Clustering 2 Mac Pros

Ok I am about to embark upon the seemingly difficult task of clustering 2 mac pros together. However, the caveat is that I have to play musical hard drives. Here are the details:
Mac 1:
Mac Pro, 2x3 GHz Dual_Core Intel Xenon
4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM RAM
Tiger OSX 10.4.11
HD Bay 1- 300 GB
HD Bay 2- 465 GB
Mac 2:
Mac Pro, 2x2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xenon
6 GB 1066 MHz DDR3
Snow Leopard OSX 10.6.2
HD Bay 1- 640 GB
I have one copy of Final Cut Studio that I plan on having on Mac 2 as my main editing station. Because Mac 2 is my main workstation and Mac 1 will be the slave, I want to put the 300 GB HDD from Mac 1 into Mac 2. I want to install Snow Leopard and FCS2 onto the 300 GB drive and use the 640 GB strictly for storage and capture scratch. Well currently that 300 GB is running Tiger on Mac 1 and the 640GB is running Snow Leopard on Mac 2.
So it seems that for Mac 2, I would have to format the 300 GB on Mac 1, then move it to Mac 2 (bay 1), format the 640 GB on Mac 2 (move to bay 2), then install Snow Leopard and FCS2 on the 300 GB (bay 2).
And for Mac 1, move the 465GB drive to bay 1 and install Tiger on it.
Once that process is done, I think I will be ready to attempt to cluster them using Mac 2 as the main workstation and Mac 1 as a slave for its processing power.
I have never done either of these things and wanted to know if my presumed steps above are the best way to do it or if anyone knows of a better, faster, or smarter way to do all this.
Thanks!

Take a look at these: http://daugerresearch.com/pooch/recipe.shtml
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/PoochCluster_Software_for_Mac_Adds_OpenMPISupport/

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Can you Combine Virtual Clusters from 2 Mac Pros?

Reading, searching support & Googling has not really answered this (perhaps dumb) question. Hopefully someone here would be kind enough to help.
I have a 8-core Mac Pro running FCS2 with a 4-instance Virtual Cluster. I just added another MP 8-core edit seat & setup another 4-instance Virtual Cluster. Each MP compresses great standalone. In the Submit dialogue both clusters are shown as separate choices. I want to be able to combine them into a mondo choice.
I understand how to distribute rendering between 2 machines but how do you distribute rendering to all 8 virtual cluster instances. Ticking share unmanaged resources simply shows each 4-cluster resource.
TIA

Page 27 shows an example of a part-time setup using every available workstation in the network (provided you have installed Apple Qmaster software on every Mac) One computer with FCS2/Compressor installed is the controller & all others are unmanaged nodes "with services only" as described on page-17.
Not sure if you're referencing what your current setup is in comparison to what I was pointing to in the manual, so forgive me, but I don't think you're following what I'm saying.
When you're creating true clusters with Qadministrator (meaning not Auto or QuickClusters), at least some of the services on the host machines must be managed. (And I point this out because you're using managed services on your machines)
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Or have you covered these bases already?

Clustering Mac Pro

Hi everyone,
I'm a beatmaker and i use Logic Pro 9 to do that, i have 2 Mac Pro's (one with 8 gigs of ram and the other with 6gig).
So i found a topic in internet nammed clustering computer and it consists in making two pcs acting as one, i think it's possible with mac cause i used in the past logic node (i think it's the same idea ???) , the problem is logic pro is 64bit now and does not supports logic node, so my question is how can i use my two mac pro as one in logic pro or any other app?
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Sort of....
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If you search google for vienna ensemble pro 5 youtube you will find lots of example videos and tutorials that would probably explain it better.....
I've used VEP for a few years now and it's an indispensable tool for me when wanting to load share large, cpu hungry Kontakt libraries or plugins like Omnisphere. Diva or whatever else... across networked Macs and PCs as well as providing for running 32bit AU Plugins or even Windows VSTs (with a PC as a slave computer) within LPX
You can also route audio from LPX tracks.. over to the slave computers so you can use FX plugins on those to process the sound and then return the effected audio back to LPX again... Again very useful when using multiple copies of demanding FX plugins like B2 or Aether for example..
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Both with using virtual clusters (4 instances) and no virtual clusters I'm getting around 52 minutes on a DVCPRO HD 720/24p clip which is exactly 6 minutes in length. The G5 dual 2.7GHz with 2.5GB of RAM did this job in 21 minutes and 33 seconds.
On the Mac Pro I've erased my system and reinstall with just FCS2 on the system... still the same speeds. I've taken out the 2x4GB sticks.. still the same speeds. I've moved the 6 minute clip onto different volumes still the same problem. I've tried other DVCPRO HD clips.. still the same.
The problem only happens with the DVD 90-150 presets regardless of quality. Does not occur with the HD DVD presets or H.264.
Mac Pro configuration:
Mac Pro 3GHz 8 core
9GB of RAM (2x512mb, 2x4GB)
ATI Radeon X1900 XT with dual 30 inch ACDs
3TB of internal Hard Drive storage... one unraided 750GB for system files.. 3 RAID 0 for Scratch.
AJA KONA LHe capture card
Runiing Final Cut Studio 2 with compressor 3.0.1
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2.5GB of RAM (2x256MB, 4x512MB)
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL with 23" ACD
250GB + 160GB internal Hard Drives.
Running final Cut Studio 2 with Compressor 3.0.1
Any help would be appreciated... I've tried everything in my technical powers to solve this one.

Made a new DVD: MPEG-2 custom setting with an average bit rate of 7.7Mbps... still slow... about 50 minutes to complete the 6 minute DVCPRO HD 720/24p clip. The compressor daemons are averaging around 60MB of Real Memory and 450MB of virtual memory. I really think this lack of memory usage is causing the problem. This only happens on the DVD 90-150 MPEG-2 presets. Any other format is grabbing at least 200MB per daemon... including HD DVD MPEG-2 and DVD MPEG-1. I will continue to test different settings and pray for a change.
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No major difference in speed between CBR or VBR custom presets... memory usage still in the 60's per compressor daemon.
With Job Segmenting turned off & One Pass CBR... 20 minutes to job completion. The memory usage is around 65MB of Real Memory and 450MB of Virtual Memory. CPU activity on the one active compressor daemon is averaging around 460%.
One thing I am learning is that processor activity as reported by Activity Monitor is not a reflection of speed.
Message was edited by: Trancepriest
Message was edited by: Trancepriest

DVCPRO HD/Apple Pro Res 422 HQ slow to transcode to DVD on 8 core Mac Pro's

I've been conducting some tests and narrowed down the slow transcode times I'm having specifically to DVCPRO HD or Apple Pro Res 422 HQ clips when transcoding to 90-150 MPEG-2 DVD Presets. These formats take forever to render on a Mac Pro 8 core when compared to a G5 or a quad 2.66GHz Mac Pro. DV and DVCPRO 50 are transcoding at very fast speeds on a Mac Pro 8 core. I would like other Mac Pro 8 core users out there to confirm this... that way Compressor developers can do soemthing about these slow MPEG-2 transcode times. A 6 minute DVCPRO HD clip is taking 52 minutes to transcode to a MPEG-2 90 minute DVD Best Preset in Compressor. This is in comparison to 20 minutes on a G5 and 10 minutes on a Mac Pro 2.66GHz for the same transcode. This problem does not happen while transcoding to MPEG-1 or HD DVD MPEGs.
I've tried everything:
1. Wiped the system
2. Switched memory
3. Tried virtual clusters.. still slow even at 750% cpu utilization.
4. Tried with updates and without updates.
5. Tried with multiple other clips.
6. Looked at my file permissions for each clip
7. Made sure that each file is self contained.
8. Tried custom presets.
9. Googled to see if other people are having the same problem... found this: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/155/866630
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Message was edited by: Trancepriest
Message was edited by: Trancepriest
Message was edited by: Trancepriest

I've had the same chooppy/ipxelated results that you are having with DVD Studio Pro's encoder at different settings. If DVD Studio Pro had worked well... I would have dropped this issue somewhat. I'm so irritated that a Mac Pro 8 core... top of the line machine is getting floored by G5's and Quad Mac Pro's. Even though it's just with the DVD 90-150 minute presets... its still a major issue because i need to make DVD's on a regular basis. I woud feel so much better if I knew someone was looking at the problem. Including you I've found 3 others with the same issue. I'm hoping to get them on this thread.

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Are you seeing page outs? multiple swap files?
Go to folder: /var/
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Clustering 2 Mac Pros

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