POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.advanced-users : Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray Server Time
28 Mar 2024 08:58:05 EDT (-0400)
  Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray (Message 3 to 12 of 12)  
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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray
Date: 25 Mar 2017 18:06:31
Message: <58d6e9e7$1@news.povray.org>
On 3/25/2017 4:58 PM, clipka wrote:
> Am 25.03.2017 um 21:03 schrieb Mike Horvath:
>> Has anyone ever set up a Microsoft Azure virtual machine to run POV-Ray?
>>
>> I am interested, and am wondering how hard it would be, as well as the
>> cost. I *think* you can just rend a virtual machine with Windows on it
>> and set up whatever programs you want. But do you have to pre-select how
>> many CPU cores you need, or does it scale automatically to whatever your
>> current load is?
>>
>> How is the cost calculated? By the flop, or clock time?
>
> They have a price calculator on the net.
>
> Cores, memory and hard disk space per VM appear to be fixed, and pricing
> appears to be by the minute of wall clock time.
>
> Load adaptation appears to be implemented by dynamically adding virtual
> machines.
>
> Their wimpiest VM, without load adaptation, appears to cost about 12 EUR
> for a total month.
>
>
> They seem to be offering a free trial, valid for 30 days and services
> worth up to about 170 EUR to 200 USD (apparently depending on your
> country of origin).
>

I was looking at those stats. The most they offer are 16 cores, which is 
nothing really. I already have 4 cores and 4x that amount is not 
phenomenal. I guess if it's cheap it's okay.

I have no clue how to set it up though. Do I have to install the OS on 
the VM myself, or does it come with Windows already set up?

Do I just use it like a regular desktop OS, where I log into the GUI and 
run the POV-Ray installer?

Will they save my image for later use, or do I have to repeat the whole 
process each time?

Stack Exchange already chewed me out for asking such stupid questions.


Mike


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray
Date: 25 Mar 2017 18:21:53
Message: <58d6ed81$1@news.povray.org>
Am 25.03.2017 um 23:06 schrieb Mike Horvath:

> Stack Exchange already chewed me out for asking such stupid questions.

Stack Exchange seems to chew out everyone for pretty much any question
of practical relevance.

I'd chalk it up to an overly dogmatic reaction to earlier flame wars.


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray
Date: 25 Mar 2017 18:37:24
Message: <58d6f124$1@news.povray.org>
On 3/25/2017 6:21 PM, clipka wrote:
> Am 25.03.2017 um 23:06 schrieb Mike Horvath:
>
>> Stack Exchange already chewed me out for asking such stupid questions.
>
> Stack Exchange seems to chew out everyone for pretty much any question
> of practical relevance.
>
> I'd chalk it up to an overly dogmatic reaction to earlier flame wars.
>


I'll try one more time.

https://superuser.com/questions/1192391/microsoft-azure-virtual-machine-services


Mike


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray
Date: 26 Mar 2017 18:11:02
Message: <58d83c76$1@news.povray.org>
Okay, I am up and running. Specs:

Operating System
	Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter 64-bit
CPU
	Intel Xeon E5 v3 @ 2.40GHz
	Haswell-E/EP 22nm Technology
	Intel Xeon E5 v3 @ 2.40GHz
	Haswell-E/EP 22nm Technology
RAM
	32.0GB EDO @ 198MHz (3-3-3-?)
Motherboard
	Microsoft Corporation Virtual Machine (None)
Graphics
	Standard Monitor (1024x768@32Hz)
	Microsoft Hyper-V Video
Storage
	127GB Virtual HD ATA Device (ATA)
	256GB Virtual HD ATA Device (ATA)
Optical Drives
	Msft Virtual CD/ROM ATA Device
Audio
	No audio card detected



Some notes:

1. $200 worth of free services during trial period.
2. $1.632/hr for Central United States. Rates vary depending on where 
you are.
3. I'm not sure how to _totally_ turn off a VM and then restart it. 
Quote: 'If the status says “Stopped (Deallocated),” you’re not being 
billed. If it says “Stopped Allocated,” you’re still being billed for 
allocated virtual cores (not the software license itself).' Have to 
figure out what the difference is.
4. I think you get billed separately for usage and storage. Not sure if 
this means virtual storage _inside_ the VM, or storage of the VM itself 
on MS' servers. Do I need to delete the VM when I'm done using it to 
keep from getting charged extra money?
5. You can link multiple VMs together, but I have no idea how to 
configure POV-Ray to take advantage of this.


Mike


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray
Date: 26 Mar 2017 18:12:59
Message: <58d83ceb$1@news.povray.org>
Also, there is no real-time tracking of what/when you're getting billed.


Mike


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray
Date: 4 Apr 2017 23:51:28
Message: <58e469c0$1@news.povray.org>
It seems Google offers $300 free credit that can be used over 12 months.

They also offer (I think) up to 64 virtual CPUs.

https://cloud.google.com/products/calculator/

Their price estimate calculator is a lot more complicated than Azure's. 
Not sure how the costs work out. I think they offer discounts in off 
peak hours, or in between heavy scheduled loads. (Not sure.)


Mike


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray
Date: 5 Apr 2017 00:03:27
Message: <58e46c8f$1@news.povray.org>
On 4/4/2017 11:52 PM, Mike Horvath wrote:
> It seems Google offers $300 free credit that can be used over 12 months.
>
> They also offer (I think) up to 64 virtual CPUs.
>
> https://cloud.google.com/products/calculator/
>
> Their price estimate calculator is a lot more complicated than Azure's.
> Not sure how the costs work out. I think they offer discounts in off
> peak hours, or in between heavy scheduled loads. (Not sure.)
>
>
> Mike

I think a significant part of the cost would be the Windows OS license, 
so using Linux instead would help a lot.


Mike


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray
Date: 20 Jan 2018 22:32:08
Message: <5a6409b8$1@news.povray.org>
I have been looking for a way to perform a lot of single core operations 
remotely. But these cloud services feature some really bad single core 
performance. In the 2GHz range I mean, which is slower than my home PC.

Mike


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From: dick balaska
Subject: Re: Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray
Date: 20 Jan 2018 22:47:43
Message: <5a640d5f$1@news.povray.org>
On 01/20/2018 10:32 PM, Mike Horvath wrote:
> I have been looking for a way to perform a lot of single core operations 
> remotely. But these cloud services feature some really bad single core 
> performance. In the 2GHz range I mean, which is slower than my home PC.
> 
> Mike

I think cloud services are geared more towards I/O than cpu intensive 
ops. "Read/parse the data - read the database - write the data".

I think you want something more cluster oriented, like a weather 
modeling cluster.

-- 
dik
Rendered 920576 of 921600 pixels (99%)


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: Microsoft Azure and POV-Ray
Date: 21 Jan 2018 11:22:08
Message: <5a64be30$1@news.povray.org>
On 1/20/2018 10:47 PM, dick balaska wrote:
> On 01/20/2018 10:32 PM, Mike Horvath wrote:
>> I have been looking for a way to perform a lot of single core 
>> operations remotely. But these cloud services feature some really bad 
>> single core performance. In the 2GHz range I mean, which is slower 
>> than my home PC.
>>
>> Mike
> 
> I think cloud services are geared more towards I/O than cpu intensive 
> ops. "Read/parse the data - read the database - write the data".
> 
> I think you want something more cluster oriented, like a weather 
> modeling cluster.
> 

The tasks need to be performed sequentially, so splitting them up among 
a number of machines is not doable.

Mike


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