System Requirements¶
This section covers the system requirements for all the Deadline components. It is also recommended to read through the Render Farm Considerations documentation before proceeding with the installation.
For a more complete description of the Deadline components listed below, see the Deadline Overview documentation.
Database¶
Deadline uses MongoDB for the Database. For maximum compatibility with Deadline, we recommend you use MongoDB version 3.6.21 through 4.2.12. However, for security, you may need to use a later patch version for 4.2.12 if 4.2.12 has any security issues that might affect you. The Repository installer can install the MongoDB database for you, or you can use an existing MongoDB installation.
The following operating systems are supported when installing MongoDB through the Repository installer:
Windows Server 2012 and later (64-bit only)
Note
Please AVOID using non-server based OS such as 8.1 or 10.
Linux (64-bit only)
Ubuntu 18.04 and later
Debian 9
CentOS 7
RHEL 7 and later
Mac OS X 10.13 (High Sierra) and later (64-bit only)
If you are manually installing MongoDB, please refer to the MongoDB Supported Platforms.
These are the minimum recommended hardware requirements for a production Database:
64-bit Architecture
8 GB RAM
4 Cores
RAID or SSD disks
20 GB disk space
Note that MongoDB performs best if all the data fits into RAM, and it has fast disk write speeds. In addition, larger farms may have to scale up on RAM and Cores as necessary, or even look at Sharding their database.
Notes for Windows¶
If you choose a non-Server Windows operating system (8.1 or 10) to host the database, you should be aware that these operating systems have a TCP/IP connection limitation of 10 new connections per second. If your render farm consists of more than 10 machines, it is very likely that you’ll hit this limitation every now and then (and the odds continue to increase as the number of machines increase). This is a limitation of the operating systems, and isn’t something that we can workaround, so we recommend using a Server edition of Windows, or a different operating system like Linux.
Notes for Linux¶
If you choose a Linux system to host the database, openssl should be updated through your package manager to ensure compatibility with the MongoDB installation. You will also need to make sure the system resource limits are configured properly to avoid connection issues. More details can be found in the Database and Repository Installation Guide.
The Repository installer, which installs the database, also has a dependency on bzip2. Use your package manager to install bzip2 if it isn’t already installed on the system.
Other Linux recommendations include:
Do not run MongoDB on systems with Non-Uniform Access Memory (NUMA). It can cause a number of operational problems, including slow performance or high system process usage.
Install on a system with a minimum Linux kernel version of 2.6.36.
Install on a system with Ext4 or XFS file systems.
Turn off atime or relatime for the storage volume containing the database files, as it can impact performance.
Do not use hugepages virtual memory pages as MongoDB performs better with normal virtual memory pages.
Notes for Mac OS X¶
If you choose a Mac OS X system to host the database, you will need to make sure the system resource limits are configured properly to avoid connection issues. More details can be found in the Database and Repository Installation Guide.
Repository¶
The Repository is just a collection of files and folders, so it can be installed to any type of share on any type of operating system. Common Repository choices include:
Windows Server
Linux
FreeBSD
While the Repository can be installed on any operating system, the Repository installer is only supported on the following operating systems. To install on a different operating system, first create the network share on that system, and then run the Repository installer on one of the systems below and choose the network share as the installation location.
Windows (64-bit only)
Windows 8.1 and later
Windows Server 2012 and later
Linux (64-bit only)
Ubuntu 18.04 and later
Debian 9
Fedora 30 and later
CentOS 7 and later
RHEL 7 and later
Mac OS X (64-bit only)
10.13 (High Sierra) and later
For hardware requirements, it mainly depends on if you are planning to submit scene files and other auxiliary files with your jobs. If you are, keep in mind that the Repository machine will need to serve out these files to the Client machines, so you will want to treat it like another asset server when it comes to picking hardware. That being said, if you already have an asset server, you could probably just install the Repository on it. If you are not submitting your scene files with your jobs (because they are already stored in a network location), then you should be fine with a less powerful machine.
Notes for Windows¶
If you choose a non-Server Windows operating system (8.1 or 10), these operating systems usually will not allow more than 10 incoming connections without purchasing additional user access licenses from Microsoft. This means that if more than 10 machines (render nodes or workstations) connect to the Repository, connections will be dropped, which could result unexpected behavior. This is a limitation of the operating systems, and isn’t something that we can workaround, so we recommend using a Server edition of Windows, or a different operating system like Linux or FreeBSD.
Notes for Linux¶
The Repository installer on Linux has a dependency on bzip2. Use your package manager to install bzip2 if it isn’t already installed on the system.
Client¶
The Client can be installed on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X. The requirements for today’s rendering applications go far beyond the requirements of the Client, so if a machine is powerful enough to be used for rendering, it is more than capable of running the Client applications.
If you choose to run Pulse or Balancer, and you wish to run it on the same machine as the Database and/or Repository, you will have to install the Client on that machine as well.
The following operating systems are supported for the Client:
Windows (64-bit only)
Windows 10
Windows Server 2012 and later
Linux (64-bit only)
Ubuntu 18.04 and later
Debian 9
Fedora 30 and later
CentOS 7 and later
RHEL 7 and later
Mac OS X (64-bit only)
10.13 (High Sierra) and later
Note that it is recommended to run your operating system LANGUAGE as “ENGLISH”. This ensures that Deadline’s stdout and popup handling work correctly, since their pattern matching is based on English translations.
Notes for Windows¶
If you are choosing a machine to run Pulse, you should be aware that non-Server editions of Windows have a TCP/IP connection limitation of 10 new connections per second. If your render farm consists of more than 10 render nodes, it is very likely that you’ll hit this limitation every now and then (and the odds continue to increase as the number of machines increase). This is a limitation of the operating systems, and isn’t something that we can workaround, so we recommend using a Server edition of Windows, or a different operating system like Linux.
Notes for Linux¶
The Client installer on Linux has a dependency on bzip2. Use your package manager to install bzip2 if it isn’t already installed on the system.
The Deadline applications have dependencies on some libraries that are installed with the lsb (Linux Standard Base) package. To ensure you have all the dependencies you need, we recommend installing the full lsb package. Note, CentOS 7 by default, no longer has the LSB package installed, so this must be installed. In addition, the libX11 and libXext must be installed on Linux for the Deadline applications to run on your user-based WORKSTATIONS, even if running them with the -nogui flag. They’re required for the Idle Detection feature to work on your WORKSTATIONS. This means, that X11 is NOT required on your headless RENDERNODES. To check if libX11 and libXext are installed, open a Terminal and run the following commands. If they are installed, then the path to the libraries will be printed out by these commands.
>>> ldconfig -p | grep libX11
>>> ldconfig -p | grep libXext
Additionally, libQtCommercialCharts requires OpenGL on your workstations. Normally this is shipped with your graphics card drivers, but a software-only solution called Mesa exists if users wish to use Deadline without a graphics card.
>>> ldconfig -p | grep libMesaGL1 (libgl1-mesa-glx on Debian)
If any of these libraries are missing, then please contact your local system administrator to resolve this issue. Here is an example assuming you have root access, using YUM (RedHat/CentOS) to install them on your system:
>>> sudo -s
# WORKSTATIONS
>>> yum install redhat-lsb libX11 libXext
# old version
>>> yum install libMesaGL1
# new version
>>> yum install mesa-libGL mesa-libGLU
# RENDERNODES
>>> yum install redhat-lsb
On Amazon Linux 2 (AL2):
>>> sudo -s
# WORKSTATIONS / RENDERNODES
>>> yum install lsb
On Ubuntu:
>>> sudo -s
# WORKSTATIONS
>>> apt-get install lsb libx11-6 libxext-6 libgl1-mesa-6
# RENDERNODES
>>> apt-get install lsb
Additionally, some client functionality is also dependent on any of “xdg-open”, “gnome-open”, or “kfmclient”. Certain Linux desktop environments are missing one of these utilities (most commonly MATE). If you are experiencing issues with links not opening in the client applications check that you have one of these utilites installed and if not, install the approriate one for your system.
AWS Portal¶
The AWS Portal feature requires the installation of a couple additional components:
The AWS Portal Link service.
The AWS Portal Asset Transfer System.
These components can be run on the following operating systems:
Windows (64-bit only)
Windows 8.1 and later
Windows Server 2012 and later
Linux (64-bit only)
Ubuntu 18.04 and later
Debian 9 and later
Fedora 30 and later
CentOS 7 and later
RHEL 7 and later
Note
If you wish to use AWS Portal from a Mac OS X machine, you need to have a Windows or Linux machine on your network to install and run these components.
Floating License Server (DEPRECATED)¶
Note
Starting with Deadline 10.1.23, Deadline and its components do not require a license. This section is left for operators of older versions of Deadline.
For floating licenses, Deadline requires Flexnet License Server version 11.12 or later, and the license server can be run on the following operating systems:
Windows (64-bit only)
Windows 10
Windows Server 2012 and later
Linux (64-bit only)
Ubuntu 18.04 and later
Debian 9 and later
Fedora 30 and later
CentOS 7 and later
RHEL 7 and later
Mac OS X (64-bit only)
10.13 (High Sierra) and later
See the License Server Documentation for more information on the License Server requirements.
Note that if you choose a non-Server Windows operating system (Windows 10), you should be aware that these operating systems have a TCP/IP connection limitation of 10 new connections per second. If your render farm consists of more than 10 machines, it is very likely that you’ll hit this limitation every now and then (and the odds continue to increase as the number of machines increase). This is a limitation of the operating systems, and isn’t something that we can workaround, so we recommend using a Server edition of Windows, or a different operating system like Linux.
Usage-Based Licensing¶
Usage-Based Licensing is an on-demand licensing model for select 3rd party products that was introduced in Deadline 8, and is supported on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. See the Usage-Based Licensing documentation for more information.
Note
Starting in the year 2020, only Deadline 10.1.2 and later will support UBL on Mac OS X (as well as Deadline 10.0.29). If you are using Deadline 8, 9, or an older version of 10.0 or 10.1, you will need to upgrade to continue using UBL on Mac OS X.
UBL uses a Cloud License Server, which is hosted in the Cloud. Because of this, the only additional requirement is an internet connection. See the Usage-Based Licensing documentation for more information.
