Getting started with the RFDK - Render Farm Deployment Kit on AWS
PrerequisitesOnboarding to CDK

Getting started with the RFDK

This topic introduces you to important RFDK concepts and describes how to install and configure the RFDK.

Topics in this chapter include:

Prerequisites

RFDK applications are written for the AWS CDK toolkit, so you first need to fulfill the AWS CDK prerequisites. This includes:

  • Installing Node.js

  • Providing AWS credentials and region (optionally installing AWS CLI)

  • Installing the programming language of your choice

  • Installing the AWS CDK Toolkit

Important

The CDK and the RFDK both require Node.js to be installed, no matter the language you work in. The minimal supported version of Node.js for RFDK may differ from the version required for CDK, so you need to use the greater of them.

Similarly, RFDK currently supports applications written in Python and TypeScript. If using Python, the minimal supported version of Python for RFDK may differ from the version required for CDK, so you need to use the greater of them.

RFDK provides Docker recipes for building container images for the RFDK server components such as the Deadline Render Queue and Deadline Usage Based Licensing. You will need to install Docker if you plan to use these components. RFDK requires Docker 17.05 or later. We also provide a walkthrough for setting up a example development environment with all the necessary prerequisites installed.

Onboarding to CDK

We recommend that you learn the CDK and the CDK deployment workflow with getting started with the AWS CDK. If you want to have a more in-depth tour that includes setting up your development environment and learning how to work with the CDK, then we recommend the official CDK Workshop.

You need to bootstrap your account using the CDK toolkit before you can deploy a CDK application into an AWS region. This needs to be done one time for each region that you want to deploy into using your account. Learn more about how to bootstrap your account from the official CDK documentation on bootstrapping your AWS environment.