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Network install and monitoring for F@H?

Fardringle

Fardringle

Diamond Member
I like the idea behind both the FaD and F@H projects and have installed FaD on two computers at home so far to play with it. But it looks like the F@H team needs help and even just a small push could make a difference, so I'm thinking about putting some processor time towards the Folding at Home project. I need some info before I can try it out...

Is there a way to do a network install of the program like FaD does? Also, are there any good network monitoring programs like SetiSpy and FADSpy that will work for F@H, and where would I get them?
 
Oh, and I would need to be able to install the client as a service (no taskbar or system tray icon) so people won't mess with it, but still be able to monitor the production from another computer on the network...
 
Any suggestions? I'd like to help out the Folding team but I really need some answers before I can do so, and my attempts to search here and elsewhere on the Net haven't turned up anything useful yet. I did find a guide here to install the client as a hidden service, but I need something like FAD Spy to monitor the all of the clients on the network. 🙂
 
I would love to see you help out F@H! Have you seen FAHLogStats This seems to be a popular monitoring program for F@H. ProviaFan has a F@H FAQ that might help you too. Hope this helps!

Edit: I was a little hasty in answering your question, I am not aware of any network monitoring programs for F@H. Sorry
 
Hey Fardringle!

Not sure how I missed your post earlier, sorry 😕 😀

The CLI client has built in ability to be configured to run as a service, (need to restart computer - I think)
It can also be configured to not run on battery, run at idle or low priority, use whatever percent of CPU you want, and a bunch of other options.

Here and here are a guide and info thread. Near the bottom of the first post are the monitoring apps.

I'll check into the easiest way to network install and get back, please be patient. Or hopefully someone with experience in this area will post.

Thanks

EDIT: nate, FAHLogStats is a network monitoring app
 
It looks like the easiest way to install on many computers would be to use the CLI console client Version 5.02 from here.

First set up one computer how you want it, with your username and 198 for the TeAm number, and to run as service and how you want everything else. To do this the client will enter config mode when you first run it, (if it doesn't find the "client.cfg" file). After config mode it will create files and get a WU. One of the files it creates is "client.cfg", this holds the configuration data. Copy that file and the CLI executable to your computers. When you start the client on those computers it will get a unique ID for that computer from Stanford and a new WU.
If you wanted to save a little bandwidth to could also include the core, a file with a name like FahCore_##.exe

I haven't done this but I got the info from the F@H forums here.

Here you will find lots of info on the different monitors.
 
That looks like some good info. Thanks.

I'll do a little 'light' reading before I make my trip out to the remote office where I would most likely be installing this client and decide if I can make it work there or not. 🙂
 
OK, I have another question. I'm sure I could find many answers to this one if I try, but I'd like to see what you guys have to say.

Is there any difference in speed, stability, or memory usage between the GUI and CLI versions of the client? Or any other reasons to use one over the other?
 
Hmmm. I just came across something potentially disturbing. I have been reading on the FaH forums at forum.folding-community.org and it appears that it is not uncommon for the FaH client to use 50+ MB of RAM when processing large units. If this is the case I'm afraid I won't be able to run it much. Some of the computers I had intended to put to work only have 256MB of RAM and frequently run programs that need all of it and more. I do plan to upgrade them whenever the boss gets around to finding money for it, but who knows when that will be...

Is this type of memory usage actually normal or am I just seeing posts by the few and far between that are having problems? 😛
 
I'm crunching big work units and I can see that it used around 40 to 100megs, looks like you might want to turn off the big WU requests to lighten up memory usage.
 
The graphical client has a couple strikes against it in my book.

1. If you view the protien animations ~60% of the cpu is used for the animations.
2. The graphical client does not have a service (stealth🙂) install.

As far as the memory, F@H allows you to "opt-in" for the wu's with the large memory requirements. You will not recieve the large wu's unless you tell your client to accept them. When you set up your client for the first time one of the questions will be "Allow receipt of work assignments and return results greater than 5MB" just reply no for the computers that will not handle the large wu's. If you read MDE's set-up guide I think all of your concerns will be covered. Configuring the client for timeless wu's might be a good option for the computers with lower installed RAM.
 
Originally posted by: Fardringle
What type of memory usage would be normal for "non-big" units?
Click to expand...
I've seen anywhere from 10MB to 40MB on my system that had 512MB (when I got 1GB I started running Big WUs). I'm fairly sure F@H takes the capabilities of your system into account when getting WUs, so if you don't have much RAM, it should err on the smaller side (though as long as you don't turn Big WUs on you won't get any of the monsters that we talk about sometimes).

You also don't have to restart after doing the service install if you can open the Services panel (under Administrative Tools) and start the service manually from there (it is set to Automatic, so upon the next restart it will start by itself). For monitoring, you just point the monitor program (I like F@H LogStats) to the F@H folder on each machine; this can be done either with read-only shared folders or with the \\system\\x$\Program Files\Your_F@H_Folder method if you have appropriate permissions.
 
Originally posted by: natethegreatConfiguring the client for timeless wu's might be a good option for the computers with lower installed RAM.
Click to expand...
I run those on a few systems that are slower and lower in RAM (700MHz with no net connection, and my 500MHz Celeron server, both with 256MB), and have no problems or conflicts. I just realized that I have no idea what command to use to check memory usage of a single program under Linux, so I can't see how F@H is doing on my home server, but I'll be visiting the other system today, so I'll check the RAM usage on it to give you an idea of what the WUs with no deadlines consume.
 
All of the complaints at the F@H forum about memory usage has to do with BigWUs, especially the new QMD core BigWUs.

They are trying out some new technology that speeds the science process, but it uses lots of resources.

They are coming out with a new client that can be configured to accept QMD WUs if you want. The default choice will be to not accept them.

Thanks ProviaFan 🙂
I am a bit out of my element with the service install.
 
$#%&, I forgot to check the RAM usage today. I sat at the computer for a whole five minutes to burn a CD, and could have easily opened a Task Manager, but somehow it slipped from my memory. Since I'll be near the computer again tomorrow (practicing some stuff on the piano @ church for an Easter program), I'll try to remember to get you your data then. 😱
 
I was under the impression that F@H uses the resources that are not being utilized and consequently releases them when the system calls for them. If this is the case, why would it matter if it uses all ram when the machine is idle and no ram when the user is running apps that need it?

I'm confused.

Martin
 
It commits the RAM. The CPU cycles are what are freed if the system has something else to do.

My F@H commits about 110MB when it is doing a "big work unit". When you install you can answer NO when it askes about accepting large work packets if you don't want to give up the RAM. (the 'regular' work units use somewhere between ~20 and 50 IIRC)

-Sid

PS: I use FAhlogStats to monitor my networked computers.... (I just set the FAH folder to shared and then put the path in FAhlogStats) I don't know how to do a (hands-off) network install though.
 
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