Network Deployment

[oakenshield]

So we got our workstation & Simulation Floating licenses up & Running.
Now however we need to setup network rendering.

Could you perhaps give me a step-by-step of how to deploy it ?

Basically I need to know what commandline flags the installer takes.
for silent, SL ony plugin (I take it installing the SL plugin will still allow the rendernode to render
across network ?) and no helpfiles or afterflics servers.

I deploy our software using Emco Remote Installer and can point to an exe (I unpacked the installer) and can add

[pingus]

I'm in same case : need to install FumeFX on +150 machines. Simulation only.
I'm deploying with Thinkbox Deadline & batch cmd lines.

A little howTo tutorial on how access to the installer (windows for me) via command line could be welcome !

Thanks
-p-

[sitnisati]

Hello,

For this purpose inside the members area there is a manual zip package with files which you can copy directly to network computers.
You'd just need to tweak the plugin.ini and add path to FumeFX plugins.

Regards,
Kresimir Tkalcec

[Filip Kaczorek]

Yeah, don't install max plugins on evry render node - you'll kill yourself.
Install on one, get the installed files to a common path, and direct all the nodes's plugin.ini file to the common plugins path. From then any new plugin that shows up in the common plugin path will be automatically "installed" on all machines

[pingus]

Hello

I'm coming back here because i really need to deploy FFX over my render farm.
Trust me, when the installer is made for, this is so time-saver : i create a .bat file that launch the exe in quiet mode overs 200 machines & 2min later my farm is up to date/

For exemple with ornatrix : msiexec /i \\....\4.5.5.8275_win64__342031352032383331.msi /quiet /qn /norestart MAX_INSTALL_PATH_2016="C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2016" ENABLE_MAX_2015=0 ENABLE_MAX_2013=0

I've try to look at the Manual installation folder and, despit there's no 2016 version; copying files are not a problem (even if i prefere not to copy files in programs files manually), but changing plugin.ini could be (we have tons of internal plugins too) and more over, the plugin doesn't appears to be installed in windows (like in 'uninstall program'), so i can't fastly check if the node is UP and/or witch version is installed.

Thanks !
-p-

[skrysiak]

I know this is an old thread, but just posting this in case anyone else is trying to achieve the same thing. The installer is an InstallShield package, so run the installer from an admin-elevated command prompt with the switches "/a /r /f1c:\temp\setup.iss" at the end, for example:

Code:

FumeFX504R2020.EXE /a /r /f1C:\temp\setup.iss

(there is no space between the /f1 switch and the file name)

The installer will run normally, so choose the setup options as you would with a standard installation of FumeFX. Once the installer has finished, the file "C:\temp\setup.iss" is created. This is an "answer" file generated from the installation you just performed.

To perform a silent installation, copy the file "C:\temp\setup.iss" to a network path that your render farm can see, along with the installer itself. Then run the installer as a command with the following syntax (put this in a batch file or run it from an admin-elevated command prompt, modifying the paths to match your own network location):

Code:

\\fileserver\FumeFX\FumeFX504R2020.EXE /s /a /s /sms /f1\\fileserver\FumeFX\2020\setup.iss

(again, no space between the /f1 switch and the file name; remove the first "/s" if you want to see a status bar as the installation package extracts, while still running an unattended installation)

[sitnisati]

Thank you for the post skrysiak!

Regards,
Kresimir Tkalcec