Download For Desktops and Render nodes

PROJECTS
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Studio Standards
Documentation Projects:
Stereoscopic Workflows
Outline solutions for working in Stereo across all departments
Monitors, Glasses, Projectors, Applications, etc.
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Studio Standards
Documentation Projects:
Stereoscopic Workflows
Outline solutions for working in Stereo across all departments
Monitors, Glasses, Projectors, Applications, etc.
Building a Studio from Scratch
Outline all aspects of building a studio from finding a location to production
Need to show differences for types and sizes of studios
Keeping solutions in mind for potential growth
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Studio Standards
Installation Projects:
OS & Application Deployment
Quickly automate deployment of operating systems and applications
Keeping software standards within your studios
Keeping machines up-to-date with patches new software etc.
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Studio Standards
Installation Projects:
OS & Application Deployment
Quickly automate deployment of operating systems and applications
Keeping software standards within your studios
Keeping machines up-to-date with patches new software etc.
Virtualization of the Render Farm
Use of Virtualization to get the most use out of your render resources
Changing the way clusters are seen by your queue manager
Changing the way you report render usage
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Studio Standards
Installation Projects:
OS & Application Deployment
Quickly automate deployment of operating systems and applications
Keeping software standards within your studios
Keeping machines up-to-date with patches new software etc.
Virtualization of the Render Farm
Use of Virtualization to get the most use out of your render resources
Changing the way clusters are seen by your queue manager
Changing the way you report render usage
Going Green
Powering on/off machines when required to reduce costs
Solutions that use less power but still give required performance
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Studio Standards
Benchmarking Projects:
Standard Hardware & Software Performance Testing
• Create real-world benchmark tests for new hardware/software relevant to studios
• Create tests and reports based on multiple sizes to show ranges
• Example: Storage tests against 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 nodes etc.
• Allow studios to make decisions based on their size and potential growth
• Suggest potential fits of new products to help improve studio workflows
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Studio Standards
Monitoring Projects:
Standard Hardware & Software Monitoring
• What products are your using today?
• Most people using free monitoring tools (with personal customizations?)
• Work together to help install and configure and update free solutions
• Receive additional support and knowledge from the StudioSysAdmins community
• Share reporting data, tools, scripts, and forms for cross studio comparisons
• Example: Studio A and Studio B have same hardware – test should show same result
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Volunteers?
We need your help to get these projects started!
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Volunteers?
We need your help to get these projects started!
How can you help?
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Sharing Information
E-Mails, Blogs, WIKIs, Uploads
Share your documentation, test results, research findings, etc…
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
PROJECTS
continued…
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Operating Systems
(For Desktops and Render nodes)
Most studios have Windows and/or OSX – that’s easy…
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Operating Systems
(For Desktops and Render nodes)
But what about Linux?!?!?!
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Operating Systems
(For Desktops and Render nodes)
But what about Linux?!?!?!
Which one(s) do you use?
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Operating Systems
(For Desktops and Render nodes)
What makes the one you picked better? or Why did you pick it?
Was it… Compatibility? Support? Price? Comfort Level?
But what about Linux?!?!?!
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Operating Systems
(For Desktops and Render nodes)
Think of the benefits of a single distribution for studios.
But what about Linux?!?!?!
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Operating Systems
(For Desktops and Render nodes)
A distribution that meets all our requirements…
But what about Linux?!?!?!
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Operating Systems
(For Desktops and Render nodes)
A distribution that works for everyone…
But what about Linux?!?!?!
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Operating Systems
(For Desktops and Render nodes)
A distribution that meets our schedules…
But what about Linux?!?!?!
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Operating Systems
(For Desktops and Render nodes)
What should we use? or Should we build our own?
But what about Linux?!?!?!
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Why a Standard OS?
Issues with long term projects and in-house toolsets do not easily allow
new versions or complete change of an OS to be easily accepted.
Operating System choices have different life-cycles than your
productions making it difficult to maintain support with vendors.
New software and hardware are usually only qualified for the latest
and greatest version of Operating System distributions (and not all).
It can be a challenge to purchase new hardware in mid-production
and get support for new drivers for your out-of-date operating systems.
How much testing needs to be done before a new OS can be used?
Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Potential Benefits
Certification
Need to get vendors (hw + sw) on board for qualifications
The goal is have all your applications under support on the same OS.
Better Applications
Less quality assurance testing spent on multiple operating systems for vendors
Give time for vendors to fix known issues and add new features to applications
Performance
OS tuned to give performance for the applications used by studios
Distribution should only contain what is required – no extra junk like current offerings.
Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Potential Benefits
Reliability
Drivers to be made available as new hardware comes to market
Needs to be backwards compatible to maintain older hardware and software
Needs extended life cycle compared to current OS offerings (for longer productions)
Support
Better support for studios - more users using the same standard operating system
Better support from vendors as all software to be qualified on a single Linux platform
Standard
Needs to be the standard OS across the Entertainment Industry
More people using – More vendors supporting
Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Outstanding Questions
Which current distribution to base from?
What are most people currently using CentOS, Debian, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OpenSUSE, Redhat, Fedora, SELinux, Ubuntu?
What operating system vendors are willing to help build us our own distribution?
Novell, Redhat, Ubuntu? … Or do we do it ourselves?
Where do we start?
List of reasons from for previous choices made, applications used, etc…
Who’s in?
What studios are willing to test and support a new OS distribution?
(larger studios give the biggest credibility, smaller studios could get the biggest benefit)
What vendors are willing to qualify their hardware and/or software?
Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
399 Studios, Production Training and Visualization Labs
Members like you!
That support and guide your companies in making proper purchase decisions
Working together! Think about this…
Together we have the potential of helping influence
vendor decisions on new products and/or features
STUDIOS
820 members
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS
John Hickson - 08/09/2011
Questions
StudioSysAdmins 2nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather
John Hickson - 08/09/2011