Watchdog::Documentation

The Submission dialog is the main interface for launching jobs on the system. Users define the job type, software version, job name, scene file, project and options (dependant upon type selected), packet settings, threading, priority, max nodes to use, log information recorded, and pools/servers to use.

Job Type :

Users can select currently 8 different job types including Maya Software, Mental Ray, Hardware, and Vector, Lightwave, 3dsMax, Combustion, Rib Sequences, and Command Line. Each different job type will modify the interface selections appropriately including software specific options.

New application types are continuously added as new products and versions are released. Moblur maintains a constant watch on the industry and will incorporate the most popular products as soon as the specifications are available.

Special Cases:

The "Rib Sequences" type is a special case where the job type is not a specific software application. Users can define any rib compliant renderer for this version type. When selected the Scene edit line changes to Rib. Here enter the location to the rib sequence. In the file name of the rib replace the frame number with a '#' symbol. (i.e. Z:\ribs\frame.0001.rib should be renamed to Z:\ribs\frame.#.rib).

The "Command Line" type is another special case. This job type does not use a specific command executable. Any command line command can be entered in the "Cmd:" edit line. This command will be executed once on each selected render node. Select "Detailed" Log Information to save the output of any executed command to a corresponding log file. This command can also be a network accessible script or .bat file for executing a sequence of commands.

Versions:

Users can select from an unlimited number of Administrator defined software versions. These "Versions" can be various software executables representing differing software versions or in the case of Lightwave even differing software configurations. This allows users to easily integrate and migrate to new versions of software without having to retool the entire pipeline.

Note: All 4 Maya types share the same Versions table.

Packets:

The packet settings define how jobs will be partitioned out to each RenderDog node. The "Start" and "End" frames define the total range of frames to be rendered. The "Step" value defines by how many frames to increment before rendering the next frame (i.e. a start value of 1 and end value of 10 with a step value of 2 will render frames 1,3,5,7,and 9). The Packet Size determines how many frames to submit to each RenderDog node at a time. This value can significantly impact render times if the scene files have a long load time. Each time a RenderDog node picks up a new packet it has to load the scene file, so the less number of packets in the job the fewer times the scene has to be loaded.

Job Priority :

This value influences the position of the job in the queue. A higher value will move the job to the top of the queue in turn causing it to be processes before lower priority jobs. This value can be changed once a job is in progress using the Edit Job dialog.

Select Servers:

This window lists all of the render pools defined by the server and all RenderDog nodes in the system. Here the user can select by pool or by individual node the RenderDog nodes which to use for this job. Nodes with a gray icon indicate that the node is offline, whereas a blue icon indicates that the node is available. This value can be modified once a job is in progress using the Edit Job dialog.

Max Nodes to Use:

The max nodes value limits the total number of launches to this specified value. This is particularly useful when users have jobs on the farm with enough frames to take up all of the processors but wish to leave some nodes available for other jobs to be processed without limiting the pool or servers to use.

Log Information:

Log information has 3 levels of detail to save: None, Simple, Detailed. None saves no record of the job in the system. Simple creates a log of general packet information including host used, memory, and total running time. Detailed includes the information from the Simple log, but additionally includes the full output of the render executable.

Note:

This edit line provides a space to add an annotation to the job which will be viewed by all Watchdog clients. This line can be left blank and has no effect on the actual job.

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