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Use Fuser Pools to Build a PhotoMesh Project

Eylon Sirotkin
  • Updated

In this article:

Fusers can be shared between several PhotoMesh Build Managers in your organization, enabling each machine running PhotoMesh to use the combined resources of all the machines in the pool. A distributed management approach is used to manage the pool fusers, whereby each PhotoMesh Build Manager manages its own fuser needs and resources by requesting fusers from the pool when generating a build and returning the fusers when they are no longer needed. Fusers are allocated to any PhotoMesh Build Manager that requests them, as long as there are available fusers in the pool. If a manager submits a fuser request that cannot be immediately fulfilled since no fusers are available, the manager will continually check the fusers pool for a fuser that was returned to the pool, at which point it will assign the fuser to its project’s working folder.

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Installing and Running PhotoMesh Master and Fusers

  1. Install PhotoMesh locally on each of the master computers using the PhotoMesh installation file.
  2. Copy the fuser folder created in the PhotoMesh installation (by default this folder is created in the following path: C:\Program Files\Skyline\PhotoMesh\Fuser) to a network drive that is accessible to all fuser computers, e.g., \\production\PM\Fuser7.6.1.
  3. Run the PMFuserService.exe on each fuser computer in the pool from the fuser folder on the shared network drive, e.g., \\production\PM\Fuser7.6.1\PMFuserService.exe. This service is responsible for running the required fuser (PhotoMeshFuser.exe) version for the requesting manager and assigning it to the manager’s working folder, so different PM versions can use the same fusers pool. It is recommended to configure the PMFuserService to start automatically using the Task Scheduler. 

Creating a Fusers Pool

  1. On the shared network drive, designate a pool directory which will hold the pool.json file created in the next step as well as the working folders that will be created automatically for each of the projects using the fusers pool, e.g., \\production\PM\pool.
  2. Create a pool.json file with the name and IP of all fusers in the pool. Use the following structure and syntax:
    • Create an array called “Pool” (enclosed in square brackets).
    • Enclose within curly braces each of the fuser objects. Each fuser object is composed of two name/value pairs separated by a comma: Name: FuserName, and IP: FuserIP.
{
"Pool": [       
        {
            "Name": "pm-020",
            "IP": "http://192.168.204.20:8085"
        },
        {
            "Name": "pm-021",
            "IP": "http://192.168.204.21:8085"
        }
    ],
    "Name": "ProductionPool"
}

Fuser pools with more than a single fuser/machine  

When a pool includes multiple fusers from a single machine (More about: Launching Multiple Fusers >), a unique /X must be added in the pool.json file after the IP address for each of the fusers, e.g., "IP": "http://192.168.200.001:8085/1", "IP": "http://192.168.200.001:8085/2", "IP": "http://192.168.200.001:8085/3" will launch three fusers from the same machine.
Note:  The number of fusers set to run on a machine should be limited by the amount of memory on the machine: a minimum of 16 GB RAM should be allotted per fuser. It is also recommended to have eight cores per fuser. The launching of multiple fusers on a single machine from a pool.json is only supported in PhotoMesh 7.8.3 or higher.

The fusers are launched in the order that they are listed in the json file. So if you want to launch a single fuser on each machine before launching additional fusers, each of the machine IPs should be listed first in the json file with /1 after each IP. To launch additional fusers, enter the machine’s IP followed by a unique /X. The example below will launch fusers in the following order: a fuser from computer 1, a fuser from computer 2, a fuser from computer 3, a second fuser from computer 1, and finally a second fuser from computer 2.

{
    "Pool": [
        {
            "Name": "fuserX1",
            "IP": "X.X.X.X/1"
        },
        {
            "Name": "fuserY1",
            "IP": "Y.Y.Y.Y/1"
        },
        {
            "Name": "fuserZ3",
            "IP": "Z.Z.Z.Z/1"
        },
        {
            "Name": "fuserX2",
            "IP": "X.X.X.X/2"
        },
        {
            "Name": "fuserY2",
            "IP": "Y.Y.Y.Y/2"
        }
    ],
    "Name": "ProductionPool-Multiple fusers on machines"
}

 

Building a PhotoMesh Project Using a Fusers Pool

  1. On each master computer, in the Build Manager, toggle on Use Fusers Pool. 
    Note: The Automatically use new available fusers check box must also be selected, so that PhotoMesh will use the pool fusers when they become available. 
  2. In the Auto Scaling Fusers Settings dialog box, select the Use Fusers Pool check box. Then enter the following information:
    • Fusers Pool Folder – The pool folder must contain the pool.json file, and be located on the shared network drive, e.g., \\production\PM\pool. See “Creating a Fusers Pool.”
    • Fuser Folder – Path to fuser folder on network drive, e.g., \\production\PM\Fuser7.6.1.
    • Return inactive fuser to pool after (number of seconds).
    • Maximum Fusers – Maximum number of fusers to run (if fusers are available in the pool).
  1. Click OK.
  2. If you want to monitor and manage all pool fusers, e.g., assign fusers to specific projects’ working folders and prevent their being restored to the pool, in the Build Manager dialog box, click the Pool Manager.

More about: Using fuser pools >

 

 

 

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