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Autodesk Burn Configuration

In this topic, we create an Autodesk Burn instance to be used in a network of Flame and Burn instances. They all use the same project server and networked storage.

Important: it is recommended to limit the number of Burn nodes per workgroup to avoid network congestion and storage quality of service issues.

You will:

  1. Set up a Burn instance on AWS.
  2. Connect to the instance through a command line.
  3. Configure the instance as a Burn node.
  4. Configure the instance to use the networked storage.

Set Up a Burn Instance on AWS

Using the Autodesk Burn AMI you created, deploy a Burn instance with the following parameters:

  • Instance type: High performance NVIDIA GPU-based instances, at least G4dn.8xlarge (other recommended options are G5.8xlarge, G6.8xlarge, G6e.8xlarge, Gr6.8xlarge). The Burn instance type must match your Flame instance type.

  • Storage: 20 GB for the system disk is enough. Media is stored on an attached disk array or cloud NAS.

  • Security Groups:

    • Burn
    • IGMP-multicast

Other settings should be adjusted according to your requirements, but do configure the following:

  • Network
  • Subnet
  • Domain join directory
  • IAM role
Note:

When you create the instance, the option Instance volume deletion on termination controls what happens to the storage when you terminate the instance. If the volume is not deleted on instance termination, while you are no longer paying for the terminated instance, you are still paying for the storage.

To avoid paying for storage you no longer need, the instance volume can be deleted automatically when the instance is terminated.

  1. When you launch an instance, open the storage tab.
  2. Select Delete on termination.

Before selecting Delete on termination, understand that data stored on the instance volume is permanently deleted when the instance is terminated.


Configure the Burn Instance as a Burn Node

Once you have created the Burn node instance, you configure it following the steps below.

  1. Connect to the Burn instance

From your local machine, connect to the instance through ssh. Use the flameadmin account and the keypair of the instance.

ssh -i <keypair> flameadmin@<INSTANCE PUBLIC IP>
  1. Either create user accounts or set up an identity management system

What you do depends on whether or not you are using an identity management system.

You have an identity management system

If you are using an identity management system, now is the time to add the instance to the system. The procedure to do so is outside the scope of this document, but here are links to the documentation of some common identity management systems:

You don't have an identity management system

If you are not using an identity management system, you must now create on this instance the accounts of all the users that will submit Burn jobs to this Burn node. For this you need each user account's user name, user ID, and user group as they are defined or will be defined on the Flame instances.

Repeat this procedure for each user account:

  1. Open a shell.

  2. Create the user account, making sure to correctly enter ther user's <user id>, <user group>, and <username>.

    sudo useradd -u <user id> -g <user group> <username>

  3. Create a password for the user. Enter:

    sudo passwd <username>

  4. Follow the onscreen instructions.

  1. Assign a new machine ID

In a shell, run the command to assign a new machine ID to your instance:

dbus-uuidgen | sudo tee /etc/machine-id
  1. Stop Autodesk Backburner and Autodesk Stone & Wire services

To stop Autodesk Backburner and Autodesk Stone & Wire Services.

sudo systemctl stop adsk_backburner
sudo systemctl stop adsk_sw
  1. Set the hostname of the Burn node
  1. Connect to the instance.
  2. Set the hostname of the instance.
    sudo hostnamectl set-hostname --static <Your-host-name>
  1. Add Burn users to the vglusers group

You must add every user that will send jobs to this Burn instance to the vglusers group. These are the users either part of your identity management system or the ones you created in step 2.

In a shell, enter the following for each user:

sudo usermod -a -G vglusers <Your-username>[@<Your-Domain-name>]
  1. Configure Backburner

In a shell, enter the following. Replace <Your-ProjectServer-hostname> and <Your-Burn-node-name> in the following commands with your respective project server and Burn node names.

sudo rm /opt/Autodesk/backburner/Network/backburner.xml
sudo /opt/Autodesk/backburner/backburnerConfig << EOF > /dev/null
n
y
<Your-ProjectServer-hostname>
<Your-Burn-node-name>
EOF
  1. Restart Autodesk Backburner and Autodesk Stone & Wire services

To restart Autodesk Backburner and Autodesk Stone & Wire Services.

sudo systemctl start adsk_backburner
sudo systemctl start adsk_sw
  1. Attach the NAS mount point

In a workgroup configuration, your media is stored on a network attached storage (NAS). You have configured the NAS previously, and now you mount it on the instance to use it as your media storage.

In a shell, run the following commands.

  1. Install autofs.

    sudo dnf install autofs

  2. Create the directory where the media is stored.

    sudo mkdir /mnt/StorageMedia

  3. Redirect to the NAS. Use the command sudo vi /etc/auto.direct and add the following line to the file.

    /mnt/StorageMedia   -rw,noatime,nodiratime,bg   nas:/mnt/nas/StorageMedia
    Note: The above is an example of an NFS exported file system from server nas. Different shared storage solutions will use slightly different syntax. You must adapt this line to your setup.

  4. Set up the automount. Use the command sudo vi /etc/auto.master and add the following line at the end of the file.

    /-  auto.direct

  5. Enable and restart autofs.

    sudo systemctl enable autofs
sudo systemctl start autofs

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