NetRenderMan servers are hosts on a network which are running the background daemon alfserver. This program listens on a TCP (Internet) service port (1501) for connection requests from clients. In this case, the client program is netrender, which is launched by users from another machine on the network. The netrender-to-alfserver connection causes a renderer (prman) to be launched on the alfserver host; RIB information is passed to the renderer and the results are returned to the requesting client.
The NetRenderMan protocol can transparently support remote server access to local client data, without the requirement for identical, ubiquitous user accounts and mounted file systems. Networked display services are also integrated, allowing users to locally display incoming image data as it is computed remotely.
NetRenderMan is frequently used as the interface to rendering services from the various RenderMan Artist Tools. In particular, the scriptable task dispatcher Alfred can be used to manage multiple, parallel, remote renderings simultaneously. See the Alfred installation notes for details on adding remote servers to the dispatching schedule.
Each remote rendering server requires access to an installed copy of the RenderMan Pro Server (renderer and alfserver portions). Additionally, the RenderMan Artist Tools are typically installed on each artist's (client) machine.
Notes:
Each rendering server must have access to the file "/usr/local/prman/etc/license.dat" either via NFS or by copying it from your license server machine to the remote rendering machines. This file should appear to be in the same location on every rendering machine.
Start the remote rendering server. The easiest way to accomplish this is (on each server):
Test the remote renderer. From an artist system (called rendering "clients"), try rendering a test RIB file on the remote server machine:
See the configuration discussion for more details on changing the alfserver parameters.
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Pixar Animation Studios
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