Q100252: Automating the Frame Server setup

SUMMARY

Setting up the Frame Server can be tedious as it requires a long Python command to be executed, however there are some simple ways of optimising this through basic bash scripting. This article explains how this can be done. 

MORE INFORMATION

Workers for the Frame Server can be initialised through a long Python command which is executed from the Terminal or Command Prompt. Details about the Python command can be found in our Nuke Online Help Frame Server section.

The best way of simplifying a worker initialization is to write a bash script. Depending on the complexity of your pipeline this can go from a simple alias, to a custom tool with a dedicated UI.

EXAMPLE USAGE

Details of substituting values can vary between Shell environments and attached to this article you can find a very simple .bat file that will let you run the Frame Server in the following format:

C:\path\to\file\test_FS.bat SERVER_NAME_OR_IP

The .bat file itself can be adjusted to suit your preferences for a default worker (i.e. number of workers, threads, memory, Nuke version, etc ...)

You can then further simplify this by creating a doskey (or alias).
On Windows this would be something similar to:

doskey MakeWorker= C:\path\to\file\test_FS.bat $*

NOTE: $* is important as it will allow you to pass arguments.

The final command could be executed from anywhere in the Command Prompt and would look something like:

MakeWorker SERVER_NAME_OR_IP

Whilst on Linux you can store this in your .bashrc file to make it permanent, on Windows you might have to find a different way (one thing that is possible to do is to create another .bat file containing all your doskeys to be launched with each instance of cmd.exe).

The implementation for this functionality in Linux can be achieved via a simple .bashrc function and an example is attached to this article (the file has to be renamed accordingly).

Attachments