Network Rendering on the Cloud

Setting up Network Rendering on a Cloud Service is very similar to setting it up locally.

Just like on a local setup you will need a Manager and a few Worker machines, these can be configured as VMs (Virtual Machines) on your Cloud Service.

The Manager machine will control and distribute all data and tasks to the Workers. It will also make all processed results available through the Monitors.

Aside from receiving the processed results from the Manager, a Monitor/Client machine would also be the machine to run KeyShot Studio and send jobs to the Manager. We would recommend that your Client machines are actual, physical workstations used by the KeyShot Studio users.

Note

The setup of VMs differs slightly between different Cloud Services, therefore we recommend you visit your Cloud Services Manual for instructions on how to set up and configure a VM.

Networking

Manager

Make sure your Manager has a static IP address/Hostname, so Monitors and Workers can reconnect after being idle.

Workers

Workers should be isolated behind a firewall and only be accessible via the Manager by the configured Worker-Manager TCP port. Since Worker IDs are created through the MAC addresses, a Worker should be configured with a static MAC address.

Monitors

Monitors need to access the Manager via the configured Monitor-Manager TCP port in order to do any of the following:

  • Send rendering jobs

  • Manipulate rendering jobs

  • See job status

  • Download completed results

Tip

Since rendering jobs can become very big it is important to remember data flow when setting up Network Rendering. As few network hops as possible and a speedy internet connection can go a long way in preventing bottlenecks.

Security

It is recommended that you use TLS between the Monitors and the Manager. Additionally, you can use KeyShot Network Rendering’s user system, which can control permissions and access. Note that if the user system isn’t used, no credentials are required when Monitors connect to the Manager and all users are seen as anonymous users.

For added security, we advocate for requiring a VPN connection to the Cloud setup such that the Manager isn’t exposed otherwise.

Hardware

Here are a few practical things to consider when configuring hardware for your VMs.

  • Both the Manager and Workers will process a lot of data and will benefit from a faster storage medium e.g. a SSD or NVMe disc.

  • For CPU Workers, it is recommended utilizing one or more CPUs with as many threads as possible because Network Rendering will scale computation power proportionally.

  • For GPU Workers, it is recommended utilizing one or more NVIDIA GPUs with as many CUDA Cores as possible because Network Rendering will scale computation power proportionally. Additionally, it is recommended to use GPUs with as many Ray Tracing Cores (RTX) as possible, as these will significantly speed up the rendering. It is also important for the GPUs to have as much memory as possible, since GPU rendering cannot leverage the system's RAM.

For more information about hardware see here.