[Condor-users] Condor and Maya

["Lantin, Maria" <Maria_Lantin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

Just subscribed to this list.  I've seen some sporadic postings about using
condor with maya for rendering.  There is a utility on the condor site
called condor_render but it hasn't worked well for me.

My first simple setup was 3 linux machine with a total of 7 processors.  I
just wanted to be able to submit linux jobs to a linux cluster to begin
with.  First problem was with the processing of the maya files.  I had to
change the source to properly parse out the file names for the textures.
Then I tried submitting the job but it gave me an error, saying it couldn't
find swrenderer.xml.  The job runs fine when run manually from the command
line.  Then I tried running it without copying the executable or files.
That worked better but it stalled at starting maya from Render.  Then I
tried running a script instead of the executable. The only thing in the
script was "Render $*".  That worked well.  But I'm puzzled as to why.  

Happy that at least something was working, I then tried to submit a job from
windows to the same linux cluster.  Again the job runs fine when run
manually.  When I submit from my windows box, maya segmentation faults and
exits with status 139.  I looked at the core file and it seems to crash on
trying to modify the environment.  Not sure why.  It seems that other people
on this mailing list have had the same problem.  Also if I set "getenv" to
true, the job just sits in the queue forever and generates Shadow
exceptions.

So I'd love to talk to anyone who has a workable condor render farm
solution.  So far this has been quite hard to set up and I can't spend much
more time on it.

Thanks!
M!

---------------------------------
Here is my job file for windows:

## Location of Maya renderer
Executable = c:\condor_render\RenderThis

## Environment variables needed to make renderer work
environment =
PATH=/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/aw/maya/bin;MAYA_LOCATION=/usr/aw/maya

## File name of output from renderer (STDOUT) or omit if no output is
desired 
Output = cr.out

## File name of condor log file or omit if no log is desired 
log = cr.log

## File name of error output from renderer (STDERR) or omit if no error
output is desired 
Error = cr.err

## Windows NT jobs (currently) always run in vanilla universe
universe = vanilla
## Require windows NT 40 or 50 in order to run
requirements = (OpSys == "LINUX")

## Only mail us on error
notification = Never

## Use variables in current environoment when rendering
#getenv = true

transfer_input_files = bigluck.tif, wood.jpg, wood.jpg, newlogo_push3.mb

Arguments = -verb -rd . -im Frame -s 1.0000 -e 5.0000 -b 1.0000
newlogo_push3.mb
Queue

------------------------------------------
Job file for linux:

## Location of Maya renderer
Executable = RenderThis

## Environment variables needed to make renderer work
environment = MAYA_LOCATION=/usr/aw/maya

## File name of output from renderer (STDOUT) or omit if no output is
desired 
Output = cr.out

## File name of condor log file or omit if no log is desired 
log = cr.log

## File name of error output from renderer (STDERR) or omit if no error
output is desired 
Error = cr.err

## For now let's do vanilla
universe = vanilla

## Only mail us on error
notification = Never

## Use variables in current environoment when rendering
getenv = true

Arguments = -verb -rd . -im Frame -s 1.0000 -e 1.0000 -b 10.0000
logo_push3.mb 
Queue

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