Network Rendering License Set up Configuration

[E1ss]

Dear Guys,

I am totally new to NR on Keyshot. And i plan to set up a small render farm for my office.

I have 3 laptops (each has 8 cores included virtual) installed with KS7 HD and 3 workstation desktops with each has 16 cores (included virtual).

I plan to use 1 of the laptop as Master and the 3 workstation desktops as Slave for render (total 48 cores).

my question is:
1. How many NR license do i need to purchase and which type of the license (how many cores) to fully optimize my set up?
2. For the laptop as set to be Master and the other ,2 can i use the laptop's cores to render also?

Thank you~

[mattjgerard]

1) Licenses are sold as 32 or 64 core packs. Wouldnt hurt to contact sales and see if there is a 48 core option, but they might suggest to just buy another computer

2) Any cores used for a network render submitted through the network render queue will count against the core count for the license. Example- we have a 32 core server IT set up for us that we have the NR both the master and the slave. If i switched the master function to my own 24 core workstation, and used the 32 core server as the slave, I would NOT be able to include the 24 cores on my workstation as part of the network renderer. In other words, nope, no way to cheat the system

3) There have been an increasing call for a better pricing model for the network render options, as other render engines which will not be named here have some more friendly schemes. Can't hurt to send in your thoughts to Luxion on that issue. I'm about to up my license, I just got the confirmation that they ordered a 48 core HP Z8 BTO box for our render farm. Hoping against hope that they leave the current 32 core machine in place and just add this (which will need a larger NR license) but man, that would be awesome if they did.

[E1ss]

Ah i see. I will probably drop 1 of the desktop workstation to get the NR 32 cores license.
If that's the case, how many license i have to buy for the 32 cores configuration? Each laptop 1 license include? Do i need to buy the license for the desktop workstation also?

I am kinda confuse regards of the number of the license that i need.

Thank you

[INNEO_MWo]

Ah i see. I will probably drop 1 of the desktop workstation to get the NR 32 cores license.
If that's the case, how many license i have to buy for the 32 cores configuration? Each laptop 1 license include? Do i need to buy the license for the desktop workstation also?

I am kinda confuse regards of the number of the license that i need.

Thank you

Hello.

What you need is just one license for the master installation.
The master can be declared as slave too. The slave installation do not need a license.
Just look into the online help in the NR section.
https://luxion.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/K72NR/pages/69868246/Master+Configuration

And for your question about the slave notebooks.
If your NR is running and the master use 8 cores for render as well three slaves each with 8 cores = 32 cores for NR, the slave notebook can start KeyShot, but you will see that there are no resources left for local render.


Every slave core usage can be set individually in the NR slave program.

There's an option in the master dialog for default slave cores. You can set it to let's say 4 cores. Now every slave renders with half of the CPU and has resources left for local rendering or other software.
But don't set the slave cores too low, or you lost the benefit of NR. Cause 32 slaves (8 core machines) using 1 core for NR with 12,5 % CPU usage to render.

And don't forget the RAM.

Sorry for the short form. Written on a mobile.

[Gordon]

Depending on how you are getting these laptops, a single machine might be much more economical and significantly faster on network rendering to where you might not even need it.  Having multiple low core machines actually hurts network rendering performance since it adds additional time bundling up your keyshot models and transferring results across the network, combine that with the lower clock speeds and cooling issues of most laptop processors and a single $2800 Ryzen machine for example could be way more productive.  Check out the benchmarks threads for some of the different speeds/pricing unless those laptops were free.