Auto Configuration
Overview
Auto Configuration allows you to configure your Slaves from a single location. Settings that can be controlled this way include the repository path, license server, launch slave at startup, and the local slave data folder. When a Slave starts up, it will automatically pull this configuration from Pulse, save it to its local configuration, and then apply it before initializing. Because the Slave gets this information from Pulse, you must have Pulse running for this to work. If the Slave cannot connect to Pulse, it will use its local configuration as normal.
To configure and run Deadline Pulse, see the Deadline Pulse documentation.
Rulesets
You can set up Slave Configuration Rulesets from the Auto Configuration section of the Repository Options. If you want to configure groups of Slaves differently from others, you can add multiple Rulesets. This is useful if you have more than one Repository on your network, or if you want to configure your render nodes differently than your workstations.
New Rulesets can be added by pressing the Add button. You can give the Rulset a name, and then choose a Slave Filter method to control which Slaves will use this Ruleset. There are currently three types of Slave Filters:
- Hostname Regex: You can use regular expressions to match a Slave's host name. If your Slaves are using IPv6, this is probably the preferred method to use.
- IP Regex: You can use regular expressions to match a Slave's IP address. This works with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
- IPv4 Match: You can specify specific IP addresses, or a range of IP addresses (by using wildcards or ranges). Note that this only works with IPv4. If your Slaves are using IPv6, you should use the IP Regex or Hostname Regex options. Here are some examples:
- 192.168.0.1-150
- 192.168.0.151-255
- 192.168.*.*
After creating the Ruleset, you can then specify the overrides for it. Anything left as (Inherited) will be pulled directly from the local configuration on the Slave as normal. The available options are:
- License Server: The Deadline license server setting. Use the format '@server', or if you have configured your license file to use a specific port, use 'port@server'.
- Launch Slave At Startup: Whether or not the slave should automatically launch when the Launcher starts up.
- Repository Path: This is the path to the Repository that the slave will connect to. You can specify a different path for each operating system.
- Slave's Local Data Path: The local path where the Slave temporarily stores plugin and job data from the Repository during rendering. Note that this should be a local path to avoid conflicts. You can specify a different path for each operating system.
When you add a new Ruleset, it automatically inherits all its settings from the Ruleset above it, and you can change the order of Rulesets using the Up and Down buttons. So based on the example images here, all slaves will use the same Repository Path and License Server settings, but only the Server Room slaves will force the Launch Slave at Startup setting and only the Windows slaves will use a custom data folder.
