Installation & Licensing

[#1]

I'm trying to install backburner 2011 Mac. But I'm completely stymied. Is there an actual guide that reflects reality? The first steps:

To install Backburner on a Mac workstation: 1    Insert the Smoke for Mac OS X application DVD and double-click the DVD icon that appears on the
desktop. If installing from a downloaded disk image (.dmg) file, double-click that file first.
2    Make use of the installation wizard options to install the Backburner Manager and/or Backburner Server, per your configuration requirements.
3    Once completed, verify that the needed components have been properly installed and started. Go to Applications / Autodesk in Finder, and open the Autodesk Systems Monitor application.

don't reflect what actually happens. There is no Autodes Systems Monitor application. I can't go any further.

I'm using Maya 2011. Thanks

[#2]

I assume you are refering to the following install guide

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/backburner20100.2_install_guide.pdf

This Part of Document is only for Smoke

"NOTE

The following procedure applies to Smoke for Mac OS X only. For Maya, use the application DVD to install all needed Backburner components. "

For maya installation you should find backburner installed under

/usr/discreet/backburner

probably the second part of the document(page 77) can help you further.

[#3]

OK, thanks Hashim. I'll go over the guide once again.

[#4]

Hasim-

would you consider it a good strategy to first get Backburner working on a single machine as a test, then deploy for the farm? I'm just not sure about the implications of setting up the Manager and what that would mean to change the setup. Thanks

[#5]

Nevermind. I see the docs answer that for Maya, there is no standalone BB option. Off to Setting up a Render Farm I go.

[#6]

Hashim-

OK, things are looking up. Somewhat. I can submit Backburner jobs. I can see all the Macs (with maya installed) on the network. However:

Each is listed in the Manager pop up of the Backburner Monitor

Each only has "access" to itself. i.e. I'm not able to create a Server Group containing all the macs.

Another issue is that I've tried to set up a separate machine as a standalone Manager, but the maya installer simply says "failed on exit" for the Backburner component. After install there is no /usr/discreet/ dir. Can I manually install and start the Manager?

Lastly, I want to ultimately be able to render cross-platform. The docs don't seem to cover this. How to deal with file paths, etc?

thanks

[#7 · Accepted solution]

From the User Guide > Rendering and Render Setup > Rendering > Network rendering > Maya network rendering >

Network rendering with Backburner:

Install Backburner and Maya in the same folder location on each of your render farm nodes. Therefore, you cannot mix Windows render nodes with Linux render nodes or Windows render nodes with Mac OS X render nodes and so forth..

To use multiple different OS'es set up separate render farms (manager + servers) and submit a sequence of frames to each of the managers.

[#8]

"Therefore, you cannot mix Windows render nodes with Linux render nodes or Windows render nodes with Mac OS X render nodes and so forth."

If all your nodes are PC, and your BB Manager is on a PC, can you sumbit a job with "Render / Create Backburner Job" from Maya on OSX?

If not, can you save the file from Maya OSX, and Command Line render from the PC (with Manager) without opening the Maya file in a PC version of MAYA and resaving it?

[#9]

Since I am not expers in the rendering, not able give you a simple answer

you might get a better answer in this forum

http://area.autodesk.com/

I will check with some experts internally as well..

[#10]

i cant feger out a way