Using Freenas to render proxies

[Ronan McKernan]

Hi, I am currently rendering a high volume of proxy files for some video projects that I am working on. As this takes a long time I am currently having to leave my main computer on overnight. It occurred to me that I may be able to use my storage server to offload this task allowing me to run this process 24/7 and free up my main computer for editing during the day. I have very little knowledge of how to do this or if it is even possible, however, my current thought process is that I may be able to create a windows 10 VM that I can run Adobe Media Encoder on and then use this to render the files. However, I am not 100 percent sure that I am correct in thinking this, or if this is even the best way to go about it.

I know that from a processing perspective the server is not exactly equipped for dealing with a high volume of rendering tasks. I do have a spare GTX 1070 laying around that I could possibly add to the server to help with this load however I don't know if that will help a VM in the same way it would a regular computer. Further, I also do not want the running of this to affect the performance of my server in handling the day-to-day file storage and transfer tasks that I require.

Hopefully, someone with more knowledge than me can shed some light and help me decide on the best solution. Thanks

• Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600K CPU @ 3.50GHz
• 64GB DDR4
• 7 WD Red 16Tb in Raid Z2 & 128GB SSD boot drive

 

[jgreco]

Yes, you can run a virtual machine on FreeNAS or TrueNAS. I don't know what the state of GPU passthrough is for this. It will have some impact on your system, most likely, but unless you are asking too much of the system, it is unlikely to be disruptive.

 

[emk2203]

If you are free to choose the encoder, it might be easier to render via a commandline ffmpeg process. What is the input and the output format for your rendering?