Is it possible to submit a job to multiple groups, without building a white/black list for a job?
We have a renderfarm that has been upgraded over time, so we have several groups of computers that are of varying power or capacity. If we wanted to set a “4core”, “6core”, “8core”, “12core” etc… group and then send a job to the 6,8,12 core groups or a job to the 8, and 12, we would have to make additional groups for each combination of the first list of groups. This could be done with getting the slave groups and then setting a white/black list, but you wouldn’t be able to see what groups the job was submitted to in the monitor afterwards.
So is there a way to submit to multiple groups or should we explore a different solution?
No, but you can do what you want using Limit Groups. We use them for similar purposes, as I’ve found the single-group, single-pool (well, now two pools) system overly limiting.
Indeed as Nathan suggests; perhaps an alternative in this case, is to consider the logic and naming convention of the current “group” names and consider naming them such as “min_4_core”, “min_6_core”, “min_8_core”, “min_12_core”, where in each “group” of machines any machines which at least match the core count, would exist. Then end users (artists) will simply understand that the group will mean that their job will only process on machines with this minimum number of cores on it. “Limits” could be used to further refine the selection if necessary without having to then dive into black/whitelisting.
I didn’t realize limits could be used to white/black list slaves, I thought it was just a way to limit the number of simultaneous slaves running the job. The limits will work out great for what we need.