster Sharing window, click OK.
About Environment Variables and Preflight Scripts You can streamline your workflow with environment variables and preflight scripts. What’s an Environment Variable? Environment variables are settings within a shell, from which commands are issued that affect the way a program operates. People who regularly execute commands from a Terminal shell, or write shell scripts, are usually familiar with environment variables.
4 Click OK. Your environment variables take effect immediately, and are retained only for the selected command.
