RenderFarm
TYPE: TS/PVFA Operated Service
STATUS: In production, August 2025
STATUS 2: Planning, June 2026
CLEAR: NOT CLEARed
BCP/DRP: ArchPlatformTechnologies-PlatformArchitectureandSecurityOverview_v0.8.pdf
PORTAL: https://kion.cloud.tamu.edu/
The pipeline is a service built in the Amazon Cloud that utilizes the Thinkbox Deadline application. The service heavily leverages the AWS spot instance offering https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/spot/. These are spun up by the core service to do a specific task and then are automatically shut down and deleted when that task is complete, they are ephemeral by design. We have partnered with a 3rd party vendor, ARCH Platform, to help us run build and maintain the core service as well as spec out the Spot instance fleet. Thinkbox Deadline is a robust render management software designed to efficiently distribute and manage rendering and processing tasks across a network of computers, often referred to as a “render farm.”
ARCH Platform Architecture and Secrutiy
ArchPlatformTechnologies-PlatformArchitectureandSecurityOverview_v0.8.pdf
Deadline Documentation
https://docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/
PVFA is working on adoption AWS Deadline Cloud, https://aws.amazon.com/deadline-cloud/. It is effectively the same service we have now but fully managed by Amazon so we will no longer need to run the backend infrastructure. The version of Deadline we currently are using is about to enter maintenance mode on Nov 7, 2025, https://docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/products/deadline/latest/1_User%20Manual/manual/maintenance-mode-faq.html which is accelerating this implementation.
Timeline
November 2025 – Work with ARCH platform to stand up the Deadline Cloud Service
December 2025 – Get access to our HIVE group to start to figure out any changes in process for students to work with the Deadline Cloud Service
January 2026 – Have Deadline Cloud ready for student testing, they will be able to test for the Spring 26 semester
May 2026 – Move Deadline Cloud into production
July 2026 – Decommission existing Deadline servers
Management RACI
| PVFA | TSPVFA | EXTVE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System/Infrastructure Management | |||
| Patching/Upgrades | R/C | A | R/C |
| Security Monitoring | I | R/A | R/C |
| Baseline Configuration | R/C | A | R/C |
| Backups/Recovery | R/I | A | R/C |
| Access Control | R/A | R/A | R/C |
| Application Management | |||
| Patching/Upgrades | R | A | R/C |
| Security Monitoring | I | A | R/C |
| Baseline Configuration | R | A | R/C |
| Backups/Recovery | I | A | R/C |
| Access Control | R | A | I |