Apple Qmaster and Distributed
Processing
29
Computers that submit batches to the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system are
called clients. A job is a processing task such as a Compressor preset-source pair, or a
Shake file, or other files or commands that use UNIX commands to specify settings such
as rendering instructions and file locations and destinations.
Batch of
processing jobs
Client computer
Jobs are submitted.
Destination folder
Files are placed at
specified destination.
Processed
files
Apple Qmaster cluster
Processing is
performed by cluster.
Network
A batch is one or more jobs submitted for processing at one time. The procedure is
analogous to printing multipage documents from a word processing program; the files
are spooled and processed in the background. Although a batch can include just one
job, you will typically want to submit several jobs at once for processing. Similarly, several
people can use the same Apple Qmaster system at the same time, with several client
computers sending batches in the same time frame. Batches are managed and distributed
by the computer that is designated as the Apple Qmaster cluster controller, which is
described in the next section.
There are three approaches you can take toward setting up a distributed processing
system:
• Use This Computer Plus: Using This Computer Plus is the easiest approach you can take
to create a distributed processing system. You simply install Compressor, configured
as a service node, on any computers you want to perform processing duties. For more
information, see
Getting Started Quickly Using This Computer Plus
.
• Create a QuickCluster: Creating a QuickCluster allows you to configure a single computer
to be a cluster by choosing the number of instances it supports, based on the number
of cores available. For more information, see
Getting Started Quickly Using QuickClusters
.
• Manually create a cluster: Large installations can manually create managed clusters for
use by their clients. For more information, see
Creating Clusters with
Apple Qadministrator
.
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Chapter 29
Apple Qmaster and Distributed Processing
Important:
When using distributed processing (This Computer Plus, QuickClusters, and
managed clusters), you may be asked to authenticate yourself. This is because
Apple Qmaster must share a folder, using NFS sharing, with links to the media files so
that the processing computers can access the media files. This makes this folder available
to any computer that knows its IP address. When using distributed processing with
confidential media, make sure the computers are protected by a firewall.
For more information about the various components that make up a distributed processing
system, see