Browse F.A.Q. Topics
General
My renders starts but the render engine cannot find my scene or cannot save my frames
This is a common error that happens when you have misconfigured the users assigned to the Windows services or your Linux/Mac shares permission. If you're getting this from a Windows host, please double check the installation steps on our wiki by carefully looking at the Windows Services configuration. This applies to both the Renderclient for jobs rendering, and to the Dispatcher for single frames images assembling or custom triggered actions. If you're getting this from a Mac or Linux host, consider that our services are started as background daemons. You need to open read/write access to your mounted shares for the root account (by default), or assign an impersonation user to the Renderclient or the Dispatcher preferences. Assigning an impersonation user is something we discourage because it may became difficult to keep track of users profiles and environmental variables. You should consider modify your shares access or the init.d/startup scripts for the Unix platforms.I can render sliced images but the image assembler is failing
This is a common error that happens when you have misconfigured the users assigned to the Windows services or your Linux/Mac shares permission. If you're getting this from a Windows host, please double check the installation steps on our wiki by carefully looking at the Windows Services configuration. This applies to both the Renderclient for jobs rendering, and to the Dispatcher for single frames images assembling or custom triggered actions. If you're getting this from a Mac or Linux host, consider that our services are started as background daemons. You need to open read/write access to your mounted shares for the root account (by default), or assign an impersonation user to the Renderclient or the Dispatcher preferences. Assigning an impersonation user is something we discourage because it may became difficult to keep track of users profiles and environmental variables. You should consider modify your shares access or the init.d/startup scripts for the Unix platforms.Job is not starting and/or I get a warning icon under the J and T columns of the nodes view
There may be multiple reasons for a job failure. First of all, you should check if you get a warning symbol in your host view under the J or T column.
If you find those icon, you can double check that an error log entry has been also generated inside your logs view:
The J and T column warns you when a job (J) or the entire engine template (T) have been included into the exclusions lists. An exclusion list keep tracks of what jobs(J) or engines (T) must not be sent to a particular host because a previous critical failure happened. If you try to submit again a job or re queue a failing one on the same host, the job will not start until you purge the exclusions list for that particular job and/or engine(T). The purpose of the lists is to avoid sending consecutive failing jobs to that particular node.
One of the most common reasons for a dual failure (job and template) happens when a particular render engine has not been configured or is configured badly on the host configuration dialog. As a first step, please check the paths to the render engine locating them into the host configuration dialog (You can open the configuration dialog by right clicking on a node and then select Configure) , into the Templates tab. Locate the engine you're using and double check the paths as shown in the picture below:
Remember to check our wikis browsing the Documentation menu or for the latest version at https://www.vvertex.com/wiki900What softwares and rendering engines are compatible with the latest version of Muster ?
Check our updated support engines list, that is updated for the latest Muster release.What platforms are compatible with the latest version of Muster ?
Muster is compatible with a wide range of systems, the latest version 9 works only with 64 bit systems. On the Windows platform, we support Windows Vista X64 and later. Mac OS X is supported starting from 10.6.X on Intel platforms. Linux is supported starting from GLIBC2.6. Double check your distribution, we provide ready to run init.d scripts for debian, suse, redhat and their variants but we cannot guarantee that those will work on any distribution available on the market. We suggest you to check the updated system requirements page for further information.
If you find those icon, you can double check that an error log entry has been also generated inside your logs view:
The J and T column warns you when a job (J) or the entire engine template (T) have been included into the exclusions lists. An exclusion list keep tracks of what jobs(J) or engines (T) must not be sent to a particular host because a previous critical failure happened. If you try to submit again a job or re queue a failing one on the same host, the job will not start until you purge the exclusions list for that particular job and/or engine(T). The purpose of the lists is to avoid sending consecutive failing jobs to that particular node.
One of the most common reasons for a dual failure (job and template) happens when a particular render engine has not been configured or is configured badly on the host configuration dialog. As a first step, please check the paths to the render engine locating them into the host configuration dialog (You can open the configuration dialog by right clicking on a node and then select Configure) , into the Templates tab. Locate the engine you're using and double check the paths as shown in the picture below:
Remember to check our wikis browsing the Documentation menu or for the latest version at Installation
What network infrastructure I need to deploy to run my render farm ?
If you run a network with a limited amount of nodes and a medium sized scene files, you can just install the software with no particular changes. Otherwise, if you plan to run a serious overloaded renderfarm, read carefully the Muster user manual and how to separate the Muster network data flow from the standard file shares data to avoid stalls on the Dispatcher service activity. As a general rule, you should setup a VLAN for the Dispatcher/Renderclient activities with an higher network bandwidth priority, this will ensure that controlling and status messages between the clients and the Dispatcher are always delivered. Refer to your network system administrator for further information.What guidelines I need to follow to select my Dispatcher server ?
The choose of the Dispatcher service is related to a lot of factors. We suggest to read carefully the Muster manual that will give detailed information about the Muster requisities. As a general rule, higher is the amount of hosts you connect and more powerfull should the Dispatcher be. Also the speed of your renders will affect the amount of the operation the Dispatcher will manage, so be sure to calibrate the size of each packet to avoid overloading the Dispatcher. You should also consider a fault tollerant disk infrastructure to avoid database corruption on a power or hardware failure.
Licensing
I want to upgrade to the latest version of Muster, do I am elegible ?
Check the latest promotions available on the site, but generally, users of a previous version of Muster, should be under an active maintenance program. Users with a purchase older than 2 years are not able to jump into maintained status and needs to purchase an upgrade license. Upgrade license are available for customers running Muster 6 or greater. If you're running a version older than 6, you should purchase a new license, upgrade is not possible. By the way, get in touch with our sales channels for further and updated information.I need to extend a single client license, can I upgrade to unlimited ?
Once you choose the single client license scheme, you'll need to reach the amount of 35 nodes license to be elegible for a free upgrade to an unlimited nodes license. Also promotions are always available to unlimited licenses users. Get in touch with our sales channels for further information and how to upgrade your single node license, we may cut a custom quote for your needs.Can I get a trial version and what are the limits of the evaluation version ?
The evaluation version is basically a "free" version that let you use Muster on 4 render nodes plus the Dispatcher itself. There are no limits on the evaluation, you can use it for personal of commercial uses. However, considering the topics that Muster covers, you may need a temporary license to test it on your entire renderfarm. In such case, please get in touch with our sales channels to request a temporary license. To speed up things, remember to locate your Dispatcher service HOST ID as explained in the licenses section of our site, and send it attached to your license request.I need to relocate the license and change my server
You need to choose carefully your dispatcher server because a license relocation will cost you about 10% of the price of the original license.What’s the price of Muster and how the licensing works?
Muster is available with a node-counted license or an unlimited one. The unlimited license let you run our server component accepting an unlimited number of external nodes for calculation. The license allows the usage of one single server, if you need to segment your renderfarm for performance reasons, you'll need an additional license for each individual server you want to deploy. At the opposite side, the single client license let you license, using a floating license scheme, a limited number of external nodes for calculation. Also be sure to understand the difference between nodes and instances, because in our license scheme, each instance counts as a node.A single client license scheme is cheaper for the unlimted one until you reach an average count of 30 nodes.You should also consider that an unlimited license give you enough freedom to add hosts on the fly. For information about updated prices, check our online store.
