backburner Installation Basics

To create and edit a combustion workspace, and to submit a job to backburner Manager for rendering, you need an authorized version of combustion installed on at least one workstation on the render network. You do not need a separately authorized version on each server.

When you install backburner, all component applications are installed:

• backburner Manager (and the files required to run it as a service)
• backburner Server (and the files required to run it as a service)
• backburner Monitor

To install backburner on a workstation:

1. Install combustion using the Compact option in the Installation Wizard. When you use this option, backburner is installed first, then combustion, and then the drivers for the hardware lock are installed.

Note: The combustion Tutorials and combustion Online Help system are not automatically installed with the Compact option. However, you can elect to install these items during the installation process.

2. To run combustion on the workstation, attach the hardware lock and start combustion.

From the Render Queue dialog, you can submit jobs to the manager for network rendering. Without the hardware lock, you can still submit a job from the stand-alone Render Queue.

It is important that all render servers are configured correctly for network rendering. You should verify the following are installed on all server workstations before you begin rendering:

• All third-party plug-ins used in the combustion workspaces. Consult the plug-in documentation for instructions.
• All fonts used in the combustion workspaces. For information on installing fonts on the system, refer to the system documentation. Alternatively, you can use the Make Curve option in the Paint and Text operators to convert the text objects into outlines. For more information, see Working with Text Control Points.
• All proper versions of required codecs (such as the Pinnacle TARGA codec or an Avid codec).

A render server without the proper resources installed, such as a specific font or third-party plug-in used in the combustion workspace, cannot render the task assigned by the manager. If a server fails, a failure message appears in the Manager window. The manager reclaims the task from the failed server, and reassigns the task to another server.

Detailed information on server failures is provided in the backburnerserver.log file. This file is located in the discreet\backburner\Network folder. (The manager also creates a log file in the Network folder; it is called backburner.log.)

Note: The Network folder is not created until network rendering has been started.

This does not mean the failed server cannot continue to participate in the network render; it only means that it failed for the specific assigned task. The manager continues to assign tasks to the server.

Note: Since the manager cannot determine what causes a render station to fail, it may assign new tasks to the server that require the same resources (fonts, plug-ins, or codec), and the server will fail again.

In the Manager preferences, you can set the number of times a render server can fail before the manager stops assigning tasks to it for a specific job.