3ds max render farm and plugins

[Cadu_Puccini]

Hi everyone!

I have some issues with 3ds max render farm and plugins, what is the right and best way for configure plugins (fumefx, greeble, etc) in all nodes of a render farm?
Install all plugins manually in all nodes, or there's a fast way with some configurations in an .ini file, etc?

Thanks!

[doug_bowker_3D]

I've always found I've had to do it manually. For large farms of 30+ machines there must be a way to script this process, but that'd take some time and skill that most small studios don't have.

[Midge_S]

I've found (when initially setting up the farm) configuring one machine completely, installing Max and all the plugins you need and the using cloning software gave me the quickest setup.

Macrium Reflect has a great free version that's rock solid.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

One thing to do is delete the backburner.xml config file from the clones, otherwise the machines will all be recognized as the same one on the farm, overriding each other.

[Cadu_Puccini]

Thank very much!

It seems to be a very good solution!
We sometimes use that kind of software, from paragon, for casual maintenance and not for clone. But to do an effective clone all node MUST have the same hardware configuration?
Because there's some minor diferences between the nodes, like HD and VGA, the processors are all the same.

Thanks!

[Midge_S]

Yeah, only use the clones on nodes with identical hardware. The VGA / HDMI thing seems a bit specific. If all the nodes use the same (onboard or dedicated) graphics, then it still wouldn't matter if they have a VGA or HMDI connected screen.

It's only the internal hardware that counts.

[Cadu_Puccini]

Thanks!

I found that software from paragon that offers a solution to migrate and copy drives from machines with dissimilar hardwares.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/dc-professional/features.html

Check it out, I think that is a very good solution too.

Thanks!