User Guide > Rendering and Render Setup > Rendering > mental ray for Maya rendering > Network rendering > mental ray for Maya network rendering >
What you need to set up network rendering
If you want to render Maya scenes (.mb or .ma) from within Maya or batch render with Maya, you need to install mental ray for Maya on all server machines and mental ray standalone on all slave machines.
If you want to render native mental images (.mi) scenes from the command line using the mental ray standalone renderer, you need to install mental ray on all master and slave machines.
If you want to render Maya scenes (.mb or .ma) from within Maya or batch render with Maya, you need to install mental ray for Maya on all server machines and mental ray for Maya Satellite on all slave machines. You can use up to 2 CPUs (with Maya Complete) or 8 CPUs (with Maya Unlimited). For more information about installing mental ray for Maya Satellite, see the Installation and Licensing guide.
You can’t render native mental images (.mi) scenes from the command line using the mental ray for Maya Satellite; you must use mental ray standalone.