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Check the Render Nodes: Fusion’s Render Manager incorporates a number of
methods to ensure the reliability of network renders. Periodically, the Render Manager
will send signals called Heartbeats, generated at regular intervals, to detect network
or machine failures. In this event, a failed Render Node’s outstanding frames are
reassigned to other Render Nodes where possible. In rare cases, a Render Node
may fail in a way that the heartbeat continues even though the Render Node is no
longer processing. If a Render Node failed (although the Render Master may not have
detected it) and you do not want to wait for the Frame Timeout, simply restart the
Fusion workstation or Fusion Render Node that has hung. This triggers the heartbeat
check, reassigns the frames on which that Render Node was working, and the render
should continue. Heartbeats may fail if the system that is performing the render is
making extremely heavy use of the Swap file or is spending an extraordinary amount of
time waiting for images to become available over a badly lagged network. The solution
is to provide the Render Node with more RAM, adjust memory settings for that node, or
upgrade the network bandwidth.
Check the Network: At the Render Master, bring up the Network tab of the
Preferences dialog box and click Scan. If a Render Node is not listed as running, the
Render Master will not be able to contact it for network rendering. Alternatively, bring
up a command prompt and ping the Render Nodes manually. If the remote systems do
not respond when they are up and running, the network is not functioning and should
be examined further.
Chapter – 55 Rendering Using Saver Nodes 1063