Microsoft KB Archive/163038

= Microsoft Knowledge Base =

Network Rendering With mental ray
Last reviewed: February 3, 1997

Article ID: Q163038

The information in this article applies to:


 * Softimage 3D for IRIX, versions 3.5, 3.51

SUMMARY
Setting Up Distributed Rendering:

  Add the following entry in the /etc/services file of each machine you want to use in a network render. mi-ray  7001/tcp    ray.irix5

This defines a TCP service on each machine, the service number is  user-defined and has to be the same on all machines (we recommend 7001).   Add a line similar to the following in the /usr/etc/inetd.conf file of each machine you want to use in a network render. It should all be on one line. mi-ray  stream   tcp   nowait   nobody /usr/softimage/path_to_mental_ray_exec /usr/softimage/path_to_mental_ray_exec -server [-threads n]

This line defines how each rendering server responds to a request on the mi-ray service. If the machine has multiple processors use the -threads n option replacing n with the number of processors. The fifth word is the user ID that will execute the command. We recommend you use "nobody", but make sure this user is defined in the /etc/passwd file with a valid GID. Replace path_to_mental_ray_exec with the correct path to the mental ray executable (ray.irix5). This is usually a shell script that sets the LM_LICENSE_FILE variable then executes ray.irix5. The most common name is ray.irix5.sh. After this file has been modified type the following command:

/etc/killall -v -HUP inetd  You must have a .rayhosts file in your home directory that lists all the rendering servers (one hostname per line).

Troubleshooting Network Rendering
  If a machine does not load, enter the -log option (with ray.irix5 command). This creates a log file for each machine called for a network render. Example: Modify the SI_MI_TRACER environment variable so that it looks like the following:

setenv SI_MI_TRACER '/usr/softimage/mental_ray/bin/ray.irix5 -log on'  Messages such as "cannot connect to license server", means that you did not enter the correct FLEXlm server in the ray.irix5.sh script. Messages that refer you to the SYSLOG file or the /usr/etc/inetd.conf file usually indicate that they are misconfigured. The message "ray daemon not running on machine" usually means that the TCP service number specified in the /etc/services file is not identical on each machine.  If a machine will not load for a network render with mental ray, try the following to see if the machine is responding: 1. If host goldfish won't load enter the following command: telnet goldfish mi-ray The following message appears: Escape character... 2. Press the Enter key. You should see the following: ray.irix5 error: read before acc Connection closed by foreign host. If you don't see this, there is a problem with the path for ray.irix5 in: /usr/etc/inetd.conf file. 3. If this is the case, verify that the path and the location of      ray.irix5 are correct. </li></ul>