Apple Installing Your Shake 4 Software - Manual (Page 9)

9
While one computer could act as a combination of client, service node, and cluster
controller, keeping these functions on separate computers generally increases the
speed and efficiency of processing.
Client computer
from which users work and
send jobs to the cluster
Cluster controller
manages the
distribution of
client’s jobs
across the cluster
Service node
processes jobs
Service node
processes jobs
Service node
processes jobs
Service node
processes jobs
Cluster
(can contain multiple service nodes, but only one cluster controller)
Client Client Client Client
Example of a network setup for distributed rendering
Highspeed switches (chained together)
Rack of servers containing
cluster controller and render-only Shake service nodes,
plus rackmounted shared storage device.
LAN