1. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 PROJECTS

2. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Studio Standards Documentation Projects: Stereoscopic Workflows Outline solutions for working in Stereo across all departments Monitors, Glasses, Projectors, Applications, etc.

3. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Studio Standards Documentation Projects: Stereoscopic Workflows Outline solutions for working in Stereo across all departments Monitors, Glasses, Projectors, Applications, etc. Building a Studio from Scratch Outline all aspects of building a studio from finding a location to production Need to show differences for types and sizes of studios Keeping solutions in mind for potential growth

4. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Studio Standards Installation Projects: OS & Application Deployment Quickly automate deployment of operating systems and applications Keeping software standards within your studios Keeping machines up-to-date with patches new software etc.

5. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Studio Standards Installation Projects: OS & Application Deployment Quickly automate deployment of operating systems and applications Keeping software standards within your studios Keeping machines up-to-date with patches new software etc. Virtualization of the Render Farm Use of Virtualization to get the most use out of your render resources Changing the way clusters are seen by your queue manager Changing the way you report render usage

6. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Studio Standards Installation Projects: OS & Application Deployment Quickly automate deployment of operating systems and applications Keeping software standards within your studios Keeping machines up-to-date with patches new software etc. Virtualization of the Render Farm Use of Virtualization to get the most use out of your render resources Changing the way clusters are seen by your queue manager Changing the way you report render usage Going Green Powering on/off machines when required to reduce costs Solutions that use less power but still give required performance

7. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Studio Standards Benchmarking Projects: Standard Hardware & Software Performance Testing Create real-world benchmark tests for new hardware/software relevant to studios Create tests and reports based on multiple sizes to show ranges Example: Storage tests against 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 nodes etc. Allow studios to make decisions based on their size and potential growth Suggest potential fits of new products to help improve studio workflows

8. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Studio Standards Monitoring Projects: Standard Hardware & Software Monitoring What products are your using today? Most people using free monitoring tools (with personal customizations?) Work together to help install and configure and update free solutions Receive additional support and knowledge from the StudioSysAdmins community Share reporting data, tools, scripts, and forms for cross studio comparisons Example: Studio A and Studio B have same hardware – test should show same result

9. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Volunteers? We need your help to get these projects started! Volunteers? We need your help to get these projects started!

10. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Volunteers? We need your help to get these projects started! Volunteers? We need your help to get these projects started! How can you help?

11. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Sharing Information E-Mails, Blogs, WIKIs, Uploads Sharing Information E-Mails, Blogs, WIKIs, Uploads Share your documentation, test results, research findings, etc…

12. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 PROJECTS continued…

13. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Operating Systems (For Desktops and Render nodes) Most studios have Windows and/or OSX – that’s easy…

14. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Operating Systems (For Desktops and Render nodes) But what about Linux?!?!?!

15. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Operating Systems (For Desktops and Render nodes) But what about Linux?!?!?! Which one(s) do you use?

16. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Operating Systems (For Desktops and Render nodes) But what about Linux?!?!?! What makes the one you picked better? or Why did you pick it? Was it… Compatibility? Support? Price? Comfort Level?

17. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Operating Systems (For Desktops and Render nodes) But what about Linux?!?!?! Think of the benefits of a single distribution for studios.

18. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Operating Systems (For Desktops and Render nodes) But what about Linux?!?!?! A distribution that meets all our requirements…

19. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Operating Systems (For Desktops and Render nodes) But what about Linux?!?!?! A distribution that works for everyone…

20. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Operating Systems (For Desktops and Render nodes) But what about Linux?!?!?! A distribution that meets our schedules…

21. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Operating Systems (For Desktops and Render nodes) But what about Linux?!?!?! What should we use? or Should we build our own?

22. Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011

23. Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Why a Standard OS? Issues with long term projects and in-house toolsets do not easily allow new versions or complete change of an OS to be easily accepted. Operating System choices have different life-cycles than your productions making it difficult to maintain support with vendors. New software and hardware are usually only qualified for the latest and greatest version of Operating System distributions (and not all). It can be a challenge to purchase new hardware in mid-production and get support for new drivers for your out-of-date operating systems. How much testing needs to be done before a new OS can be used?

24. Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Potential Benefits Certification Need to get vendors (hw + sw) on board for qualifications The goal is have all your applications under support on the same OS. Better Applications Less quality assurance testing spent on multiple operating systems for vendors Give time for vendors to fix known issues and add new features to applications Performance OS tuned to give performance for the applications used by studios Distribution should only contain what is required – no extra junk like current offerings.

25. Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Potential Benefits Reliability Drivers to be made available as new hardware comes to market Needs to be backwards compatible to maintain older hardware and software Needs extended life cycle compared to current OS offerings (for longer productions) Support Better support for studios - more users using the same standard operating system Better support from vendors as all software to be qualified on a single Linux platform Standard Needs to be the standard OS across the Entertainment Industry More people using – More vendors supporting

26. Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Outstanding Questions Which current distribution to base from? What are most people currently using - CentOS, Debian, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OpenSUSE, Redhat, Fedora, SELinux, Ubuntu? What operating system vendors are willing to help build us our own distribution? Novell, Redhat, Ubuntu? … Or do we do it ourselves? Where do we start? List of reasons from for previous choices made, applications used, etc… Who’s in? What studios are willing to test and support a new OS distribution? (larger studios give the biggest credibility, smaller studios could get the biggest benefit) What vendors are willing to qualify their hardware and/or software?

27. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 399 Studios, Production Training and Visualization Labs STUDIOS 820 members STUDIOS 820 members Members like you! That support and guide your companies in making proper purchase decisions Working together! Think about this… Together we have the potential of helping influence vendor decisions on new products and/or features

28. Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Creating a Standard Linux Operating System: CreateOS John Hickson - 08/09/2011

29. StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 StudioSysAdmins 2 nd Annual SIGGRAPH Birds-of-a-Feather John Hickson - 08/09/2011 Questions