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The following setup is for an environment that uses desktop computers. It is called
“part-time” processing because each computer acts as someone’s workstation, but at the
same time is also part of the distributed processing cluster. The bulk of the processing
jobs can be submitted with Compressor or Apple Qmaster at the end of the day, so that
the computers are busy processing a large queue of distributed processing batches after
everyone has gone home. (See About Advanced Settings in the Apple Qmaster Sharing
Window and Scheduling Service Availability in the Work Schedule Dialog for information
on scheduling service node availability.)
Network
FireWire
drive
FireWire
drive
FireWire
drive
FireWire
drive
FireWire
drive
Each computer acts as both
a client that submits jobs for processing and
a service node that performs the processing.
All source and output files are stored on the FireWire drives.
In the sample setup shown above, five computers act as both the clients (user workstations
from which users submit jobs for distributed processing) and cluster computers (which
do the processing). Each computer has an additional volume, such as a FireWire drive,
that is used for media before and after it is rendered, and for the associated files.
355Chapter 29 Apple Qmaster and Distributed Processing