XGrid Question

When I bought Tiger, right after it was released i didn't have need for Xgrid so didn't actually notice that after installing I didn't have the new Xgrid pane in the preferences. Only after buying a new computer which already had 10.4.3 preinstalled and becoming more aware of Xgrid (and now that it can handle matlab... or vice versa) i was scratching my brains out on how to get Xgrid on the machine which simply didn't seem to have it. I went through the install DVD to see if there is an install file, I booted up from the DVD as well to see if maybe I simply opted not to install it - nadda...
finally I found an install of the Preview 2 technologies which allowed me to install on 10.4.3, but in fact it is an older version... how can I get the correct version installed on my 10.4.3?! help.... as it is no where to be found.
Best,
David.
PowerBook Mac OS X (10.4.3)

You configure Tiger's Xgrid client through the Sharing Preferences pane. If you open the pane, and select the Services tab, you should see Xgrid in the list view at the bottom. Select it, and then click the Configure... button.

Similar Messages

Unanswered Xgrid question...

Hi everyone,
No responses to my first question. If I am asking a stupid question, just tell me.
I'd like to get a mac pro and connect it to my laptop when I'm home using the xgrid software and a spare ethernet cable, to take advantage of the extra processing speed. Here are my questions:
1: Is this possible without going through a program's source code and parallelizing it line-by-line or something?
Or, for example, can it speed up firefox, etc... instantly?
2: Can I do this under Windows?

I was wondering basically the same thing tonight, as I saw my old Mirrored Drive Doors dual G4 slow to a crawl as I tried to keep several dozen web pages open in Safari and Camino. I checked Apple's and Wikipedia's pages on XGrid, and learned it can't be used to speed up OS X itself, or normal applications (web browsers, etc.) on any of the Macs on the network.
I suspect a similar reason is why jknilinu wanted to try XGrid. With all the little java apps, animations, etc. running in some web pages (across several dozen web pages, it adds up to a lot of them), it would be nice to be able to use an old networked Mac to get more processing power. Add to that the extra slowdown caused by running low on RAM, as all that junk eats it up, causing the Mac to rely on virtual RAM off the hard drive, and things get really slow. Best thing I'd recommend, when you can't add more processors, is the old advice to max out the RAM.

Xgrid questions..

I would like to ask do xgrid can handle the rendering of After Effects? How about exporting a file from FCP? or encoding my files using DVD Studio Pro.
Please if it does can you send me a sample job how can i submit it to xgrid.
Hope you could help me.
Im using
OSX 10.4.8 server
OSX 10.4.8 as client
Thanks
Dennis

I would like to ask do xgrid can handle the rendering of After Effects? How about exporting a file from FCP? or encoding my files using DVD Studio Pro.
Please if it does can you send me a sample job how can i submit it to xgrid.
Hope you could help me.
Im using
OSX 10.4.8 server
OSX 10.4.8 as client
Thanks
Dennis

Xgrid problem

Was using xgrid with a xgrid aware app, and eventually something must have gotton corrupted, even though I set no password, and try and connect within xgrid admin, it pops up a dialog wanting single signon or a password, and if I enter a password, it fails to connect.
Is there a way to reset this back to default? Just turning the xgrid service off and on does nothing and reboots do not do anything either. Don't want to have to re-install just to fix this, that would be a pain.. any ideas??

Hi, Norm.
I suggest you search or post your question on the Xgrid Computational Service Discussion.
I don't mean to send you somewhere else, but that's where Xgrid questions are answered and the Xgrid gurus are found.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

G4 and Xgrid node question

I am currently running Logic on a G4 and thinking of the most effective way to expand my capabilities in order to work on film scoring. I was thinking of buying a mini mac and running and xgrid to utilize both computers for processing (with the node app in logic). I wanted to know if anyone has tried this or if it is compatible. If not, are there any other suggestions for ways to increase my processing power, or perhaps it isn't necessary? Thanks

From the API for JTree
public int getMinSelectionRow()
Gets the first selected row.
Returns:
an integer designating the first selected row, where 0 is the first row in the display
But I think this is based on how many rows are displayed at the present time and might change if the tree is opened above it.

Using Xgrid in Snow Leopard - two issues/questions

running snow leopard server on a mac mini. set up as the controller.
1) on my imac, i turn on xgrid sharing and it turns itself off
2) with my laptop and the server running, i submit an applescript to the xgrid, and all it does is fail
So, I would like to get the imac on the grid, and know how to run an applescript over the grid. I am using a command like this:
xgrid -h localhost -job submit /Users/chriswork/Documents/opticon3.scpt
Any help or suggestions are appreciated.
thanks.

A bug exists to implement the feature - it is not yet done. Follow along at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=688990

Using xgrid - shared file system possible?

I have a question about running a sequence of unix commands with xgrid.
I just started fiddling with xgrid and I am already able to run a sequence of renderings in parallel. This is cool and relatively easy.
The software I use for rendering is called Radiance and it is able to share a cache file between renderings of the same scene.
This cache speeds up rendering time sensibly.
Cache is optional and at the moment I am not using this option.
I can render a sequence but I am not using this option as each calculation is performed by a different agent in a self contained folder while the cache file is meant to be a shared file.
It would be great to be able to reference to a single cache file with all the agents... perhaps on a shared volume...
But how can I set this up?
Is it possible to have agents sharing a single working directory?
Any idea?
Anybody using unix commands with a similar option/requirement?
Thanks for your help in advance
G.

But how can I set this up?
At its simplest level, just setup a file server on one machine and have all the other machines mount that sharepoint.
Is it possible to have agents sharing a single working directory?
The agent doesn't care, it's up to the application you're running across the grid and whether it's designed to deal with shared directories and the fact that other processes may be reading/writing the same files. Therefore in order to answer this you need to look more closely at the tasks you're running. Since you say it supports it, you should be OK.

Xgrid server admin controller tab won't create password entries for client and agent authentication.

I am trying to set up password-based access for my OSX Server 10.7.3 running on a mac mini. When I try to enter passwords into the Client Authentication and Agent Authentication fields from the Controller tab and click Save, the fields empty out. When I then try to start the Xgrid service, it fails with an error in the log file controller missing password file "/etc/xgrid/controller/agent-password". Can someone help?
Thanks,
Chris

Thanks for the pointer to createhomedir - that did indeed do the trick. (How on earth do people find these little nuggets).
I hesitate to mark this as solved however - it's a functioning workaround, but does nothing to explain why on earth the GUI suddenly stopped functioning.
But in the (likely) event that that question never gets answered, thanks again for letting me get on with working!

Pre-setting up xgrid system Qs

I am very interested in setting up an xgrid system to improve or give a slightly added boost to my powerbook when working on FCP projects. I have several questions concerning xgrid before I start to purchase the nessisary hardware and software.
1) Is there anyway to run a xgrid client on windows xp machines?
2) I have a Powerbook (which will be the main one), iMac G5, mac mini, and a P4 2.6 Hyper-threading windows computer. What would be the recommended setup? The mac mini as a rerouter and the other two computers as slaves or whatever they are called
3) Is it worth setting an xgrid system up? I have a wireless G network which I know is slow compared to gigabit ethernet but would i noticed any performance boosts to my powerbook using xgrid? Or are my computers to slow or is the network to slow?
Thank you,
TM

1) I haven't seen any windows xgrid clients.
2) The server needs to be connected to the network all the time, so that discards the powerbook. The server doesn't need to be the fastest machine, but if it is going to be used for calculations it is a good idea. So, I'd use your iMac as the server.
3) It is worth it if you have needs/software to go with it. The speed of the network is not much of an issue, the successful Xgrids in the world (Stanford, etc) are running across the internet so... The key point to understand is that a grid is a VERY loose version of a cluster. In a cluster you would use the fastest network available because the computations in the nodes are tightly connected, that is each node needs to know what is happening in other nodes pretty often. A grid works best when the nodes calculate stuff on their own, returning calculations everyonce in a while (at least seconds). That leaves time for the passing of files across the net, the server accomodating many nodes, etc.
Also important, if you use regular software you are NOT gonna see any improvement in your powerbook. You need Xgrid enabled software, and I am not aware of a lot of that so you'd have to develop it.

What is xgrid admin in mac osx server?

Hello friends...
What is xgrid admin in mac osx server?

Xgrid is a grid or a compute cluster or distributed batch-processing engine. A grid allows an application programmer or system administrator to manage and coordinate a collection of computers and to distribute portions of a task across multiple computers.
Apple have [an Xgrid introduction|http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/technology/xgrid.html] available, and for details, have a look at the [Xgrid Administration and High Performance Computing|http://images.apple.com/server/macosx/docs/XgridAdmin_and_HPCv10.5.pdf] document that is available among the Mac OS X Server manuals.
Here is the [high-level overview of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Server technologies|http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/technology>, which can connect you with answers to many questions.

Set PATH for xgrid job env

Hi all
When I enter:
xgrid -job submit /usr/bin/env
I get:
XGRIDPROCESSORCOUNT=2
XGRIDPROCESSORSPEED=2400
XGRIDAGENTNAME=aha
SECURITYSESSIONID=94b51520
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
TMPDIR=/var/folders/zz/zzzivhrRnAmviueezzzzzjzzzzs/-Tmp-/
SHELL=/usr/bin/false
HOME=/var/empty
USER=nobody
LOGNAME=nobody
My question is how do a modify the path so that my xgrid job can find scripts that are in my normal users path??
For the time being im rapping scripts in a bash script that exports my PATH before actually making any calls. But this is very messy.
cheers!

The formscfg file you could to this kind of changes.
Greetings.

.xml on xgrid

As I'm newbie on xgrid, I have question about it!
Does there is any possible way to run .xml fail on grid with such a code in it:
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE config SYSTEM "http://www.matsim.org/files/dtd/config_v1.dtd">
<config>
    <module name="global">
        <param name="randomSeed" value="4711" />
        <param name="coordinateSystem" value="Atlantis" />
    </module>
    <module name="network">
        <param name="inputNetworkFile" value="/Users/admin/Desktop/matsim-0.3.0/pt-tutorial/multimodalnetwork.xml" />
    </module>
    <module name="plans">
        <param name="inputPlansFile" value="/Users/admin/Desktop/matsim-0.3.0/pt-tutorial/population.xml" />
    </module>
    <module name="scenario">
        <param name="useTransit" value="true" />
        <param name="useVehicles" value="true" />
    </module>
    <module name="controler">
        <param name="outputDirectory" value="/Users/admin/Desktop/matsim-0.3.0//output/pt-tutorial" />
        <param name="firstIteration" value="0" />
        <param name="lastIteration" value="50" />
        <param name="eventsFileFormat" value="xml" />
    </module>
    <module name="qsim">
        
        <param name="startTime" value="00:00:00" />
        <param name="endTime" value="30:00:00" />
        <param name = "snapshotperiod"    value = "00:00:00"/> 
        <param name = "snapshotFormat"    value = "otfvis"/> 
    </module>
    <module name="planCalcScore">
        <param name="learningRate" value="1.0" />
        <param name="BrainExpBeta" value="2.0" />
        <param name="lateArrival" value="-18" />
        <param name="earlyDeparture" value="-0" />
        <param name="performing" value="+6" />
        <param name="traveling" value="-6" />
        <param name="waiting" value="-0" />
        <param name="activityType_0"            value="h" /> 
        <param name="activityPriority_0"        value="1" />
        <param name="activityTypicalDuration_0" value="12:00:00" />
        <param name="activityMinimalDuration_0" value="08:00:00" />
        <param name="activityType_1"            value="w" /> 
        <param name="activityPriority_1"        value="1" />
        <param name="activityTypicalDuration_1" value="08:00:00" />
        <param name="activityMinimalDuration_1" value="06:00:00" />
        <param name="activityOpeningTime_1"     value="07:00:00" />
        <param name="activityLatestStartTime_1" value="09:00:00" />
        <param name="activityEarliestEndTime_1" value="" />
        <param name="activityClosingTime_1"     value="18:00:00" />
        <param name="activityType_2"            value="s" /> 
        <param name="activityPriority_2"        value="1" />
        <param name="activityTypicalDuration_2" value="00:40:00" />
        <param name="activityMinimalDuration_2" value="00:10:00" />
        <param name="activityOpeningTime_2"     value="08:00:00" />
        <param name="activityLatestStartTime_2" value="" />
        <param name="activityEarliestEndTime_2" value="" />
        <param name="activityClosingTime_2"     value="20:00:00" />
    </module>
    <module name="strategy">
        <param name="maxAgentPlanMemorySize" value="5" /> 
        <param name="ModuleProbability_1" value="0.7" />
        <param name="Module_1" value="BestScore" />
        <param name="ModuleProbability_2" value="0.1" />
        <param name="Module_2" value="ReRoute" />
        <param name="ModuleProbability_3" value="0.1" />
        <param name="Module_3" value="TransitTimeAllocationMutator" />
        <param name="ModuleProbability_4" value="0.1" />
        <param name="Module_4" value="TransitChangeLegMode" />
    </module>
    <module name="transit">
        <param name="transitScheduleFile" value="/Users/admin/Desktop/matsim-0.3.0/pt-tutorial/transitschedule.xml" />
        <param name="vehiclesFile" value="/Users/admin/Desktop/matsim-0.3.0/pt-tutorial/transitVehicles.xml" />
        <param name="transitModes" value="pt" />
    </module>
    <module name="changeLegMode">
        <param name="modes" value="car,pt" />
    </module>
</config>

Hi,
If your query returns more than one record (more than one xml), it will display the error message you described.
When we run the following the script, we will get the same error message in the output file (textxml.txt):
DECLARE @sql
nvarchar(1000)
SET @SQL='sqlcmd
-S(local) -E -dAdventureWorks -iE:\TestSQL.sql -oC:\testxml.txt -h-1 -y0'
EXEC
Master..xp_CmdShell
@SQL
--E:\TestSQL.sql
:XML
ON
SELECT Instructions
FROM Production.ProductModel
WHERE Instructions IS
NOT NULL
This is because: XML ON can only stream one xml at a time, please refer to the following solution:
--E:\TestSQL.sql
SET
NOCOUNT ON
SET
QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
SET
ANSI_NULLS ON
DECLARE @ProductModelID
int
SELECT @ProductModelID=MIN(ProductModelID)
FROM Production.ProductModel
WHERE Instructions IS
NOT NULL
WHILE
@ProductModelID
IS NOT
NULL
BEGIN
:XML
ON
SELECT Instructions
FROM Production.ProductModel
WHERE ProductModelID=@ProductModelID
:XML
OFF
SELECT @ProductModelID=MIN(ProductModelID)
FROM Production.ProductModel
WHERE ProductModelID>@ProductModelID
AND Instructions IS
NOT NULL
END
For more information, please see：
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162773.aspx
Thanks,
Ai-Hua Qiu
Constant dropping wears away a stone.

Final Cut Server + Xgrid?

I'm guessing that since it's all powered by Compressor in the backend, that this is a dumb question, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Are jobs performed by Final Cut Server able to be assigned to an Xgrid system? I'm planning on purchasing the product soon, but this might be a sticking point.
I can't find anything in any of the documentation.

Final Cut Server, can distributed Proxy transcoding and Video Transcoding to a Qmaster Cluster. Let's say you had 3 Nehalem Xserves, with 8-Cores each all setup and configured as a Qmaster Cluster. Taking a 7 hour long ProRes HQ SD sequence create and MPEG_2 single pass video in 28 minutes. Qmaster accomplished this by splitting groups of frame across, individual processing cores.
This isn't actually what is accomplished in Xgrid, but I believe this answers your question.
Does it?
Let me know
Nicholas Stokes
XPlatform Consulting

FCP and xgrid system?

I am new to FCP and xgrid and I am planning on getting FCP later in the spring. My question is, for someone who has expereince with xgrid, how well does FCP utilize an xgrid system? Also could an xgrid system be possible over a wireless G network or is this way to slow? I have a powerbook as my main computer and I could utilize a mac mini, iMac G5, and some windows computers (if possible) all as clients on the xgrid system... IS this possible?
Also if you just have an xgrid system please elaborate about its infrastructure/setup, how well it works, opinions, etc...
Thank you in advance,
TM

FCP at the present time makes no use of the xgrid renderfarm capability...
Patrick

XGrid and DVD Studio Pro

Greetings all,
I've searched the net for an answer to this and couldn't find one, although I'm sure this question has been asked hundreds of times before. I just finished sorting through this forum as well and couldn't find a similar question. It doesn't seem like this forum is too active, but I'll give it a shot anyway.
I use Final Cut Pro HD (4.5) and DVD Studio Pro 3 rather heavily. We have four systems and may have a new addition soon. I'd really love to be able to speed up render times in DSP at the very least.
So far I've set up the grid. I used XgridLite to make one of the computers the controller. Through Apple Preferences I enabled Xgrid on the agent systems (including the controller) and pointed them to the controller system. The grid is password-protected, and all agents are set to receive tasks regardless of whether they are idle or not. With the exception of one system (the slowest one), all systems successfully joined the grid and are in "Available" status when viewed with Xgrid Admin.
I presume the grid is properly set up so far. When I try to encode with DVD Studio Pro, however, the admninistrator utility doesn't show any of the systems becoming active. Note that the primary encoding system was the same as the controller system - was that the problem, perhaps?
All systems are currently linked through a 100 mbps network. We'll soon be moving them to a 1 gbps network. I was hoping that the 100 mbps network would at least let me see that it worked, even slightly. I looked through DSP's preferences but I can't find any options about network encoding or tying into Xgrid. I presume that acting as a client to the Xgrid network is a function built into Xgrid-enabled programs (or scripts you'd write yourself).
Any advice? If anyone can say for certain that DSP 3 won't do it but that newer versions of DSP will, I can request an upgrade and probably get it. I'd rather not do that unless this will for sure work with Xgrid, and only if Xgrid will provide a reasonable performance boost.
Thanks in advance!
David

This post has received a number of views but no comments back, so I thought I'd give a brief update on my findings. Even though I've seen Xgrid as being marketed as something that could be used for media, it is the wrong tool for the job when it comes to Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, and likely other media applications. What should be used instead is a program called Qmaster. If you have DVD Studio Pro 4, Qmaster is included in the "Extras" content on the disc. Qmaster allows for distributed work to occur through Compressor, which Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro rely on.
I have requested that my department upgrade to DVD Studio Pro 4, and may update with how successful it is. Otherwise, if you were like me and were looking around the internet for how to get this stuff working with Xgrid, stop and begin looking into Qmaster.

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