User Manual

Nodes automatically search for the dongle on the subnet, making it easy to set up. Single-seat
dongles do not “float” over a network; they must be connected to the same computer where
Fusion Studio operates.
Multi-License Dongles
Using a multi-license dongle, you can license 10 copies of Fusion Studio by connecting the
dongle to any computer on the same subnet. Since these licenses “float” over a network,
Fusion Studio does not have to be running on the same computer where the dongle is
connected. As long as Fusion Studio is on the same subnet, it can automatically find the license
server and check out an available license.
Multi-seat dongles can be combined together to tailor the number of Fusion seats in a larger
facility. For example, three dongles each licensed for 10 Fusion Studios would serve up 30
licenses. This also allows for redundancy. For instance, in the example above, three computers
can act as license servers. If the first server fails for some reason, Fusion Studio will
automatically try the next server. Alternatively, multiple dongles can also be plugged into a
single computer.
Setting Up a License Server
Setting up the license for network rendering begins by connecting either a single-seat or
multi-seat dongle to a computer that will act as the host for the license server. The Render
Node installer installs Fusion Server, which acts as the license server, although the Render
Node does not have to run on that same computer. The Fusion Server is set up to launch at
startup and run unobtrusively in the background as a service/daemon, ready to serve licenses
and Fusion bins. The Fusion Server is used to serve up multiple licenses so it must be running
whenever you want to operate Fusion Studio or use the Render Nodes for network rendering.
Its default is to start up automatically and remain running as long as a license is being used by
another computer or a Render Node is operating. If nothing is using the Fusion Server, it will
quit after 30 seconds.
You will need your network administrator to set firewall rules allowing the Fusion Server,
FusionScript, and the Fusion Render Node applications to communicate and confirm licensing
with the computer that has the Fusion Studio dongle.
If for some reason you remove a dongle or the network drops out, the licenses of any
connected Fusion Studio application will also drop. Upon losing its license, Fusion Studio will
start searching for another license, locally or on a different machine. If no license is found,
Fusion pauses rendering and displays a dialog with options to retry the search or autosave the
comp and quit. Render Nodes only check for a license on the network once during startup, so
they are not affected by removing the dongle or network issues.
Setting Up a License Server with Environment Variables
Environment variables provide a way to specify flexible or “variable” configuration options.
When network rendering with Fusion, environment variables can be useful for temporarily
setting a location or choosing a preference file. Using the FUSION_LICENSE_SERVER
environment variable, you can set different locations for the File Server.
Instead of looking in a single location for the Fusion Server, you can set up multiple license
servers separated by semicolons. For instance, fu:SetPrefs(“Global.EnvironmentVars.FUSION_
LICENSE_SERVER”, “192.168.1.12; 192.168.10.55;*”)
You can also use the environment variable to scan for license servers within a subnet—for
example, “bobs-mac.local;10.0.0.23;*;license.mystudio.com”. Including an asterisk (*) indicates a
broadcast search of the local subnet.
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