Rush Render Queue - Techniques (C) Copyright Seriss Corporation. All rights reserved. (C) Copyright 1995,2000 Greg Ercolano. All rights reserved. V 102.42a10 03/22/11
Strikeout text indicates features not yet implemented
Most people will want the newer 'Chaining Individual Frames',
which lets one inter-depend at the frame level using the new
'dependon' submit command.
I. Chaining Frames
Jobs can be submitted such that one job's frames waits for the others
using the submit script command DependOn.
This allows you to create a chain of dependencies, such that some jobs
render frames in parallel, while other jobs wait for individual frames
to finish.
You can do this by making a script that invokes several job submissions;
each time a job is submitted, the jobid(s) are saved, and used in the
'dependon' command in the NEXT submit script. This creates a frame
dependency chain between one job and others. Many jobs can be chained
in this manner.
Example
Here's a typical fg/bg/comp example; a submit script that starts three jobs;
two renders (fg/bg) run in parallel, and a third (comp) waits, starting comps
as frames in the fg/bg job complete. Note how the csh eval command
is used to gather up jobids for the comp job's dependon command.
FG/BG/COMP Frame Dependent Jobs
#!/bin/csh -f
### SUBMIT SCRIPT -- Create frame dependencies between jobs
# Job #1: FOREGROUND ELEMENT
eval `rush -submit` << EOF
title MYSHOW/FG
ram 250
frames 1-10
command $cwd/render-fg
cpus +any=10@100
logdir $cwd/logs-fg
EOF
if ( $status ) exit 1
set fgjobid = $RUSH_JOBID
echo " FG: setenv RUSH_JOBID $RUSH_JOBID"
# Job #2 -- BACKGROUND ELEMENT
# This job can run in parallel with the foreground,
# so no dependency is defined.
#
eval `rush -submit` << EOF
title MYSHOW/BG
ram 250
frames 1-10
command $cwd/render-bg
cpus +any=10@100
logdir $cwd/logs-bg
EOF
if ( $status ) exit 1
set bgjobid = $RUSH_JOBID
echo " BG: setenv RUSH_JOBID $RUSH_JOBID"
# Job #3 -- COMP
# This job waits for individual frames in FG and BG jobs
# to complete successfully before comping frames.
#
eval `rush -submit` << EOF
title MYSHOW/COMP
ram 250
frames 1-10
command $cwd/render-comp
cpus +any=10@100
logdir $cwd/logs-comp
dependon $fgjobid $bgjobid
EOF
if ( $status ) exit 1
echo "COMP: setenv RUSH_JOBID $RUSH_JOBID"
II. Chaining Job Completion
If you are looking for chaining jobs at the frame level, you probably
want to see the above Chaining Frames
section. However, if you want one job to wait for other jobs to COMPLETLY
finish before moving on to the next, read on.
Jobs can be submitted such that one job waits for the other to complete.
New in 102.40 and up: You can set a job to wait for other jobs to not
only wait for another job to dump, but also change to certain states
such as Fail or Done.
Typically the situation is to wait for other jobs to become Done.
To do this, use the submit script
'waitfor' command
to wait for other jobids, being sure to set
waitforstate done
so that the job waits for the other job to be done.
You can make a high level script that creates several jobs, taking the
jobids from the first two, and passing them as arguments to 'waitfor'
for the third job. There is no limit to how many jobs can be linked
this way; you can have multiple jobs chain together.
(Note: It is no longer necessary to use autodump done
to force jobs to dump when chaining jobs; the new submit command
waitforstate lets you set
a job to wait for other jobs to simply be Done or Fail, or even dump.
A simple example showing how the csh eval
command can be used to gather up the jobid of the first job,
so that it is passed to the second job's waitfor command.
Chaining Jobs
#!/bin/csh -f
source $RUSH_DIR/etc/.submit
### SUBMIT SCRIPT -- Chaining Multiple Jobs
# Job #1
eval `rush -submit` << EOF
title MYSHOW/MYRENDER
ram 250
frames 1-10
command $cwd/render-script
cpus +any=10@100
cpus vaio=8@100
logdir $cwd/logs-1
EOF
if ( $status ) exit 1
# (eval eats the setenv command, so we duplicate it here)
echo "setenv RUSH_JOBID $RUSH_JOBID"
# Job #2 -- this job will wait for the above job to finish
rush -submit << EOF
title MYSHOW/MYCOMP
ram 250
frames 1-10
command $cwd/comp-script
cpus +any=10@100
cpus vaio=8@100
logdir $cwd/logs-2
waitfor $RUSH_JOBID
waitforstate donefail
EOF
Large renders can often benefit from running several frames at a time in
a single process execution, instead of rendering each frame with a separate
process.
The benefit is mainly avoiding having the entire scene (geometry, texture maps,
animation files) reloaded on /every/ frame. By having the renderer run several
frames (a 'batch' of frames) each time it loads, it saves the overhead of loading
all the data each frame; it only loads once for the whole batch. This makes the
overall render time shorter.
A good technique is to tell the render queue to render on 'tens' (ie. 1-500,10)
and have the render script invoke the render to run ten frames at a time
using $RUSH_FRAME as the start frame, and ($RUSH_FRAME + 9)
as the end frame.
To script this involves two things; (1) telling rush to create a framelist
for every 10th frame (so it only invokes the render script every 10th frame),
and (2) passing this batch value to the render script, so it knows how many
frames to render in one execution. A csh script example:
Submit Script: Batch Rendering
#!/bin/csh -f
## SUBMIT SCRIPT
# NUMBER OF FRAMES TO BATCH
# Change this value as needed
#
@ batch = 10
# SUBMIT THE JOB
rush -submit << EOF
title BATCH_RENDER
ram 10
frames 1-100,$batch
command $cwd/render-batch $batch
logdir $cwd/logs
cpus +any=10@100
EOF
exit $status
Because batching affects rush's frame step rate (eg. 'frames 1-100,10),
if the user wants to also be able to include a step rate for their render
(ie. render only odd frames, or stepping on 2's) along with batching on 10's,
you need a little more logic.
So in the following, we adapt the above script pair to have both 'batch'
AND 'step' as separate options:
Submit Script: Batching With Step Rates
#!/bin/csh -f
## SUBMIT SCRIPT
# NUMBER OF FRAMES TO BATCH
# Change these first values, sfrm/efrm/batch/step, as needed
#
set sfrm = 1 # start frame for render
set efrm = 100 # end frame for render
set batch = 10 # batch frames (how many frames to render per process)
set step = 2 # step rate for renders (e.g. 2 renders every other frame)
@ batchstep = ( $batch * $step )
# SUBMIT THE JOB
rush -submit << EOF
title BATCH_AND_STEP_RENDER
ram 10
frames $sfrm-$efrm,$batchstep
command $cwd/render-batch $batch $step $efrm
logdir $cwd/logs
cpus +any=10@100
EOF
exit $status
Render Script: Batching With Step Rates
#!/bin/csh -f
### RENDER SCRIPT
# START/END FRAME FOR BATCHING
@ batch = $argv[1] # user's batch frames
@ step = $argv[2] # user's step rate
@ lfrm = $argv[3] # user's last frame in range
@ sfrm = $RUSH_FRAME
@ efrm = ( $sfrm + ($batch * $step) - 1 )
if ( $efrm > $lfrm ) @ efrm = $lfrm # don't exceed user's last frame in range
echo "--- Working on frames $sfrm-$efrm,$step - `date`"
myrender -s $sfrm -e $efrm -i $step
if ( $status ) exit 1
exit 0
Python example of batching with step rates..
Python Submit Script: Batching With Step Rates
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os,sys
## SUBMIT SCRIPT BATCHING WITH STEP RATES
# NUMBER OF FRAMES TO BATCH
# Change these first values, sfrm/efrm/batch/step, as needed
#
sfrm = 1 # start frame for render
efrm = 100 # end frame for render
batch = 10 # batch frames (how many frames to render per process)
step = 2 # step rate for renders (2=render every other frame)
batchstep = ( batch * step )
cwd = os.getcwd()
# SUBMIT THE JOB
fp = os.popen("rush -submit", "w")
fp.write("""
title BATCH_AND_STEP_RENDER
ram 50
frames """ + "%d-%d,%d" % (sfrm, efrm, batchstep) + """
command """ + "python %s/render-batch %d %d %d" % (cwd, batch, step, efrm) + """
logdir """ + cwd + "/logs" + """
cpus +any=10@100
""")
fp.close()
It is often useful to retry failed renders several times
before giving up on the frame, and leaving it FAILed.
Whenever your render script returns an exit code of 2 (REQUEUE),
the frame is requeued, the 'Try' count is incremented (shown in 'rush -lf'
and the frame is executed again.
Rush passes the retry count to the render script as an environment
variable $RUSH_RETRY which the script can use to act conditionally.
Render Script: Simple Retry Counting
#!/bin/csh -f
source $RUSH_DIR/etc/.render
### RENDER SCRIPT
echo "--- Working on frame $RUSH_FRAME - `date`"
render /job/MYJOB/MYSHOT/ribs/fg.$RUSH_PADFRAME.rib
if ( $status == 0 ) exit 0 # it worked
# FAILED? RETRY 3 TIMES
if ( $RUSH_TRY < 3 ) exit 2 # retry up to 3 times
exit 1 # otherwise fail
In some cases, using just the rush try counter can be problematic if,
say, there are killer jobs on your network that regularly bump frames,
causing try counts to clock up unexpectedly.
In such cases, you might want to make your own try counter that
counts completed attempts on the rendered frame, ignoring
frames bumped by other 'killer' jobs. To do this, you could make
your render script use this approach:
Render Script: Retry Counts Around Killer Jobs
#!/bin/csh -f
source $RUSH_DIR/etc/.render
### RENDER SCRIPT
# GET THE CURRENT TRY COUNT
# Keep our own 'try file' that is basically the log filename
# with a .try extension on the end. Note that resetting the
# rush try count will reset our own try counter as well.
#
if ( $RUSH_TRY == 0 || ! -e $RUSH_LOGFILE.try ) echo 0 > $RUSH_LOGFILE.try
$mytry = `cat $RUSH_LOGFILE.try`
if ( $mytry >= 3 ) then
echo --- FAIL: TRY COUNT EXCEEDED ; exit 1
endif
# Render command here
render /myshow/myshot/foo.$RUSH_PADFRAME.rib
set err = $status
echo --- RENDER EXIT CODE: $err
# Update try count AFTER render completes
# This way we count complete trys, not bumps.
#
$mytry++ ; echo $mytry > $RUSH_LOGFILE.try
if ( $err ) then
echo --- FAIL ; exit 1
endif
echo --- OK
exit 0
Renderers that don't return exit codes. You may encounter
renderers that return with 'exit 0' even if the render failed, making it
hard to determine if the render script should return FAIL or DONE exit
codes.
For instance, in a situation where a 3rd party program outputs error
messages like 'cannot open file' or 'write error', but always returns an
exit 0. A savvy render script programmer can use 'egrep' to detect the
error message and report it back to rush.
Detecting Render Problems with Grep
#!/bin/csh -f
### RENDER SCRIPT
my_render $RUSH_FRAME
# 'my_render' always returns an exit code of 0,
# so to detect errors we have to grep for them.
egrep 'cannot open file|write error' $RUSH_LOGFILE > /dev/null
if ( $status == 0 ) then
echo -- FAILED --
exit 1
else
echo -- DONE --
exit 0
endif
Here's the same example using perl.
This works on Windows (which doesn't have grep(1)) and Unix:
Detecting Render Problems with Perl
#!/usr/bin/perl
### RENDER SCRIPT
# 'my_render' always returns an exit code of 0,
# so to detect errors we have to grep for them.
system("my_render $ENV{RUSH_FRAME}");
# Check for error messages from the log file
if ( open(FD, "<$ENV{RUSH_LOGFILE}") ) {
while ( <FD> ) {
if ( /cannot open file/ || /write error/ ) {
print STDERR "-- FAILED --\n";
exit(1);
}
}
close(FD);
}
else {
print STDERR "$ENV{RUSH_LOGFILE}: $!\n";
}
print STDERR "-- OK --\n";
exit(0);
The following shows what a frames report can look like if the render
script checks for particular errors, and adds TD-friendly messages
that appear in the NOTES column of the job's framelist to helpfully
highlight what kind of error each failed frame encountered, ie:
What follows is an advanced example of a render script showing
the detection logic that generates these messages. There is also a
simple example
in the rush tutorial.
Grep: An Advanced Example to make Custom Error Messages
#!/bin/csh -f
### RENDER SCRIPT
echo "--- Working on frame $RUSH_FRAME - `date`"
### MAYA RENDER
Render30 -s $RUSH_FRAME -e $RUSH_FRAME -b 1 -proj $1 -rd /jobs/MYSHOW/MYSHOT/images $2
set err = $status
### GREP FOR ERROR MESSAGES
set msg = ""
if ( `grep -s "Texture file" $RUSH_LOGFILE; echo $status` == "0" ) set msg = "Texture File"
if ( `grep -s "Failed to open IFF" $RUSH_LOGFILE; echo $status` == "0" ) set msg = "IFF Error"
if ( `grep -s "find destination plug" $RUSH_LOGFILE; echo $status` == "0" ) set msg = "Plug Error"
if ( `grep -s "ESEC_J" $RUSH_LOGFILE; echo $status` == "0" ) set msg = "License Error"
if ( `grep -s "doesn" $RUSH_LOGFILE; echo $status` == "0" ) set msg = "Missing File"
if ( `grep -s "TrenderTesselation" $RUSH_LOGFILE; echo $status` == "0" ) set msg = "Tesselation Error"
if ( `grep -s "Memory exception" $RUSH_LOGFILE; echo $status` == "0" ) set msg = "Memory Error"
if ( `grep -s "post-process stage" $RUSH_LOGFILE; echo $status` == "0" ) set msg = "Post Process"
### FOUND ONE OF THE ABOVE?
if ( "$msg" != "" ) then
# MAKE NOTE IN FRAMELIST FOR TD/RENDER WATCHER
rush -notes ${RUSH_FRAME}:"$msg"
switch ( "$msg" )
### NON-FATAL
case "License Error":
case "IFF Error":
case "Plug Error":
case "Tesselation Error":
case "Memory Error":
case "Post Process":
echo -- REQUEUE
exit 2
### FATAL
case "Texture File":
case "Missing File":
default:
echo -- FAIL
exit 1
endsw
endif
# NON-SPECIFIC ERROR?
if ( $err != 0 ) then
rush -notes ${RUSH_FRAME}:"See Logs"
echo -- FAIL
exit 1
endif
# NO ERRORS
echo -- OK
exit 0
Most disk space management is handled these
days via unix quotas, and large raided disk systems. Some companies still
have individual, un-RAIDed disks, such that a large project might need
to render on several different disks, to prevent disk full problems from
stopping renders. Here's a technique that automatically fails over
to different physical disks as disks become full:
Disk Management In Render Scripts
#!/bin/csh -f
[..]
# AVAILABLE DISKS
# Cycle through the disks (in order of preference) until we
# find one with enough free space.
#
set $disks = ( /mnt/disk1 /mnt/disk2 /mnt/disk3 done )
foreach $outdir ( $disks )
if ( "$outdir" == "done" ) then
echo --- All disks are too full to use ; exit 1
endif
# Disk < 95% in use? use it
if ( `df $outdir | awk '/^\// {print $6}'` < 95 ) break
end
# YOUR RENDER COMMANDS HERE #
my_render $outdir/foo.$RUSH_PADFRAME.tif
[..]
You can make use of the NOTES field in 'rush -lf' reports
by putting some extra code in your render scripts to detect certain
error conditions that, if encountered, changes the notes for that
frame.
You can embed 'rush -notes' commands into your render script
to alter the 'notes' field for the rendering frame, eg:
if ( error_occurred ) then
rush -notes ${RUSH_FRAME}:'Your msg here'
endif
Frame notes are cleared each time a frame begins rendering, so there's
no need to specify a rush command to clear the frame notes in your render
script. In fact, that's discouraged because of the following warning..
Warning: Each execution of 'rush -notes' invokes a TCP connection
to the job server daemon. Invoking 'rush' commands on a per frame
basis is unwise (except under error condition circumstances), as it
imposes a large TCP load on the job server daemon if many connections
occur all at once, slowing the daemon's response critically.
This happens especially if your render times are short,
and you are rendering on many cpus. Therefore you are only encouraged
to embed 'rush' commands in render scripts under error conditions
only (ie. infrequently), so as to lessen the possibility of multiple
concurrent TCP connections.
Here's an example showing a render script that makes use of the NOTES
field to report helpful errors to the user..
When one of the above failed frames is requeued, the NOTES field is
cleared as soon as the frame starts rendering again, preventing
stale error messages from remaining when the frame re-renders.
To disable this 'auto-clearing' behavior, use the
submit command 'FrameFlags keepnotes'.
License errors create a situation where you may either want to
make several attempts before giving up, or pause the entire job
so that no new frames will be issued for a while.
To pause the job for a short period, use the new
'rush -licpause'
option in your render script; it will pause the job for
60 seconds (unless changed with the submit command
LicPauseSecs):
Handling License Errors
#!/bin/csh -f
source $RUSH_DIR/etc/.render
###############################
# R E N D E R S C R I P T #
###############################
echo "--- Working on frame $RUSH_FRAME - `date`"
# INVOKE RENDERER
hscript $hipfile < foo.hscript
# CHECK FOR RENDER LICENSE ERRORS
egrep 'Error acquiring license' $RUSH_LOGFILE > /dev/null
if ( $status == 0 ) then
# PAUSE JOB FOR SHORT TIME, REQUEUE FRAME
rush -licpause
rush -notes ${RUSH_FRAME}:'License Error'
exit 2
endif
exit 0
Another way to prevent license problems, e.g. if you have less
Renderman licenses than you have processors, make a +hostgroup
(e.g. +prman) that only has as many machines as you have licenses
of Renderman, and have all the Renderman jobs submit using that
hostgroup. You can set up your renderman submit script to only
allow users to submit to that hostgroup to prevent problems.
There are several ways to handle threading in Rush;
which you choose depends on your rendering needs.
Any one of the following techniques can be used:
1) Submit jobs with the 'Ram:' value set to secure memory
and processors. (Use this if you plan to have a mix
of threaded and non-threaded rendering)
2) Set processors in the rush/etc/hosts file to 1.
(Use this if ALL your renders will be threaded)
3) Use 'rush -reserve' to reserve some of the processors
on the machines you need, so you can thread your renders
on these machines to use several processors.
1) Securing Ram To Secure Processors
If you have a farm of dual proc machines that all have a gig of ram
configured in rush (eg. 'rush -lah' shows 1024 in the Ram column),
and you submit a job with the 'ram' value set to '1024', then you
will effectively secure both processors from rush. This is because
when rush starts your render on a machine, it will subtract the ram
value your job requests from the configured ram value for that machine,
leaving zero available for other jobs to use.
Also, you will only be able to start rendering on machines that
have 1024 available, which means both processors must be unused
by rush, otherwise rush will think less than 1024 is available,
preventing your job from running on those machines.
If you want to allow other renders to still be able to use
the other processors, then submit with your Ram value set
just a little bit lower, eg. 1023. You can then submit other
renders to these machines using a Ram value of 1, and they'll
be able to get on because of the 1MB your job leaves behind;
1024-1023=1MB available.
2) Disabling Processors in the Rush Hosts List
You can tell Rush each machine only has one processor instead
of two. Just change the number of cpus in the rush hosts file
to 1 for the dual proc machines. Then rush will only assign
one render per machine.
Such a change is only recommended if you want to affect all
jobs the same way, e.g. if all rendering you run through Rush
is multithreaded, and you would never want more than one frame
rendering on the dual proc machines you have modified.
3) Reserving Processors
This technique is pretty intuitive; simply use 'rush -reserve'
to reserve processors on the machines you want to use,
and then submit your job to use those machines.
Setup your render script to first check how many cpus
are reserved by your reserve job on the local machine
before starting the renderer. If no cpus got reserved
(they're busy doing someone else's job) then just render
on with one thread. But your reserve job has reserved
the other cpu, then tell the renderer to use two threads.
On large networks, it's useful to distribute the task of job serving
to a pool of different machines.
By default, rush submits jobs to the local host the submit script
was invoked from. But sometimes workstations are unreliable for
job serving, since they are often rebooted.
Rather than have jobs submit to a single job server (aka. Submit Host),
you can them rotate through a pool of hostnames.
The example Rush submit scripts can be modified to automatically choose
one out of a list of hostnames by finding the lines that set up the
'rush -submit' command, eg:
Rush Example Submit Scripts: Auto-select Submit Host
# NO SUBMITHOST SPECIFIED? CHOOSE ONE AT RANDOM
if ( $in{SubmitHost} eq "" || $in{SubmitHost} eq "-" )
{
my @servers = ( "host1", "host2", "host3" ); # pool of job servers
$in{SubmitHost} = $servers[ time() % ($#servers+1) ];
}
..change the red text to be the hostnames
you want to use. You can use a different number of hostnames; the
script will select one at 'random'.
The above change will cause the script to select a different server
at random if the "Submit Host:" field was left blank; this lets the user
override the random selection IF they specify a hostname at the
"Submit Host" prompt.
You may want to change the comments for the 'Submit Host:' field
if you make such a change, indicating if the field is left blank,
one of the servers will be chosen at random, instead of the local machine.
* * *
If you have your own custom submit scripts, eg. one written in Csh,
you can do something like this:
Homebrew Submit Scripts: Auto-select Jobserver from a Pool
#!/bin/csh -f
set servers = ( host1 host2 host3 )
set index = `perl -e "print ((time() % $#servers) + 1);"` # random select a server
set server = $servers[$index]
rush -submit $server << EOF
title MYJOB
:
: etc
:
EOF
It's often useful to allow users to render on their own workstations with Rush.
But users will be reluctant to online their machines during the workday if they know
other people's jobs might try to use their workstation.
There are at least two approaches you can take to set things up so that only
users can use their own workstations for rendering:
1. Use the MINPRI ('minimum priority') value in the rush/etc/hosts file
to set a minimum priority for rendering on the workstations.
2. Make separate +farm and +work hostgroups; only let users set the Cpus: of their job
to +farm and their own workstation's hostname
Regarding approach #1: the systems administrator can configure the MINPRI column in the
rush/etc/hosts file for workstations, so that the machine will only accept renders for jobs
that request that machine at a high priority (ie. equal to or higher than the MINPRI value).
The systems administrator can set the MINPRI column in the rush/etc/hosts file for user's
workstations to eg. 900 to only allow jobs of priority 900 and up to render on them.
This way users can submit jobs with their cpus set to eg:
+any=10@100
tahoe=1@900
..where 'tahoe' is the name of their workstation. This will cause rush to use
'any 10 available cpus on the network at a priority of 100' (+any=10@100)
which will exclude all workstations that have MINPRI set to 900 (because 100
is lower than 900), and will also ask rush to use one cpu on their own
workstation at 900 priority.
Make a rendering policy for the TDs so that 900 priority is only used for
rendering on 'your own workstations'. This way users don't have
to worry about other people's jobs rendering on their workstation when its idle.
If they decide to take their machine out of rendering so they can use it
for doing jitter-free client playbacks or dailies, they can just hit 'Getoff'
in the 'onrush' program to offline their machine from rendering their own job,
then they can online it later.
Regarding approach #2: if you make a separate +farm group, and force
all users to submit only to +farm, and separately ask for their own machines only,
that will work as well, eg. setting their Cpus: to:
+farm=10@100
tahoe=1
..which asks for any 10 available farm machines, and one proc on their own
workstation (in this case "tahoe").
