Apple Qmaster 3 PDF User Manual

About Apple Qmaster
The Apple Qmaster application described in this document is the graphical “client interface” that you use to submit jobs for distributed rendering and processing. Apple Qmaster can accept jobs from Shake, Autodesk Maya, and any UNIX command-line program. The Apple Qmaster application is one of several applications in the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system. The complete system includes controls for configuring clusters of processing computers and for monitoring, pausing, resuming, or canceling work that has been submitted.

About the Apple Qmaster Documentation
Apple Qmaster comes with various documents that will help you get started as well as provide detailed information about the application. To access these documents, open Apple Qmaster and choose Help > Apple Qmaster Help.
• Apple Qmaster User Manual: This document describes the Apple Qmaster client application only. For information about how to create a complete network for Apple Qmaster processing, as well as information about how the Apple Qmaster application works with the rest of the Apple Qmaster system, see the Distributed Processing Setup Guide.
• Distributed Processing Setup Guide: This document explains how to set up and maintain an Apple Qmaster distributed processing network for use with Compressor or digital visual effects software packages such as Shake.

The Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System
Computers that submit batches to Apple Qmaster are called clients. An Apple Qmaster job is a processing task in the form of a Shake file, or other file or commands, that uses UNIX commands to specify settings such as rendering instructions and file locations and destinations. Although a batch can include just one job, you will typically want to submit several jobs at once for processing. Similarly, several people can use the same Apple Qmaster system at the same time, with several client computers sending batches in the same time frame. Batches are managed and distributed by the computer that is designated as the Apple Qmaster cluster controller. For more information, see the Distributed Processing Setup Guide, available in Apple Qmaster Help.

Clients
Batches are submitted for processing from the client computers. A client computer can be any computer that has Apple Qmaster installed and is on the same network as the cluster controller. Multiple client computers can be on the same network, using the same cluster to do the processing for various applications. See Submitting Batches with the Apple Qmaster Application for details.

Clusters
When a client sends batches to the Apple Qmaster system, all the processing and subsequent moving of any output files is performed by a group of Apple Qmaster–configured computers called a cluster. To set up Apple Qmaster services, you use the Apple Qadministrator application to create one or more clusters of service nodes, with one cluster controller included in each cluster. Each computer in the cluster is connected to the other computers in the cluster through a network connection. See the Distributed Processing Setup Guide, available in Apple Qmaster Help, for more information on cluster setup. In particular, see “Preparing a Network for Distributed Processing.”

Service Nodes
When you combine multiple nodes into a cluster, they function as one very powerful computer because all their resources are shared. You make a computer available as a service node by configuring it in the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. The steps involved in using System Preferences to configure a service node are described in “Creating and Administering Clusters” in the Distributed Processing Setup Guide, available in Apple Qmaster Help.

Cluster Controllers
The cluster controller software acts as the manager of a cluster. The cluster controller directs the distribution of batches within the cluster. It has the ability to determine the best use of the cluster resources based on work and availability variables. (See the Distributed Processing Setup Guide, available in Apple Qmaster Help, for more details.) You make a computer available as a cluster controller by turning on the cluster controlling service in the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. (See “Configuring Service Nodes and Cluster Controllers” in the Distributed Processing Setup Guide, available in Apple Qmaster Help.)

The Apple Qmaster Interface
The Apple Qmaster application described in this document is one part of the larger distributed processing system described in The Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System. The Apple Qmaster application is the client software you use to submit jobs and batches to the system. Both this application and the larger system are known by the same name (Apple Qmaster).

The Apple Qmaster window contains a toolbar; a Batch Name field; a Submit To field; the Batch table; buttons to add, remove, and submit jobs (dimmed until at least one job is in the Batch table); and pop-up menus to choose job types and batch priority. Toolbar Buttons The Apple Qmaster toolbar contains the following buttons.

• History: Opens the History drawer, where you can view a full log of all batches submitted from your computer, check the current status of all processing batches, and resubmit any batches listed in the log.
• Set Environment: Opens a dialog where you can add environment variables and preflight scripts.
• Notification: Opens a dialog where you can set (or reset) an email address to which the status of a batch completion or failure can be sent. Apple Qmaster does not currently upport SMTP servers that require authentication. The following list shows the processing service type followed by the notification label used in the emails and logs:
• Local Compressor service: servicecontroller:com.apple.stomp.transcoder

• Distributed Compressor service: servicecontroller:com.apple.stomp.transcoderx
• Distributed Apple Qmaster service: servicecontroller:com.apple.qmaster.executor
• Batch Monitor: Opens Batch Monitor, which allows you to view the status of all batches being processed. Batch Table This is the large middle area of the Apple Qmaster window that lists the individual jobs in a batch.

Download Apple Qmaster 3 PDF User Manual


February 26, 2010 | Posted in Electronic Manual, Macintosh Manual, Netbook Manual, Notebook Manual

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