the Piovra

This is an easy tutorial made for present the power of the piovra v-1.02 project and a how to use correctly this feature.

This text talk about Piovra WITHOUT THE GRAPHICAL INTERFACE
we will use for now only the shell.

Now, we have :

1 pc dual processor whit Linux (generic)
1 pc laptop whit installed WINDOWS(R)
1 pc whit installed BSD (or MAC OS X)

BEFORE START :

We need in every system :

- Python version 2.34 or up
- Blender the same version for every node

INSTALL

docompress the tarball whit piovra-1.02 in a directory of your system.

Run this command whit like administrator (root) :

- on Linux or BSD you must write : "sh linux-install.sh"
- on Windows you must write : "Setup.exe"

The installation is complete

CONFIG

Before start to render we must comfigure the salves pc whit piovraslave:

First of all, we must create a directory for store the renderized frame, and then move to this directory and:

- on dual processor we write : "piovraslave 2 /usr/bin"

>> we ipotize that there is an executible called /usr/bin/blender

- on windows we open a prompt dos , and we move to the directory (like below) and we write "piovraslave 1 c:\progra~1\blende~1"

>> if blender is installed in c:/programmi/blender

- in the last pc (whit bsd or mac os X) we must go to the directory (like below) and write "piovraslave 1 /home/pippo/blender-2.36"

>> if blender is installed in /home/pippo/blender-2.36/blender

We can use this command on sh script (linux, bsd and mac os X ) and batch (windows) so we can make a script which start piovraslave when we start the machine automaticaly.
If we do this then we must only login in every pc for use our renderfarm!

FIRST RENDERING

Now, we want to renderize "renderizzami.blend" from frame 1 to frame 100 on the dual processor.

- cofigure the blender file :

In the render window , "Directory/name to save rendered pics to" (at left) must be empty.

For be sure the the texture are load corecty from every slave node we open the menu ( up and left)
File --> pack data

So, we want the output format like jpg.

Then remeber to save whit Ctrl+W.

We ipotize that the ip of our machine are :

192.168.0.0
192.168.0.1
192.168.0.9

(NDT) For windows we can see the ip of the machine whit winipcfg and on linux/bsd/mac os we can use ifconfig

So, we want to use the dual processor like master and so, we compiled on this the table of slave :

piovramaster -add 192.168.0.0
piovramaster -add 192.168.0.1

If we want to see wich slave there is in configurated we can write :

piovramaster -list

In this case we will see:

192.168.0.0
192.168.0.1

This file will be used in every rendering session so look that is ok for every session

Now we start to render:

piovramaster -wakeall /home/pippo/renderizzami.blend 1 100 2

We will see that the rendering is distribuited !

But we never use the BSD, so for add this to the render farm we must only write :

piovramaster -wake 192.168.0.9

For be neat we can use 2 shell for see the output in one screen.

Now we have the renderfarm at full power!

But like ever,your father (we soppose) want to use your laptop whit Windows(R) and so you must disconnet to the renderfarm.

write:

piovramaster -del 192.168.0.1

Wait until the laptop want a new frame and read on the output of piovramaster which there is a slave disconnetted. If we havent time for di this , we can kill the beldner process but not the process of piovra !!

For have the last frame rendered from piovra that are in /home/pippo/jpgtemp/ we write:

piovramaster -recv 192.168.0.1 jpg /home/pippo/jpgtemp

So we want delete the file on the laptop :

piovramaster -purge 192.168.0.1 jpg

We want also that the laptop shutdown:

piovramaster -halt 192.168.0.1

The rendering run from many minute and we want to see hot our machine working :

For fist let's see how many frame we ahve finished :

piovramaster -recvall jpg /home/pippo/jpgtemp

So we answer the see the show load of every machine.

Beacause there is only Linux or BSD liki sistem operative we want to lunch the comand "uptime" on every node,is very easy ! just write :

piovramaster -execall uptime

We will see the output of every node on our master machine!

Ok now we want to see if there is a node whitout the ram needed :

piovramaster -execall free

like below we will se the output on our master pc.

And..if we want to see how much free space there is on BSD hard-disk?

piovramaster -exec 192.168.0.9 df

Now, we can relax and see the image .. but ..

Oh no! in this scene there is an error ! we must stop all and restart the rendering

How to stop the renderfarm ?

piovramaster -stopall

This command is not like piovramaster -del beacuse whit this we never change the list of slave.

When thw master recive the asnwer from a node it will stop the node,

so, we must clean the frame on the salve node whit :

piovramaster -purgeall jpg

We correct the blend and we are ready, but there is a new problema.

We must go to your grand mother to dinner and so we must change :
- We must wait for all the fram before shutdown the machine?

- or got to dinner to eat the wonderfull grand mother 's lasagne?

No problem ! Just write:

piovramaster -allauto /home/pippo/renderizzami.blend 1 100 2 jpg /home/pippo/jpgtemp

And piovra will rendering every frame and then receive from every node the image and clean the slave node machine..and then shutdown every pc

NOTE:

a] Why we not send every image after the rendering ?

a) For fist is not required to send every image to the master, for exaple
if we have for master a 486 whit 200 MB di Hard Disk!
If I write a list of slave of the renderfarm on one slave ,
I can make everything you write below from this node but not
the command about rendering . So, I can shutdown the pc, get the
image of the frame and control every sistem

b] In the manual I read abuot config the firewall, why?

b) Beacuse if you start piovraslave at boot whit root permission there is
a possibility to run from the net every command on your system.
This is very danger if your machine is connected to internet.

For sample sambody can install piovraserver and tell to your renderfarm "-halt"
for stop your system.
So, if you have a internet acess to the renderfarm is very important that you use a
configurated firewall.

For more information or if you want to answe something please contact the team of the Piovra projectdel progetto by the mailing-list:

the_piovra_project@freelists.org