rdmartin

Q: QuickCluster - what are the best qmaster settings

I am running:

10.6.8 OS

Processor: 2.4 GHz core intel 2 duo

Memory 4GB 667 MHz

 

While using compressor, the destination of the file being created is an a usb 1.0 external harddrive - yes it is ancient

Thinking about getting a external hd with firewire 800 and usb 2.0 port - would using this improve speeds of compressor jobs?

 

Regardless, can someone please list the best performing qmaster settings for my setup

 

Thanks!

Final Cut Pro 7, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Nov 10, 2011 10:51 PM

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Q: QuickCluster - what are the best qmaster settings

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  • by Michael Grenadier,

    Michael Grenadier Michael Grenadier Nov 12, 2011 9:21 AM in response to rdmartin
    Level 7 (20,362 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 12, 2011 9:21 AM in response to rdmartin

    yeah, usb1 is VERY slow.  

     

    My understanding is that qmaster settings are something of a dark art.  Doing tests seems to be the best way to find the sweet spot.  Do some googling and searching here and you'll find some targets based on the number of cores on your machine.

  • by JimKells,

    JimKells JimKells Nov 12, 2011 10:39 AM in response to rdmartin
    Level 2 (335 points)
    Nov 12, 2011 10:39 AM in response to rdmartin
  • by rdmartin,

    rdmartin rdmartin Nov 12, 2011 10:51 AM in response to JimKells
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 12, 2011 10:51 AM in response to JimKells

    Luckily yesturday I upraded to a 1tb Firewire 800 external drive. Much improved.

    I checked out the Kenstone article- very helpful. He is using different settings than I am. When I finish my current batch I'll list mine versus his.

     

    If I change my qmaster settings will I have to create a totally new quickcluster in qadministrator??

     

    Does anybody know what effect checking the "Managed" boxes has on anything?

  • by divination23,

    divination23 divination23 Oct 5, 2012 3:23 PM in response to rdmartin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 5, 2012 3:23 PM in response to rdmartin

    I would recommend reading the Qmaster documentation. Not trying to be a jerk, network rendering is inherently complex, and reading the docs will be super helpful if you haven't had any experience setting up a network distribution system before.

     

    Managed resources have to be manually added to a cluster.  I believe quickclusters are setup by default to use only unmanaged resources. By default, when you enabled qmaster on a work machine(the farm machine) via the system prefs, setting the machine to be "Services only" or "Services and cluster controller" , the resources (read: "processors") are unmanaged by default. 

    Heres the difference, an unmanaged resource (processor) is available to any and all clusters on the same subnet (the local network those machines are on). A managed resource will only be available to a cluster when they are manually added to that specific cluster via the Qadministrator GUI.  By setting resources to "managed", they won't automatically be used by a cluster.  By leaving them unmanaged, they are automatically available to any cluster that can see them.

     

    HTH!

    -Andy

  • by Studio X,

    Studio X Studio X Oct 5, 2012 6:21 PM in response to divination23
    Level 7 (27,059 points)
    Oct 5, 2012 6:21 PM in response to divination23

    You replied to a thread that is almost a year dead. All the concerned parties are long gone (with the exception of Michael G who does not need help to understand the issues...)

     

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