Grid Computing Cluster – the Development and ... - Lim Lian Tze

Grid@USMTable 1: Reliability of Xgrid Render-FarmTime Taken (Seconds) To Complete Rendering 1000 FramesNo. of nodes1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10❵❵❵❵❵❵❵❵❵❵ Run No.❵1 2435.00 1306.90 963.42 663.78 569.78 435.71 422.64 355.13 327.98 305.872 2436.00 1336.00 963.35 663.33 569.40 436.00 421.00 354.00 327.66 303.003 2435.00 1306.90 963.42 663.78 560.78 435.71 422.64 355.23 327.98 305.874 2435.00 1306.90 963.42 663.78 569.78 435.71 333.00 355.13 327.98 305.275 2435.00 1306.90 963.33 660.00 564.00 432.00 421.00 350.95 321.22 301.17coefficient of variation (%) 1.848 3.061 4.152 0.002 0.007 0.003 0.002 0.005 0.009 0.006Figure 6: Blender 3D rendering times using Xgrid and increasing number of agentsDISCUSSION &CONCLUSIONIn this project, we constructed a gridnetwork of 10 iMac computers usingApple Xgrid middleware to create aRender-Farm for Blender 3D animation.A web portal was also developedusing PHP to enable easy submissionof render jobs to the gridand to retrieve the results of therendering. To study the efficiencyof the grid, we recorded the timetaken to render 1000, 5000, and 10,000frames of Blender 3D animation witha fixed number of agents in the gridfor each study. The results showedthat when the number of agents wereincreased from 1 to 10, the renderingtimes were reduced by 86.78 %,86.68 % and 88.39 % for 1000, 5000and 10,000 frames, respectively. Onaverage the 10-node Render-Farm wasable to complete the rendering job byas much as 9 times faster than theconventional single computer setup.As the workload increases, the efficiencyalso increases, although largerjobs also increase the time taken toreturn the results to the controller.To study the reliability (reproducibility)of the Xgrid Render-Farm,we repeated 5 times each run acrossa fixed number of agents and foundthat the coefficient of variation oftimes taken for completing of eachrendering job was less than 5 % (Table1). We conclude that Xgrid canbe used to create a reliable low-costRender-Farm to accelerate CPU intensivetasks, saving time and cost.FUTURE WORKFollowing the PRAGMA 15 exhibitionand showcase, we have receivedmany queries regarding our Blender3D Render-Farm portal. We arepreparing to organise a workshop onBlender 3D and grid computing.PROJECT PUBLICATIONSPhua, K. K. & Wong, V. C. (2007).Developing A Compelling 3D Animationand Multimedia PresentationUsing Blender for INFORMM’sOpening Ceremony. Malaysian Journalof Medical Sciences, 14(Supplement1).Zafri, M., Sanjay, K. C., & Phua, K.K. (2009). Implementation Methodsfor Estimating Haplotypes withGRID Computing Technology. InCompendium of Abstracts for the 14thNational Conference on Medical andHealth Sciences (NCMHS).Zafri, M., Fadhilah, N. K., & Phua,K. K. (2008). Using Xgrid to ImproveFASTA Efficiency for Alignmentof Multiple DNA and ProteinSequences. Malaysian Journal of MedicalSciences, 15(Supplement 1).U@SGridM22 USING GRID TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE A RENDER-FARM FOR BLENDER 3D ANIMATION