Modifying Plugin Info and Job Info files via PostRenderTask

Deadline
1

Is it possible to modify the entries in either PluginInfo or JobInfo files? Currently we have set up a submission script that will submit a Maya job as two jobs (optional). The first job gets submitted with a higher priority of 75, and will only render out specific frames, then the second job that’s submitted has a priority of 55, and will render out the remainder. We have been pushing a lot of jobs through out farm recently (maybe 200-400 complete every 8 hours or so at the moment…), and we’d like to combine this all into one job submission to cut back on the amount of files Deadline needs to parse to help speed up our Deadline Monitor…

Our idea was to have a PostRenderTask script that checked what frame range was being rendered (ie: 1001,1005,1010,1015,1020,1001-1020) then having the submission script add an additional Key to the plugin info file to signify if the PostRenderTask is going to be treating this specific job the way we’re currently doing it with two jobs. If that key is set, to scan the output for those specific frames, if they finished, and exist, to then modify the xml job file’s entry for priority to “55” from “75” so we can finish the remainder, and have frames to work with in the mean time.

Is there a way to modify these entries without having to parse the file and replace/modify strings? I’d like to know what your thoughts and suggestions are with this idea, because we’re going to be rendering in stereo soon, and the amount of jobs on the farm will double in the next couple days, so if we can cut back the amount that we currently have in half, it would help out a ton.

Thanks!
Brett Bronson

2

Hi,
The 3dsMax to Deadline submission already has this functionality, on submission from within 3dsMax, it can spawn 2 jobs, a [preview] job and a [remaining frames] job. So the code to achieve this is already in your deadline install. Would be nice to get this functionality added to the Maya submission interface :slight_smile:
Mike

3

Hey Brett,

The Job Scripts documentation shows a good way on how to get the output paths for specific frames using a post task script:
software.primefocusworld.com/sof … cripts.php

That should get you started. Also, you could use the script function GetPluginInfoEntry functions explained here to pull those additional values out of the plugin info file:
software.primefocusworld.com/sof … _Functions

There is nothing built into the API yet to modify the job properties directly, but you can do this via Deadline Command. So you could have the post task script call this command to set the priority:
software.primefocusworld.com/sof … ommand.php

In particular, you want to use this command:

deadlinecommand.exe -SetJobSetting [JOBID] "Priority" "75"

Note that this command requires the job’s id, which you should be able to access in your post task script using the following:

jobId = GetJobInfoEntry( "JobID" )

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

  • Ryan
4

Thank you Ryan, that should help out a lot!

-Brett Bronson