User manual APPLE QMASTER 2.3.1 LATE-BREAKING NEWS

[. . . ] This update is recommended for all Apple Qmaster 2. 1 users. Xsan Compatibility Xsan 1. 3 is not compatible with Compressor's Apple Qmaster distributed processing system when Xsan media drives are used for cluster (scratch) storage. To download and install Xsan 1. 4, go to:  http://www. apple. com/support/xsan Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2. 1 This version of Apple Qmaster is designed to run natively on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macintosh computers. The following information is additional late-breaking news about Apple Qmaster 2. 1. Distributed Processing and QuickTime Versions If you are using the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system with Compressor or Shake, all nodes (computers) in a cluster must have the same version of QuickTime installed. To download the most recent version of QuickTime, go to:  http://www. apple. com/quicktime/download/mac. html 2 QuickTime Movie Output from Shake and Mac OS X Dependencies If you are using Apple Qmaster to render Shake jobs as QuickTime movie output, every service node in the Apple Qmaster cluster must be running Mac OS X v10. 4or higher. Using Apple Qmaster 2 with an NFS Server By default, Apple Qmaster uses /etc/exports to define its Cluster Storage export. [. . . ] To extend the time process files remain on a cluster's scratch location: 1 On the cluster controller, open the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. 2 If any Apple Qmaster services are enabled on this computer, click Stop Sharing to temporarily turn them off. 4 In the Delete Files Older Than __ Days field, enter the number of days you expect the session to take, plus a day or two extra, just in case. 6 Click Start Sharing. Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2. 0. 1 Apple Qmaster 2. 0. 1 is a maintenance release of Apple Qmaster that provides improved reliability. Shake Jobs and Non-Zero Exit Status Using Apple Qmaster, you can quickly create and submit a batch of Shake jobs for distributed processing. The new "Ignore script failures" checkbox allows you to determine whether Apple Qmaster should continue rendering all the frames of the script in the event that Shake returns a non-zero UNIX command result. (In Apple Qmaster 2 and previous versions, a job would always fail if any segment returned non-zero. ) By default, this checkbox is not selected. Select the checkbox if Apple Qmaster should ignore non-zero UNIX command results. 4 Generic Render Command and Non-Zero Exit Status You can use the Generic Render command in Apple Qmaster for the distributed processing of projects from other frame-based rendering applications (such as After Effects and LightWave). The Generic Render dialog allows you to adjust parameters and to add more command-line options to each job. The new "Treat non-zero exit status as failure" checkbox in the Generic Render dialog allows you to use Apple Qmaster with rendering applications that return non-zero results that are not intended to indicate failure. If your rendering application issues non-zero results that are not intended to indicate failure, deselect the checkbox. Proxy Name Mismatch in Apple Qmaster and Shake With the Proxies feature in Apple Qmaster, you can quickly choose a proxy setting for a Shake script. While the four default proxy settings are identical in both Shake and Apple Qmaster, they have slightly different names in each application. The table below indicates the corresponding names. Apple Qmaster name P1 P2 P3 P4 Shake name Base P1 P2 P3 Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2. 0 The following information is late-breaking news that was included with Apple Qmaster 2. 0. Apple Qmaster Shake Plug-in Motion Blur Pop-Up Menu The Motion Blur checkbox in the Shake dialog has been changed to a pop-up menu containing the following options:  Default for script  Off  On The new "Default for script" option provides greater control by allowing you to retain custom motion blur settings from the original Shake script. 5 Service Node Status Indicator in the Menu Bar By default, once a service node is enabled, an Apple Qmaster icon appears in the computer's menu bar. The icon now changes color based on the service node's current status:  Gray = Idle  Green = Processing  Red = Connection failure Click the icon to reveal additional information, including the service node's IP address, port number, and capture status, as well as a link to the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. Command-Line Usage and Upgrading Apple Qmaster 1. 2 to 2. 0 on a Mac OS X v10. 4 Tiger System The qmasterprefs command feature offers command-line options for enabling and disabling service node and cluster controlling services. If you upgrade Apple Qmaster from version 1. 2 to version 2. 0 on a computer with Mac OS X v10. 4 Tiger installed, the qmasterprefs command-line feature is disabled. Run the Installer a second time to restore the qmasterprefs command. Apple Qadministrator Clusters Require Managed Services Although Apple Qadministrator currently allows you to create a cluster with unmanaged services, valid clusters require at least one managed service in order for the cluster to be viewable in Apple Qmaster, Compressor, and Batch Monitor. Scheduling Unmanaged Services If you enabled unmanaged services, you can open a calendar interface (in the Advanced section of the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences) to schedule the availability of these services to the distributed processing system. 6 Note: You must enter valid days and times. on Monday, enter the following two entries:  Sunday ON BETWEEN 06:00 P. M. and 8:00 A. M. Using Shell Commands to Set Apple Qmaster Preferences If you are accustomed to doing your work from Terminal shells, and need or prefer to run Apple Qmaster from the command line, the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system offers a number of shell commands for configuring service nodes and cluster controllers, submitting jobs, and monitoring batches. For example, as an alternative to using the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences, you can use the command qmasterprefs to enable and disable service node and cluster controlling services. If you use the qmasterprefs command, the resulting settings may not be accurately reflected in the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences, even though the actual settings are correct and functional. (You can use Activity Monitor to verify the actual settings. ) Log Activity Default Setting The Apple Qmaster "Log Activity to File" feature is on by default. [. . . ] If you find partial media files, delete them and submit the job again. Compressor Command-Line Usage Requires Login While it is possible to use the command line to run an Apple Qmaster distributed processing network, each Compressor service node (each computer providing Compressor distributed processing services) must be logged in (with a Mac OS X user name and password) for full functionality. Distributed Processing and Network Interface Cards In the Advanced section of the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences, you can restrict distributed processing activity to a particular network interface card by choosing it from the Use Network Interface pop-up menu. If you do this on a service node computer, use a different computer to submit Compressor jobs and batches. [. . . ]