Why servers depend on network status?

Hi all,
this one is for the Autodesk people:

Once all files and maps have been transmitted to a server, why does the 
server shut down rendering if the network goes down?

I mean, once it start rendering, what does the network do for MAX?

I lost so many hours just because my router needs to be reset, and one or two 
servers were hours into rendering, and they would simply shut down as soon 
as the network connection goes down.

Should the server keep rendering and eventually save the image locally, 
untill a network connection is re-established?

For animation it may not be a big deal, but for 15 hours renderings network 
stability is a huge issue.

Thank you

regards

Gio

The servers still have to communicate with the manager. Otherwise,
you do not have network rendering!

-jeff

-- 

Jeff,
thank you for the reply.

The thing is, no, they don't need to comunicate with the manager WHILE the 
server is rendering.

Other applications do have network rendering, and they behave differently.
Electricimage, for example, has render slaves that, once received the job 
(the files and the textures), will render the image no matter what happens to 
the network, or the manager's computer.

If the network is down, the image is saved on the local disk, where you can 
copy it manually to your final destination.

All I am asking is a rational explanation on why backburner servers will stop 
MAX from completing the rendering if they loose their manager.

Is it a problem of licensing? But backburner has no limits for the number of 
servers, does it not?

Thank you

regards,

gio

Server relieson a network functionality and when the network goes down, so 
does the network functionality.  You can try to work around this problem by 
settin up the MS Loopback adapter.  That keeps a network functionality 
working even if a network goes down.  It's set up by default on most laptops for

this kind of reason.

Not sure this will work, but it might be worth tryingif you have to reset 
your router frequently.  You have to understand that there is probably a 
heartbeat, and Server may need to stay in contact with Manager frequently, so 
this may not work.

Maneswar

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