iMac Pro < TB3 < 2017 MacBook Pro

[rawweb]

Trying to connect my iMac Pro to my 2017 MacBook Pro to create an After Effects render farm with Render Garden. However, when connecting the thunderbolt cable and connecting to the shared iMac Pro hard drive, I'm only getting about 450 MB/s write via Disk Speed Test to that shared drive. The iMac Pro reports around 2800+ MB/s. This seems ubsurd knowing the speed potential of Thunderbolt and why I can't get closer to what I would expect to see.

I tried various cables, even a thunderbolt 2 cable with the apple dongles on either end. I am baffled. Anyone got any ideas?

 

[mikehalloran]

Having seen stacks of the new Mini doing exactly what you want—and being told it's due to the T2 chip—this should work.

Are you creating a Thunderbolt Bridge when connecting?

https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/22/macbook-pro-thunderbolt-3-bridge-network-video/

 

[rawweb]

Yes, thunderbolt bridge is active and working. Turned off all other networking protocols as well.

Also tried a speed test with target disk mode and the result was even slower. In the 200MB/s range.

 

[SecuritySteve]

You wouldn't happen to be using the charging cable from the MacBook Pro that happens to be Thunderbolt, would you?

I've noticed that cable sucks for anything other than charging.

 

[rawweb]

You wouldn't happen to be using the charging cable from the MacBook Pro that happens to be Thunderbolt, would you?

I've noticed that cable sucks for anything other than charging.

No, I have a OWC thunderbolt 3 cable, but I've also tried a thunderbolt 2 cable with adapters...

 

[xgman]

Apple TB2 adapters have issues with the imac pro and TB2 chip. Best to avoid.

 

[Zdigital2015]

This may sounds counterproductive, but have you tried to do it via straight ethernet or via an Ethernet switch?

Also, Adobe recommends that each computer have a unique name and that each computer's har drive have a unique name - https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/automated-rendering-network-rendering.html

Never heard of unique name for the hard drive before, but maybe one of those will do the trick.