Animux Caseless "Ikea" Rackmount Renderfarm
From Animuxwiki
(Difference between revisions)
Line 10: | Line 10: | ||
*EFFICIENT USE OF SPACE: Safely pack as many nodes as possible in a given space. | *EFFICIENT USE OF SPACE: Safely pack as many nodes as possible in a given space. | ||
*EFFICIENT USE OF ENERGY: Minimize the use of chasis fans to the bare minimum - CPU, PSU, Videocards. (Another benefit, reduces noise) | *EFFICIENT USE OF ENERGY: Minimize the use of chasis fans to the bare minimum - CPU, PSU, Videocards. (Another benefit, reduces noise) | ||
- | * | + | *STABLE & FUNCTIONAL: Runs continuously without the regular problems of the high-quality/high-priced rackmount. |
- | *Render animations jobs | + | *Render animations jobs (using open-source tools Blender or closed source tools like Maya, 3DS Max, Lightwave, Softimage/XSI, Cinema 4D)<br> |
<br> | <br> | ||
Line 44: | Line 44: | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
- | With a very modest budget and a talented bunch of people we were able to accomplish something, many thought was either insanity or brilliance. It tooks us 3 versions | + | With a very modest budget and a talented bunch of people we were able to accomplish something, many thought was either insanity or brilliance. It tooks us 3 versions in 4 months to get it right. We find that with the final version it is easy to maintain rackmount renderfarm.<br> |
- | Details | + | Details will be available in our blog site soon... |
#A step by step guide on how we built the Animux Rackmount Renderfarm. | #A step by step guide on how we built the Animux Rackmount Renderfarm. |
Revision as of 10:16, 1 April 2009
Goals:
- EASILY AVAILABLE COMPONENTS: Using items for the rackmount that you could find in "Ikea", "home depot" or any neighbourhood hardware store.
- EASY TO MAKE: Preparing the rackmount should not need any fancy tools but just regular household hardware tools.
- PORTABLE: Easy to move around the studio or ship to a different location.
- UPGRADABLE: Easy to upgrade, maintain. (Each node can be fixed without having to bring down the entire rackmount, if possible right on the rack itself.)
- EXPANDABLE: Easy to scale-up or scale-out. With ease to upgrade the components in each rack it easily scales-up. It is easy to add more shelves (racks) with 2 nodes, it is equally easy to scale-out.
- EFFICIENT USE OF SPACE: Safely pack as many nodes as possible in a given space.
- EFFICIENT USE OF ENERGY: Minimize the use of chasis fans to the bare minimum - CPU, PSU, Videocards. (Another benefit, reduces noise)
- STABLE & FUNCTIONAL: Runs continuously without the regular problems of the high-quality/high-priced rackmount.
- Render animations jobs (using open-source tools Blender or closed source tools like Maya, 3DS Max, Lightwave, Softimage/XSI, Cinema 4D)
Hardware Specifications:
- 12 AMD Motherboards
- 12 Quad-core Phenoms
- 26x2GB (52GB RAM)
- 5 NVidia Quadro Video Cards for GPU based rendering (Gelato renderer)
- 10 NVidia video cards for GPU rendering and display
- 1 TB of HDD for NFS mount (can be easily expanded)
- 12 PSU (support GPU)
- 12 ATX Power switches
- 1 KVM Switch
- 16 Port Gigabit Switch
- 6 USB Mini Hubs
- 12 4GB USB Drives with Animux OS
- 12 Low Profile kit
Rack Specification
- Ikea 6 shelves ANTONIUS FRAME ($11)
- Ikea ANTONIUS wire basket ($3.25)
- Home Depot Paint Stirrers (Free with-in-reason) (A 6 shelf rackmount we needed 24 big and 36 small stirrers) (We created the green screen paint at Home Depot they were generous enough to give us some)
- (#4 or #6 ) Nylon or Metal screws, washers, nuts
- 4 inch zip ties
- High density board (we used it instead of plexiglass because of the cost & board was stronger)
With a very modest budget and a talented bunch of people we were able to accomplish something, many thought was either insanity or brilliance. It tooks us 3 versions in 4 months to get it right. We find that with the final version it is easy to maintain rackmount renderfarm.
Details will be available in our blog site soon...
- A step by step guide on how we built the Animux Rackmount Renderfarm.
- Measurement templates to drill holes to fix the motherboard (takes out guess work.)
- A time-lapse Video on how we built the Animux Rackmount Renderfarm.
- How render on nodes without harddisks.
- Metrics from rendering a project to test renderfarm.
- .......any many more details...