Late-Breaking News About Apple Qmaster 2

This document provides updated information about Apple Qmaster 2 and covers these topics: Â Late-Breaking News About Apple Qmaster 2.3.1 (p. 2) Â Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2.3 (p. 2) Â Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2.1 (p. 2) Â Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2.0.1 (p. 4) Â Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2.0 (p. 5)

This document may be updated as versions of Apple Qmaster are released or new information becomes available. You can check for updated information by choosing Help > Late-Breaking News when Apple Qmaster is open.

For the latest information about product updates, tips and techniques, and qualified third-party devices, visit the website at http://www.apple.com/shake.

For the latest support information from AppleCare, choose Apple Qmaster Support from the Apple Qmaster Help menu or visit the Apple Qmaster support site at http://www.apple.com/support/qmaster. To receive automatic notification about new support issues, use to bookmark the AppleCare RSS page at http://docs.info.apple.com/rss/qmaster.rss. See Safari Help for more information about configuring RSS feeds.

There is no late-breaking information about Apple Qmaster 2.2, which was not released to the public.

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Late-Breaking News About Apple Qmaster 2.3.1 Apple Qmaster 2.3.1 addresses compatibility issues. This update is recommended for all Apple Qmaster 2.3 users.

Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard Support Apple Qmaster 2.3.1 addresses Mac OS X v10.5 compatibility issues for customers using Apple Qmaster 2.3.

Using Distributed Processing with Mac OS X Server v10.5 To use the Compressor distributed processing feature with Mac OS X Server v10.5 Leopard, you must manually enable NFS.

To enable NFS for Mac OS X Server, do one of the following: m Use the Server Admin application to enable NFS. For additional information, see Mac OS X Server Help. m In the command line, enter the following: qmaster$ sudo nfsd enable

Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2.3 Apple Qmaster 2.3 addresses performance issues and improves stability. This update is recommended for all Apple Qmaster 2.1 users.

Xsan Compatibility 1.3 is not compatible with Compressor’s Apple Qmaster distributed processing system when Xsan media drives are used for cluster (scratch) storage. To use Xsan with Apple Qmaster 2.3, update to Xsan 1.4.

To download and install Xsan 1.4, go to: Â http://www.apple.com/support/xsan

Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2.1 This version of Apple Qmaster is designed to run natively on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based . The following information is additional late-breaking news about Apple Qmaster 2.1.

Distributed Processing and QuickTime Versions If you are using the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system with Compressor or Shake, all nodes (computers) in a cluster must have the same version of QuickTime installed.

To download the most recent version of QuickTime, go to: Â http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/mac.html

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QuickTime Movie Output from Shake and Mac OS X Dependencies If you are using Apple Qmaster to render Shake jobs as QuickTime movie output, every service node in the Apple Qmaster cluster must be running Mac OS X v10.4or higher.

Using Apple Qmaster 2 with an NFS Server By default, Apple Qmaster uses /etc/exports to define its Cluster Storage export. This can cause a conflict if you defined an NFS export in your local Netinfo database. When you enable a controller using Apple Qmaster 2 or later, Apple Qmaster will use /etc/exports, not entries defined in your Netinfo database. To work around this issue, either move the exports to /etc/exports, or move the controller to a that doesn’t export anything.

Apple Qmaster and After Effects If you use the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system with Adobe After Effects, please review the following guidelines: Â In order to use After Effects with Apple Qmaster, the After Effects application and all of its plug-ins must be installed on each node (computer) in an Apple Qmaster cluster. Â The following template is a good starting point for using the Generic Render plug-in to render After Effects projects: [EXECUTABLE] -project [INPUT] -comp "Comp 1" -RStemplate "Multi-Machine Settings" -OMtemplate "Multi-Machine Sequence" -s [START FRAME] -e [END FRAME] -output [ITEM]/strategies[####].psd Where: [EXECUTABLE] = /Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ 6.5/aerender [INPUT] = /SHARED_VOLUME/Projects/AEProjs/Wine_Country/QMproject.aep [START FRAME] = 0 [END FRAME] = 544 [STEPS] = Not Used [ITEM] = /SHARED_VOLUME/Projects/AEProjs/Wine_Country/output In the example above, “Comp 1” is the name of the composition in your After Effects project and “strategies[####].psd” is the output file name. Since you cannot select an output filename in the template’s Item field before it has been rendered, first select the output directory, then add the filename to the Item field. Note: In the example, /SHARED_VOLUME/Projects/ is the shared volume. If you created the project on a computer that is not using the shared volume, copy the project to the shared volume, open After Effects, and re-link any missing media. Â After Effects makes good use of multiprocessor systems, but on projects that are not CPU-bound, two rendering services per node gives you better results. Â After Effects custom template information is stored in Users/username/Library/ Preferences/Adobe After Effects 6.5 Prefs/. If you would like to use custom Render Setting and Output Module templates in an Apple Qmaster cluster, copy this file to the same location on each node in the cluster. Then you can specify your templates when using the -RStemplate or -OMtemplate options.

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Installing the Apple Intermediate Codec The Apple Intermediate Codec is not currently installed with Apple Qmaster.

To download and install the Apple Intermediate Codec, go to: Â http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/appleintermediatecodec101.html

Note: Shake and several other Apple software packages also install the Apple Intermediate Codec.

Cluster Settings for Extended Transcoding Sessions If you are using Compressor 2.0 or later for distributed processing, and you anticipate a transcoding session that will last up to seven days or longer, you must make an adjustment in the Advanced section of the Apple Qmaster Preferences Pane. By default, temporary process files may remain on a cluster’s scratch location for seven days before they are automatically deleted. You can increase this value (the number of days) in the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences.

To extend the time process files remain on a cluster’s scratch location: 1 On the cluster controller, open the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. 2 If any Apple Qmaster services are enabled on this computer, click Stop Sharing to temporarily turn them off. 3 Click Advanced to open the Advanced pane. 4 In the Delete Files Older Than __ Days field, enter the number of days you expect the session to take, plus a day or two extra, just in case. 5 Click Setup to return to the Setup pane. 6 Click Start Sharing.

Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2.0.1 Apple Qmaster 2.0.1 is a maintenance release of Apple Qmaster that provides improved reliability.

Shake Jobs and Non-Zero Exit Status Using Apple Qmaster, you can quickly create and submit a batch of Shake jobs for distributed processing. The new “Ignore script failures” checkbox allows you to determine whether Apple Qmaster should continue rendering all the frames of the script in the event that Shake returns a non-zero UNIX command result. (In Apple Qmaster 2 and previous versions, a job would always fail if any segment returned non-zero.) By default, this checkbox is not selected. Select the checkbox if Apple Qmaster should ignore non-zero UNIX command results.

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Generic Render Command and Non-Zero Exit Status You can use the Generic Render command in Apple Qmaster for the distributed processing of projects from other frame-based rendering applications (such as After Effects and LightWave). The Generic Render dialog allows you to adjust parameters and to add more command-line options to each job. The new “Treat non-zero exit status as failure” checkbox in the Generic Render dialog allows you to use Apple Qmaster with rendering applications that return non-zero results that are not intended to indicate failure. By default, this checkbox is selected. If your rendering application issues non-zero results that are not intended to indicate failure, deselect the checkbox.

Proxy Name Mismatch in Apple Qmaster and Shake With the Proxies feature in Apple Qmaster, you can quickly choose a proxy setting for a Shake script. While the four default proxy settings are identical in both Shake and Apple Qmaster, they have slightly different names in each application. The table below indicates the corresponding names.

Apple Qmaster name Shake name P1 Base P2 P1 P3 P2 P4 P3

Previous Release Information About Apple Qmaster 2.0 The following information is late-breaking news that was included with Apple Qmaster 2.0.

Apple Qmaster Shake Plug-in Blur Pop-Up Menu The Motion Blur checkbox in the Shake dialog has been changed to a pop-up menu containing the following options:  Default for script  Off  On

The new “Default for script” option provides greater control by allowing you to retain custom motion blur settings from the original Shake script.

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Service Node Status Indicator in the Menu Bar By default, once a service node is enabled, an Apple Qmaster icon appears in the computer’s menu bar. The icon now changes based on the service node’s current status:  Gray = Idle  Green = Processing  Red = Connection failure

Click the icon to reveal additional information, including the service node’s IP address, port number, and capture status, as well as a link to the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences.

Command-Line Usage and Upgrading Apple Qmaster 1.2 to 2.0 on a Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger System The qmasterprefs command feature offers command-line options for enabling and disabling service node and cluster controlling services. If you upgrade Apple Qmaster from version 1.2 to version 2.0 on a computer with Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger installed, the qmasterprefs command-line feature is disabled. Run the Installer a second time to restore the qmasterprefs command.

Apple Qadministrator Clusters Require Managed Services Although Apple Qadministrator currently allows you to create a cluster with unmanaged services, valid clusters require at least one managed service in order for the cluster to be viewable in Apple Qmaster, Compressor, and .

Scheduling Unmanaged Services If you enabled unmanaged services, you can open a interface (in the Advanced section of the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences) to schedule the availability of these services to the distributed processing system.

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Note: You must enter valid days and times. The time cannot overlap into the next day in one entry. There must be two entries when the range ends after 12 A.M. For example, to set the schedule availability from 6 P.M. on Sunday to 8 A.M. on Monday, enter the following two entries: Â Sunday ON BETWEEN 06:00 P.M. and 12:00 A.M. Â Monday ON BETWEEN 12:00 A.M. and 8:00 A.M.

Using Shell Commands to Set Apple Qmaster Preferences If you are accustomed to doing your work from Terminal shells, and need or prefer to run Apple Qmaster from the command line, the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system offers a number of shell commands for configuring service nodes and cluster controllers, submitting jobs, and monitoring batches. For example, as an alternative to using the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences, you can use the command qmasterprefs to enable and disable service node and cluster controlling services. If you use the qmasterprefs command, the resulting settings may not be accurately reflected in the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences, even though the actual settings are correct and functional. (You can use Activity Monitor to verify the actual settings.)

Log Activity Default Setting The Apple Qmaster “Log Activity to File” feature is on by default. Logs are stored in /Library/Logs/Qmaster/. To turn this feature off, deselect the “Log Activity to File” checkbox in the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences.

Apple Qmaster Node Installer By default, the Apple Qmaster Node Installer installs all the necessary Apple Qmaster software for distributed processing. If you are using the Apple Qmaster Node Installer on Mac OS X v10.3 Panther, do not deselect the “Apple Qmaster Support Software” option. Both Apple Qmaster Applications and Apple Qmaster Services require this software.

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Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing and Xsan Using Apple Qmaster distributed processing on an Xsan may cause mounting problems when restarting an Apple Qmaster distributed processing cluster controller.

Restart Apple Qmaster and Xsan computers in the following order: 1 Turn off the cluster controller by clicking Stop Sharing in the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. 2 Restart the Apple Qmaster cluster controller computer. 3 Wait for the Xsan volume to mount on the desktop. 4 Click Start Sharing in the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences to restart the controller.

Wide Area Network Browsing You can enable wide area network (WAN) browsing by selecting the “Allow wide area in domain” checkbox in the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. For more information about using WAN browsing with your distributed processing network, visit http://developer.apple.com/bonjour.

Late-Breaking News About Compressor 2 and Distributed Processing The following news items are relevant if you are using the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system with Compressor. The Compressor 2 distributed processing feature is limited to computers that have either or DVD Studio Pro 4 installed.

Cluster Storage Capacity By default, the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system saves temporary process files in the /var/spool/qmaster directory on the startup disk of the cluster controller. Computers in the cluster will access this location as needed. If you are processing large source media files that exceed the available storage space on the startup disk, you may run out of storage space on that disk. There are a number of things you can do to address this.

If cluster storage capacity is low, do any of the following: m Change the cluster storage location to a disk with more free space. For more information, see “Adjusting Cluster Storage Settings,” below. m Configure cluster storage settings to delete files more frequently. For more information, see “Adjusting Cluster Storage Settings,” below. m Compressor users can set Cluster Options preferences (Compressor > Preferences) to “Never copy source to cluster.” For more information, see the Compressor 2 User Manual.

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Adjusting Cluster Storage Settings Follow the steps below to change scratch storage settings for a cluster.

To change cluster storage settings: 1 On the cluster controller, open the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. 2 If any Apple Qmaster services are enabled on this computer, click Stop Sharing to temporarily turn them off. Note: Do not attempt to change the cluster storage settings while the cluster is turned on. 3 Click Advanced to open the Advanced pane.

Enter a new number to change how often cluster Click Set to open a dialog storage files are deleted. for choosing a new storage folder.

Click Stop Sharing to turn off the cluster before changing any settings.

4 Do any of the following: Â To change the cluster storage location: Â Click the Set button next to the Cluster Storage field. Â Navigate to the folder in the dialog, select it, and then click Choose. Â To change how often cluster storage files are deleted, enter a new number in the “Delete Files Older Than _ Days” field. 5 Click the Start Sharing button to restart the cluster.

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Cleaning Up Cluster Storage If you are using cluster storage, and an error occurs, partial files may be left on the designated cluster storage location. Check the designated cluster storage location to make sure no partial media files are left there. If you find partial media files, delete them and submit the job again.

Compressor Command-Line Usage Requires Login While it is possible to use the command line to run an Apple Qmaster distributed processing network, each Compressor service node (each computer providing Compressor distributed processing services) must be logged in (with a Mac OS X user name and password) for full functionality.

Distributed Processing and Network Interface Cards In the Advanced section of the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences, you can restrict distributed processing activity to a particular network interface card by choosing it from the Use Network Interface pop-up menu. If you do this on a service node computer, use a different computer to submit Compressor jobs and batches.

Note: If you choose a network interface card from the Use Network Interface pop-up menu, configure all nodes in the cluster to use the same network.

Copyright © 2007 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Bonjour, DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut, Mac, Mac OS, Panther, Shake, Tiger, and Xsan are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Leopard and Safari are trademarks of Apple Inc. Intel, Intel Core, and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corp. in the U.S. and other countries. PowerPC and the PowerPC logo are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, used under license therefrom. Adobe and After Effects are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the U.S. and/or other countries. LightWave is a trademark of NewTek, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. October 17, 2007 019-1127