FAH: Installing 2 SMP clients

[Insidious]

With so many people building quad core PCs for folding, the question is arising frequently about how to run two SMP clients and get those big points.

I took a stab at a "guide" for installation:

Installing 2 folding@home SMP clients under Windows

here is what's in the link. If you have things to add (maybe a Linux guide... hint, hint) or corrections that need to be made, let me know. If we get this looking good, maybe GLeeM will put the link on the stats or something to help our newcommers!

Installing 2 Folding@Home SMP clients on a Quad core WindowsXP or Vista PC

First thing is to make sure that you are using a passworded Administrator account
Make two directories: cfah1 and C:fah2
Run the downloaded installation program and make sure you tell it to install in Cfah1
Next run the downloaded installation program again and make sure to tell it to install in Cfah2
Go to cfah1 and run the file 'install.bat' (Vista: right-click and use 'run as administrator')
It will ask for the user name (windows account user name)
It will ask for your password (windows account user password)
You should see it display MPI is working twice if it is has worked
Then hit a key to exit that window
Right-click on fah.exe and select create shortcut.
Right-click on the shortcut and select 'properties'
In the target line of the shortcut, add these command line switches to the far right end of the existing text:
-local -forceasm -advmethods -verbosity 9 (no quotes around these commands)
Under Vista, be sure to go to the advanced button of the shortcut properties window and then select run as
administrator
Now double-click the shortcut to run the SMP client for the first time. You should enter the configuration
questions (remember we are team 198)
The important questions are:
Your name
Your team (198)
Tell it you do NOT want it installed to start automatically as a service
Tell it NO to using IE settings
Tell it YES to accepting work units >5MB
Tell it NOT to disable highly optimized assembly code
Tell it YES to changing advanced options
When it asks for machine ID set it to 1
When you finish the configuration it should exit
Now, do all the above for the installation in the cfah2 folder. Everything is exactly the same EXCEPT BE
SURE TO SET THIS CLIENT TO A DIFFERENT Machine ID (2)
So now they're both installed and you can start them using the shortcuts you created (this gets the switches
put in each time)

Good luck!

-Sid

[LOUISSSSS]

thanks=]
very easy to understand! just follow those steps one by 1 and you're GTG!

if only this guide was up when i was trying to set up my SMP's a little while ago =(

[GLeeM]

Link added to stats thread above the old link to the below info on how to set static IP address

Thanks Insidious

Originally posted by: Insidious
Note: Before you start any of this, re-start Windows to make sure your F@H clients are not runninig. Also as you go along, remember what your original settings are in each place I'm going to have you change things so you can get back if you choose to later.

first check your router settings to see what is the starting address of DHCP (it's normally in the basic setup section.) For instance, mine says the starting address is 192.168.1.100

in one of the next entries it should tell you how many is the maximum number of DHCP users is. mine says 50, so that means that addresses ranging from 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.150 are DHCP assigned addresses which will be renewed periodically and can even be changed automatically by the router (this borks up the SMP clients).

from the above, I know that any address from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.149 and addresses from 192.168.1.151 to 192.168.1.254 are all free to have clients with static addresses. (ones that won't change)

From this I decided to give my wireless PC the address of 192.168.1.160 (I just picked one)

Next, we have to set lup your PC with the static address.

First, right-click on the my network places icon and select properties from the drop-down menu.

double-click the wireless connection entry to pop up the local area status window. Select the support tab

write down the entries you see for subnet mask and default gateway. now click on the details tab and copy down the addresses for DNS servers. now close the status window and right click the wireless connection entry in my network places and select properties

in the window that comes up, highlight the internet protocol (TCP/IP) entry and then click the properties button.

we are going to select the 'Use the following IP address' button (which clears the 'Obtain an IP address automatically' button)

enter the IP address you chose to be the static address of your PC in the IP address section. Then enter the addresses you copied earlier into the subnet mask and Default gateway entries.

enter the DNS server addresses you copied earlier too.

You're done. re-boot windows and make sure your internet is working then start F@H

As to how this affects your internet experience, it doesn't make any changes to it at all. The only difference I notice is that my wireless connection gets made much faster when I re-start windows (which is nice!)

hope this helps

Sid

[Shooks]

Good work Sid, I know you saved me a lot of hassle

[Shooks]

I do have one slight issue, how do I properly end the tasks? If I simply click the X on the command windows, there is still 4 processes working in task manager that I have to manually end. Also, when I clicked the X on client 1, client 2 immediately gave some error or something and deleted it's WU that was at 16%

[Insidious]

That issue keeps coming up with the dual SMP installations.

There is only ONE reliable way to shutdown the SMP clients in Windows.... Re-start Windows while they are running normally. Then just don't start the clients until you want them.

-Sid

[Shooks]

Alright, thanks for the quick answer

[Cutthroat]

Is it necessary to run two clients on a quad? With just one client I have all 4 cores running at 100%, what would be the point in running two?

[Insidious]

It isn't necessary. Actually, you are running it the way it was designed.

Under Windows, there is some ineffeciency and you can get an overall higher PPD if you run two clients (and the smp affinity changer utility), but you pay for it with extra headaches.

-Sid

[Cutthroat]

Thanks Sid, I am using the affinity checker with just the one client, and it helps a lot. But my Q9450 runs too hot as it is and I don't need to push it any farther, I think I'll stick with one client for now.

[filibusterman]

tag for later thx!

[Shortass]

Is this still the way this works? Is this still the most efficient way to use a quad?

[tontod]

I installed the 6.24 version, didnt work initially, re-installed, then it worked. For some reason it stopped, then after re-installing it, it worked again. Hope I dont have to keep on reinstalling. I see all 4 cores maxed out at 100%, so I'm assuming its running on all 4, and I dont have to install 2 SMP clients?

[kwrzesien]

I just got setup a short while back and the Insidious guide hit the spot. I think your best bet would be one SMP client and one GPU client if you have a quad core. On a Core i7 (quad-core/HT) it seems best to run TWO SMP clients and one GPU client.

However under Windows this won't give you the best pts/day (or pts/wk). The Windows FAH is 32-bit, even the SMP client. Running the Linux x86_64 client is faster and gets better points. There is a Linux virtual machine all setup already to run this, just install vmWare Player or Server (both free), download notFred, make copies and go! Plus the usual GPU client running in Windows.

Configuring the notFred's with your userid and team are easy, just hit the ip address from your Windows browser.

Since vmware can only give two threads to each virtual machine you should run twice as many notFred's as you would native SMP clients, like two on a quad-core pc or four on a Core i7. Each FAH model will take much longer to run, almost a day sometimes, but the overall throughput is much higher.

http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/

[GLeeM]

I think part of the reason for the Linux client getting better PPD is that the amount of internet bandwidth used is greater.

I have a 2,300 MB upload cap and I quickly reached it running two notFreds.
At the time the upload size of the WUs was 50 MB each! (might be different type of WUs now?)

[geokilla]

Linux gets better PPD is because it uses the A2 folding cores instead of the A1 cores. A2 WU fold like twice as fast as the A1 cores.

Instead of running 2 SMP WU, run 2 Notfred clients.