Force pending job release before new job scan - is it possible?

Deadline
1

Hi All

I’m having a slight issue with Maxwell coop render jobs on deadline.

When I queue two Coop batch renders, on completion of the first render job the subsequent render job always ‘steals’ the render nodes before the pending merge job from the previous submission is released, meaning the merge job from the first submission isn’t carried out until the second job has finished rendering. Hopefully this image helps explain that mouthful of a sentence:

slave theft.jpg
slave theft.jpg1057×326 192 KB

Is there a way to ensure this never happens, for example by forcing a pending job scan before slaves pick up a new job? I’ve tried increasing the frequency of the pending job scan, but notice it has to be a minimum of 60 seconds.

I’m sure there’s a simple solution… unfortunately though it’s too late in the week for my brain to carry out effective problem solving :open_mouth:

2

You could make the first render job of the subsequent submission dependent on the pending merge job from the previous submission. This would prevent it from starting until the merge job is complete, but it may be inefficient with farm utilization, depending on the intention.

3

The only trouble there is that if the merge job takes a long time, the next render job wouldn’t start even if render nodes become available.

In the end I wrote a simple event plugin that releases the corresponding merge job when the render job finishes, and that seems to be working nicely in the few tests I’ve done.

4

Excellent solution! Events are quite powerful.