Apple Qmaster 4 User Manual
Apple Qmaster 4
User Manual
Copyright © 2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.
Your rights to the software are governed by the
accompanying software license agreement.The owneror
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Contents
Welcome to Apple Qmaster5Preface
About Apple Qmaster5
About the Apple Qmaster Documentation5
Additional Resources6
Using Apple Qmaster7Chapter 1
The Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System8
The Apple Qmaster Interface10
Installing Apple Qmaster, Shake, and Other Applications14
Setting Up Rendering Services and Shared Storage15
Submitting Batches for Apple Qmaster Processing16
Using Nodes Without Apple Qmaster Installed29
Setting Environment Variables in Apple Qmaster31
3
Welcome to Apple Qmaster
The Apple Qmaster system provides automated work distribution and processing for
high-volume projects created with digital visual effects software packages such as Shake.
This preface covers the following:
• About Apple Qmaster (p. 5)
• About the Apple Qmaster Documentation (p. 5)
• Additional Resources (p. 6)
About Apple Qmaster
The Apple Qmaster application described in this document is the graphical “client
interface” that you use to submit jobs for distributed rendering and processing.
Apple Qmaster can accept jobs from Shake, Autodesk Maya, and any UNIX command-line
program. The Apple Qmaster application is one of several applications in the
Apple Qmaster distributed processing system. The complete system includes controls for
configuring clusters of processing computers and for monitoring, pausing, resuming, or
canceling work that has been submitted.
Preface
Important: Apple Qmaster 4 is designed to work closely with Final Cut Pro X and later
and Motion 5 and later. All mentions of Final Cut Pro and Motion in this document refer
to these versions.
About the Apple Qmaster Documentation
Apple Qmaster comes with various documents that will help you get started as well as
provide detailed information about the application. To access these documents, open
Apple Qmaster and choose Help > Apple Qmaster Help.
• Apple Qmaster User Manual: This document describes the Apple Qmaster client
application only. For information about how to create a complete network for
Apple Qmaster processing, as well as information about how the Apple Qmaster
application works with the rest of the Apple Qmaster system, see the Compressor 4
User Manual.
5
• Compressor User Manual: In addition to explaining how to use Compressor, this
document explains how to set up and maintain an Apple Qmaster distributed processing
network for use with Compressor or digital visual effects software packages such as
Shake.
• Apple Qadministrator User Manual: This document describes the Apple Qadministrator
cluster management application only. You use this application to manually configure
clusters using managed services.
• Share Monitor User Manual: This brief document describes how to use Share Monitor
to monitor the transcoding progress of batches and jobs.
Additional Resources
Along with the documentation that comes with Apple Qmaster, there are a variety of
other resources you can use to find out more about Apple Qmaster.
Compressor Websites
For general information and updates, as well as the latest news on Compressor, go to:
• http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/compressor
Apple Service and Support Websites
For software updates and answers to the most frequently asked questions for all Apple
products, go to the general Apple Support webpage. You’ll also have access to product
specifications, reference documentation, and Apple and third-party product technical
articles.
• http://www.apple.com/support
For software updates, documentation, discussion forums, and answers to the most
frequently asked questions for Compressor, go to:
• http://www.apple.com/support/compressor
6 Preface Welcome to Apple Qmaster
Using Apple Qmaster
1
The Apple Qmaster application is the client software you use to submit jobs and batches
(for Shake and related software) to the larger Apple Qmaster system, an automated work
distribution and processing solution for high-volume projects.
Note: The “Apple Qmaster and Distributed Processing” chapter in the Compressor
User Manual is the primary documentation for the Apple Qmaster distributed processing
system.
This chapter covers the following:
• The Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System (p. 8)
• The Apple Qmaster Interface (p. 10)
• Installing Apple Qmaster, Shake, and Other Applications (p. 14)
• Setting Up Rendering Services and Shared Storage (p. 15)
• Submitting Batches for Apple Qmaster Processing (p. 16)
• Using Nodes Without Apple Qmaster Installed (p. 29)
• Setting Environment Variables in Apple Qmaster (p. 31)
7
The Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System
Batch of
processing jobs
Client computer
Jobs are submitted.
Destination folder
Files are placed at
specified destination.
Processed
files
Apple Qmaster cluster
Processing is
performed by cluster.
Network
Computers that submit batches to Apple Qmaster are called clients. An Apple Qmaster
job is a processing task in the form of a project shared by Final Cut Pro or Motion, a
Compressor or Apple Qmaster batch, a Shake file, or other commands, that uses UNIX
commands to specify settings such as rendering instructions and file locations and
destinations.
Although a batch can include just one job, you will typically want to submit several jobs
at once for processing. Similarly, several people can use the same Apple Qmaster system
at the same time, with several client computers sending batches in the same time frame.
Batches are managed and distributed by the computer that is designated as the
Apple Qmaster cluster controller.
8 Chapter 1 Using Apple Qmaster
Note: The “Apple Qmaster and Distributed Processing” chapter in the Compressor
User Manual is the primary documentation for the Apple Qmaster distributed processing
system.
Clients
Batches are submitted for processing from the client computers. A client computer can
be any computer that has Compressor, Final Cut Pro, or Motion installed and is on the
same network as the cluster controller. Multiple client computers can be on the same
network, using the same cluster to do the processing for various applications. See
Submitting Batches with the Apple Qmaster Application for details.
Clusters
When a client sends batches to the Apple Qmaster system, all the processing and
subsequent moving of any output files is performed by a group of
Apple Qmaster–configured computers called a cluster. To set up Apple Qmaster services,
you either configure computers to work with This Computer Plus, create a QuickCluster
in Compressor, or use the Apple Qadministrator application to create one or more clusters
of service nodes, with one cluster controller included in each cluster. Each computer in
the cluster is connected to the other computers in the cluster through a network
connection. See the Apple Qadministrator User Manual for more information on specialized
cluster setup.
Note: See the Shake Support website (http://www.apple.com/support/shake) for an online
guide to setting up a full-time “render farm,” incorporating an Xserve computer and
cluster nodes.
Service Nodes
When you combine multiple nodes into a cluster, they function as one very powerful
computer because all their resources are shared. You make a computer available as a
service node by configuring it in the Compressor Apple Qmaster Sharing window. The
steps involved in using this window to configure a service node are described in
“Configuring Service Node Processing” in the Compressor User Manual, available in
Compressor Help.
Cluster Controllers
The cluster controller software acts as the manager of a cluster. The cluster controller
directs the distribution of batches within the cluster. It has the ability to determine the
best use of the cluster resources based on work and availability variables. You make a
computer available as a cluster controller by turning on the cluster controlling service in
the Apple Qmaster Sharing window in Compressor. (See “Configuring Service Nodes and
Cluster Controllers” in the Compressor User Manual, available in Compressor Help.)
9Chapter 1 Using Apple Qmaster
The Apple Qmaster Interface
Pop-up menus
Batch table
Batch name
Toolbar buttons
Submit To field
The Apple Qmaster application described in this document is one part of the larger
distributed processing system described in The Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing
System. The Apple Qmaster application is the client software you use to submit jobs and
batches to the system. Both this application and the larger system are known by the same
name (Apple Qmaster).
The Apple Qmaster window contains a toolbar; a Batch Name field; a Submit To field; the
Batch table; buttons to add, remove, and submit jobs (dimmed until at least one job is
in the Batch table); and pop-up menus to choose job types and batch priority.
Toolbar Buttons
The Apple Qmaster toolbar contains the following buttons.
• History: Opens the History drawer, where you can view a fulllog of all batchessubmitted
from your computer, check the current status of all processing batches, and resubmit
10 Chapter 1 Using Apple Qmaster
any batches listed in the log.
• Set Environment: Opens a dialog where youcan add environment variables and preflight
scripts.
• Notification: Opens a dialog where you can set (or reset) an email address to which the
status of a batch completion or failure can be sent. Apple Qmaster does not currently
support SMTP servers that require authentication. The following list shows the processing
service type followed by the notification label used in the emails and logs:
• Local Compressor service: servicecontroller:com.apple.stomp.transcoder
• Distributed Compressor service: servicecontroller:com.apple.stomp.transcoderx
• Distributed Apple Qmaster service: servicecontroller:com.apple.qmaster.executor
• Share Monitor: Opens Share Monitor, which allows you to view the status of all batches
being processed.
Batch Table
This is the large middle area of the Apple Qmaster window that lists the individual jobs
in a batch.
The Batch table includes the following columns.
• Type: One of four job types: Shake, Maya, Generic Render, Shell (UNIX).
• Command: The actual command for the job.
• Working Directory: If relevant, the directory from which you want the command to be
executed.
Text Fields and Pop-Up Menus
Around its periphery, the Apple Qmaster window includes other important interface
elements for creating and submitting jobs and batches.
• Batch name field: This is where you can enter the name of a particular batch. (This is
the name that appears in Share Monitor.)
• Submit Topop-up menu: Use this pop-up menu to choose an available cluster to process
the current batch.
11Chapter 1 Using Apple Qmaster
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