Setup guide

DescriptionXML Element(s)Field
The maximum number of Render Nodes that will be allocated for a specific job. This feature can override
the server limit settings in some applications. For information, see the application's Advanced Settings
Dialog.
<UseServerLimit> and
<ServerLimit>
Use Server
Limit
The number of times a Render Node retries a task before suspending it.<UseTaskErrorLim-
it> and <TaskEr-
rorLimit>
Use Task Er-
ror Limit
The default mail server used for email notification. This mail server is used only for jobs that do not already
have a mail server associated with them.
<DefaultMailServ-
er>
Default Mail
Server
Failed node behaviour
DescriptionXML Element(s)Field
Activate to enable automatic Render Node restarting. If this op-
tion is disabled, the Render Node does not attempt to render
<RetryFailedServers>Restart Failed Servers
the job again after the first failure. This option is enabled by de-
fault.
The number of times the Manager attempts to restart a failed
Render Node. The number of retries is set to 3 by default. The
range is between 1 and 1024.
<RetryCount>Number of Retries
The time between each retry in milliseconds. This value is set to
30000 milliseconds by default. In Windows, this value is adjusted
to be displayed as 30 seconds.
<TimeBetweenRetries>Seconds Between Re-
tries
The state of a Render Node is recorded on a per-job basis. The Backburner Manager regularly goes through
the list of Render Nodes for a job, checking for failures. If Restarts Failed Servers is enabled (set as 1 in the
backburner.xml file), the Manager keeps track of the following:
■ The time a Render Node fails on a particular job.
■ The time elapsed since the node failed on a particular job.
If the time elapsed is greater than the specified Seconds Between Retries, the Backburner Manager decreases
the Number of Retries by one and resets the Failed flag for the Render Node. Once the failure count reaches
the specified Number of Retries, the Manager stops trying to restart the Render Node for that particular job.
Once a restarted Render Node completes a frame, it is flagged as active and resumes processing until the job
is complete.
Configure the Backburner Manager to access jobs on specified system or network drives by modifying either
fields in the Direct Access to Job Path group of the Backburner Manager General Properties dialog, or elements
of the ManagerSettings sub-element of the AppDetails element of the backburner.xml file.
You use these fields/elements when you do not want to have jobs kept on the drive or workstation where
the Backburner Manager is installed. Examples of such situations are:
■ You have very little drive space on the system drive where the Backburner Manager is installed. Because
another system drive has plenty of space, you share a folder on this drive called MyJobs, where jobs are
placed when submitted. In this case, you would direct jobs to \\computername\MyJobs.
■ You are using your workstation simultaneously as a Backburner Manager and creative workstation. To
reduce the overhead on the workstation from the Backburner Manager, you set up a shared job folder
110 | Chapter 3 Networked processing