Windows Monitor

The Backburner Manager maintains a database, which it updates with every change of state of the render nodes. It then broadcasts the changes to every workstation running a Backburner Windows Monitor, whether the end-user is actively viewing it or not.

The first Windows Monitor making the connection has full control over the job queue and Backburner network, or queue control. Subsequent connections by other Windows Monitors have more limited functionality. It is recommended to run Windows Monitor on not more than two workstations.

Run the Backburner Windows Monitor:

  1. From the Start menu, choose Programs > Autodesk > Backburner > Monitor.
  2. The first time the application is run, no network or job details are present, since it is not yet connected to a Backburner Manager. To do that, from the Manager menu, choose Connect.
  3. In the Connect to Manager dialog uncheck Automatic Search and enter the host name or IP address of the Backburner Manager in the Enter Manager Name or IP Address text field. Automatic searching is not recommended, since it makes extensive use of network resources and can take some time. Click OK to initiate the connection. If the title bar displays “Read Only”, this indicates that another user has already connected to the manager via a Backburner Windows Monitor. The first monitor establishing a connection to the manager is automatically granted queue control, and can perform all job-related activities, including stopping, restarting, or deleting jobs. Subsequently, other monitors connect in read-only mode, allowing them to observe the activity on the Backburner network only. To get control:
    1. From the Manager menu, choose Request Client List. A Client List dialog appears, showing the status of all users connected to the manager via the Backburner Windows Monitor. The Status column indicates the user with control of the queue.
    2. Dismiss the dialog, then from the Manager menu, choose Request Queue Control. The manager transmits the request to the user currently with queue control. A message appears on the remote machine. The user has 10 seconds to actively refuse the request; otherwise, control of the queue passes over to you. You can now perform all operations on jobs and servers on the Backburner network.
  4. Verify the connection. From the Manager menu, choose Properties. Manager details appear in a dialog. If no connection was made, this option is greyed-out.
  5. Optional: Set the monitor to connect to its manager automatically at start-up. From the Manager menu, choose Autoconnect.
  6. When finished, end the session. From the Manager menu, choose Disconnect.

Managing and modifying jobs

Suspend and reactivate a job, select it, then do one of:

Modify job settings:

  1. Select the job of interest in the Job list.
  2. Display the current settings for the selected job:
  3. Double-click the field of interest, and modify it as desired. If the job setting can be modified, you are allowed to change it. Otherwise, the setting remains unchanged.
  4. Modify the Job properties as desired.
  5. The Backburner Manager can send job success, failure, and other notifications to the email addresses you specify in the Notifications area.
Job properties
Description
The description provided when the job was submitted to Backburner.
Priority
The job priority, from 0 to 100. Zero is the highest priority. 100 means the job is suspended.
Override Task Blocks Setting
Depending on how the system administrator has configured the Backburner Manager, it either i) assigns multiple tasks to each render node—that is, blocks of tasks (the default setting), or ii) assigns each render node one task at a time. Enable to override the manager's configuration, for this particular job.
Enable Task Blocks
Enable to cause the manager to send render nodes blocks of tasks, for this job. Disable if you want each render node to receive only one task at a time, for this job.

For example, enabling for frame-based render jobs results in each render node receiving a block of several frames to render at once. Disabling results in frames being sent one at a time.

For this setting to have an effect, you must also enable Override Task Blocks Setting.

Use All Available Servers
Overrides any Backburner Manager settings that restrict the maximum number of servers that can work on this job at any one time.
Server Limit
The maximum number of servers that can work on this job at any one time. Set this to zero to run on all servers.
Server Group
The server group to which the job is assigned.

Only servers in the specified server group will work on the given job, unless the group is set to use idle non-group servers.

Restarting a job halts all processing for the job, clears the server of all job-related temporary files (including completed tasks), and restarts the job from its first task. It is identical to resubmitting the job from the creative application, without the need for that application to be running.

Cloning a job creates a 100% duplicate job that is independent of the original, but inherits all of its qualities, including its status and settings. Cloning is a convenient means for experimenting with changes to job settings or testing render nodes, since changes made to the clone do not affect the original. Cloning is allowed, but not generally recommended. For efficiency, the Visual Effects and Finishing applications pre-allocate space on the destination storage device for the frames resulting from all Burn and background I/O jobs. Since the clone is a duplicate of the original job, its results overwrite those of the original job.

Archiving removes completed jobs from the job queue. It is a practical means for keeping the job queue organized by reducing clutter. Its advantage over deleting completed jobs is in preserving all the information needed to re-submit the jobs at a later date. You can also restore an archived job simply to examine job details, such as the render nodes that processed it. This can assist in identifying problems—if unexpected or unsatisfactory results occurred, for example. Archiving can also be part of a facility backup strategy, since the archive represents a job history, in compact form. Note, however, that the job archive contains metadata (job details) only—it does not contain source material or rendered frames. Note that archiving a job has no effect upon the associated media. The job archive contains job metadata only; that is, it contains the information needed to restart a job, but not the source media.

By default, archived jobs are saved to the Network\Archive folder where the Backburner Manager is installed.

Archive a selected job:

Delete a selected job:

Managing render nodes

To view render node status:

  1. Start the Backburner Monitor and connect to a Backburner Manager. The Server List area occupies the lower panes in the monitor. This area shows nodes organized in a hierarchical tree view and as a list. The tree view presents a hierarchical list of all node groups, as well as the plug-ins available for the system. You can use this area to see which render nodes are available to render jobs, as well as manage groups of nodes. The list of render nodes shows all nodes assigned to the group selected in the tree view. If no group is selected, all render nodes on the system appear in this area. By default, this area shows the following information for each node:
    • The name and current status of the node.
    • The job the node is currently processing.
    • The most recent message sent by the node to the Backburner Manager.
    • The icon beside each server provides a visual indication of its state.
      • Green: OK
      • Yellow: idle
      • Grey: absent
      • Red: error
  2. Customize the information shown in the list of render nodes, as desired.
  3. To locate a render node, do any of the following:
    • Scroll through the entries using the scroll bars.
    • Reorder the list in ascending or descending order by clicking a column heading.
    • Filter the list by first clicking the square on the right side of each column in the Job list. Enter filtering criteria in the dialog that appears.
  4. Right-click a render node and choose Properties (or tap Ctrl+N). The Server Properties dialog appears, showing hardware and software information for the node.
    Server
    Server host name.
    User
    User account name under which the Backburner Server was launched.
    Current Job
    The current job as assigned by the Backburner Manager.
    Status
    Current server activity.
    Handle
    Server ID, used internally and in log files.
    Platform
    Operating system details.
    Memory
    Installed RAM.
    CPUs
    The total number of CPUs installed on the system.
    IP Address
    The server's IP address. This is used by the Backburner Manager to communicate with the server.
    Perf. Index
    A value in the range [0–1] indicating the performance level of the render node, relative to the other servers on the same job. A score of 1 indicates this is the best-performing server.
    Available Disk Space
    Disk space available for rendering.
    burn, mio, Command Line Tool, Wire, etc.
    A list of adapters installed on the render node, for example: burn: The Burn renderer mio: The Media I/O adapter used by WiretapCentral.Command Line Tool: The adapter associated with cmdjob.
    Server
    Backburner Server software version.
    Backburner API
    DSO version. Should match the Backburner software version.
    Plugin
    Backburner Adapter version and platform info.

Customize the render node list:

  1. To add a new column: from the Server menu choose Column Chooser, or right-click any node in the list and choose Column Chooser. The Server Columns dialog appears, presenting the columns that can be added.
  2. Drag and drop the column of interest to the column title bar in the Job list.
  3. To rearrange the columns, drag and drop.
  4. To remove a column, right-click the column title, and choose Remove Column. You cannot remove the Server column.

To shift a render node:

  1. Select the node in the server list, then click Remove Server on the toolbar. The node ends its current processing task and becomes available for other jobs.
  2. In the job list, select the job to which you want to assign the node.
  3. Assign the render node to the job: select the unassigned node and then, from the Servers menu, choose Assign To Selected Jobs, or right-click the unassigned node and choose Assign To Selected Jobs from the popup menu. The selected render node begins working on the new job. It remains assigned to the new job until the entire job is complete.

Use the following procedure to delete offline render nodes from the system. Deleting a render node removes its entry from the database maintained by the Backburner Manager. It does not delete any software from the node itself.

To delete a render node:

  1. Deleting a node can make it more difficult to troubleshoot jobs with problems, since it will be more difficult to determine which node carried out the flawed work. Before deleting a node, consider archiving jobs that made use of it, to preserve job details, including the nodes to which tasks were sent.
  2. Select the render node(s) of interest. Only nodes marked by the system as absent can be deleted.
  3. Choose Delete Server from the Servers menu, or by right clicking the node. The node is deleted and is removed from the list.

To help manage network traffic, schedule the availability of a render node:

  1. Select the render node(s) of interest and choose Week Schedule from the Servers menu or the righ-click menu. Periods of time that are green indicate the node is available to process jobs. By default, nodes are always available.
  2. Select the time of interest:
    • Select a single hour by clicking the hour of interest.
    • Select the same hour for each day with one click using the hour buttons.
    • Click and drag to select a number of hours at once.
    • Select a whole day using the days-of-the-week buttons.
    • Select the entire week by clicking the button at the top left. The selected time is shown in white.
  3. Click the Allow or Disallow buttons, as desired. Green indicates node availability. Red indicates processing is prohibited during this time.
  4. Click OK to update the schedule for the node and close the dialog.

Server groups

A server group is a named collection of render nodes that is treated, for the most part, as if it were a single node. By default, jobs are submitted by creative applications to the Backburner network as a whole. It is the Backburner Manager that determines the specific render nodes to which they are sent, based on job type and node availability. However, certain Autodesk applications can be configured to submit jobs to a specific server group.

Server groups can be used to implement a job-processing strategy. For example, consider a facility with two Visual Effects and Finishing applications, and a render farm consisting of eight Burn nodes, four of which are GPU-enabled. In such a situation, you might create two server groups, one each for the non-GPU and GPU-enabled Burn nodes. By assigning each Visual Effects and Finishing workstation to a different server group, you can reserve the GPU-enabled Burn nodes for the workstation with higher priority or more demanding jobs.

Server groups do not restrict the ability to assign render nodes to particular jobs as you see fit. When a creative application is configured to submit its jobs to a server group, additional nodes can be assigned to it, automatically, or manually, once the job is on the network. Conversely, you can always remove individual nodes from a job, regardless of their relationship to a server group.

Two kinds of server groups can be created, local groups and global groups. In almost all cases, you will want to create global server groups only. Local groups serve a particular purpose for 3ds Max, under a specific Backburner configuration.

For information on configuring a creative application to submit jobs to a server group, see the User Guide for the application of choice.

Create a server group:

  1. Right-click All Servers in the server list and choose Global Group from the popup menu. If the option is greyed-out, connect to a Backburner Manager, and then try again.
  2. Configure the behaviour of the group:
    Name
    The name of the server group as it will appear in the UI.
    Weight
    Adjusts the priority of jobs assigned to the server group. Jobs assigned to a high-weight server group are given higher priority than jobs assigned to lower-weight groups. In fact, a job assigned to a high-weight group may be rendered ahead of non-group jobs—even if the non-group jobs have higher priorities at the job level.
    Can Use Idle Non-group Servers
    Enable to allow the Backburner Manager to temporarily assign idle non-group render nodes to the group. Enabling this option increases the rendering power of the group.
    Suspend Non-Current Group Jobs
    Enable to allow the Backburner Manager to suspend the processing of non-group jobs running on group nodes, when a new job is submitted specifically to the group. Enabling this option allows a render node group to automatically switch from non-group jobs to new group jobs.
  3. Add render nodes to the group by selecting them in the Available list and clicking Add. The render nodes are added to the group. You can add render nodes directly from the Server list area by dragging and dropping them onto an already existing group.
  4. Click OK. The render node group is added to the Global Groups list.

Assign a server group to a job:

  1. Select the job(s) of interest in the Job list.
  2. In the Server list, right-click the server group and choose Assign Group to Selected Jobs. The server group is assigned to the job.
    • If nodes in the group are busy, they complete their currently-assigned jobs before working on the new job to which you have assigned them. Otherwise, they begin working on the new job immediately.
    • If the “Suspend current non-group jobs” option is enabled for the group, all nodes in the Server group drop their current rendering job and begin processing the assigned job immediately.

Shift a server group between two jobs:

  1. Select all jobs in the Job list.
  2. In the Global Groups list, right-click the render node group to be reassigned and choose Remove Group From Selected Jobs. Each render node in the group ends its current assignment and becomes available for other jobs. If "Suspend current non-group jobs" is enabled for the group, the jobs are dropped immediately. Server groups are subject to the same job assignment and completion rules and restrictions as individual render nodes.
  3. In the Job list, select the job to which you want to assign the group.
  4. In the Server list, right-click the server group and choose Assign Group to Selected Jobs. The render node group is assigned to the new job and begins rendering. If "Can use idle non-group servers" is enabled for the group, the Backburner Manager adds nodes to the group temporarily, as they become available from other jobs.

To delete a server group:

  1. In the Global Groups list, right-click the render node group of interest and choose Delete Group. Once the group is deleted from the Server list, the render nodes themselves remain untouched, and can be assigned to other groups, as needed.

Use the following procedures to create or delete a named collection of render nodes, called a server group, and to assign a server group to a job. Two kinds of server groups can be created, local and global. Apart from some special cases with 3dsMax, global server groups are used. To configure a Visual Effects and Finishing application to submit its jobs to a server group, set the BackburnerManagerGroup keyword in the application's init.cfg.

Server Group customization

By default the nodes in a server group are available to all jobs submitted to the Backburner network. A server group can be configured to make use of idle non-group render nodes. A server group can be configured to give priority to the jobs submitted to it specifically. Once configured, when the Backburner Manager receives a job for a server group, non-group jobs are immediately suspended, freeing up the nodes for the server group job.

To create a server group:

  1. Right-click All Servers in the server list and choose Global Group from the popup menu. If the option is greyed-out, connect to a Backburner Manager, and then try again.
  2. Configure the behaviour of the group:
    Name
    The name of the server group as it will appear in the UI.
    Weight
    Jobs assigned to a high-weight server group are given higher priority than jobs assigned to lower-weight groups. A job assigned to a high-weight group may be rendered ahead of non-group jobs, even if the non-group jobs have higher priorities at the job level.
    Can Use Idle Non-group Servers
    Allows the Backburner Manager to temporarily assign idle non-group render nodes to the group. Enabling this option increases the rendering power of the group.
    Suspend Non-Current Group Jobs
    Allows the Backburner Manager to suspend the processing of non-group jobs running on group nodes, when a new job is submitted specifically to the group. Allows a render node group to automatically switch from non-group jobs to new group jobs.
  3. Add render nodes to the group by selecting them in the Available list and clicking Add. You can add render nodes directly from the Server list area by dragging and dropping them onto an already existing group.

To assign a server group to a job:

  1. Select the job(s) of interest in the Job list.
  2. In the Server list, right-click the server group and choose Assign Group to Selected Jobs.
    • If nodes in the group are busy, they complete their currently-assigned jobs before working on the new job to which you have assigned them. Otherwise, they begin working on the new job immediately.
    • If the “Suspend current non-group jobs” option is enabled for the group, all nodes in the Server group drop their current rendering job and begin processing the assigned job immediately.

Shift a server group between two jobs:

  1. Select all jobs in the Job list.
  2. In the Global Groups list, right-click the render node group to be reassigned and choose Remove Group From Selected Jobs. Each render node in the group ends its current assignment and becomes available for other jobs. If "Suspend current non-group jobs" is enabled for the group, the jobs are dropped immediately. Server groups are subject to the same job assignment and completion rules and restrictions as individual render nodes.
  3. In the Job list, select the job to which you want to assign the group.
  4. In the Server list, right-click the server group and choose Assign Group to Selected Jobs. If "Can use idle non-group servers" is enabled for the group, the Backburner Manager adds nodes to the group temporarily, as they become available from other jobs.

To delete a server group, in the Global Groups list, right-click the render node group of interest and choose Delete Group. The render nodes themselves remain untouched, and can be assigned to other groups, as needed.

Parent topic: Backburner Monitor