Need some help with SMP

F

fenderltd

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - July 2007
Joined
Feb 10, 2004
Messages
2,432
If you can give me some extended help with the instal and inital run of the SMP client I would really be happy :) I am having trouble. I could call someone on the phone (I am not crazy or a stalker) ortype on instant messenger. For some reason I just feel lost and cannot get things to run. I would just like to produce my points for the [H]orde and convert a few of my higher end boxes over to SMP

Thanks a lot in advance



 
Also discribe where you get lost.

The Windozes one has a small readme you can find after you unzip the download.

Luck ....... :D
 
I have the small text file, OS is Windows

This is what I sent another [H] member. I can post more later today.

I downloaded everything, the how to etc. and I am still having trouble. I start up VM Server click local host and then loaded the redhat config. It just sits there once started, I can't hit F2 for setup for Alt + F1, nor did it ask me my username and team. I am so screwed up and I must have it messed BIG TIME.
It finally started loading the VM screen and nothing happens loads half way and got stuck I assume FOREVER

system is a Amd Opteron 165 and 2gb of ram

I am going to download everything and attemp on my box at work. I will post more as its been 3 days since I messed with this. Maybe a little more detail on what to open in VM etc. Thanks!!!


Oh yeah, Congrats Tigerbiten!
 
I can't even find the Thread where to download all the VM! Maybe I am just not thinking clear, work has been stressing me out the last 2 weeks.
 
The VMware uses 20-25% of the CPU cycles to run.
It was devised as a stop-gap measure so that you could run the SMP client on a Windoze box.

Now that the Windoze client is out, you'll get better PpD if you can make the deadlines by either running the Windozes SMP console client or by downloading a 64 bit Linux and running the native Linux SMP client on that.

Luck ........... :D
 
Tigerbiten said:
The VMware uses 20-25% of the CPU cycles to run.
It was devised as a stop-gap measure so that you could run the SMP client on a Windoze box.

Now that the Windoze client is out, you'll get better PpD if you can make the deadlines by either running the Windozes SMP console client or by downloading a 64 bit Linux and running the native Linux SMP client on that.

Luck ........... :D
Click to expand...

That's what I did on my main pc : Installing Ubuntu 64, running Linux SMP on it and installing VMWare server then Win XP in it for the occassional things I can't do in linux. So far, it works pretty well and the PpD is awesome that way. It's also more stable since windows SMP would have issues getting a new work unit after the last one finished, requiring me to reboot after each finished WU.
 
Tigerbiten said:
The VMware uses 20-25% of the CPU cycles to run.
It was devised as a stop-gap measure so that you could run the SMP client on a Windoze box.

Now that the Windoze client is out, you'll get better PpD if you can make the deadlines by either running the Windozes SMP console client or by downloading a 64 bit Linux and running the native Linux SMP client on that.

Luck ........... :D
Click to expand...

I feel lost? What client are you talking about? The Windows 2000/XP/Vista
SMP client console version?
 
fenderltd said:
I feel lost? What client are you talking about? The Windows 2000/XP/Vista SMP client console version?
Click to expand...

Yes.
If your running a Windoze box then that the first client to try.

Luck .......... :D
 
FAH borked for me :(
fah-dammit.png

Suggestions?
 
Ok, here comes the dumbshit questions.......
1) the SMP is for multi core cpus right?????
2) since my folding boxes dont do anything else, it would be best to install a clean linux OS and then the SMP, correct?
3) how fast is this SMP???? assuming a C2D e4300 at stock speed.
 
1. Yes. Multi-core. No HT processors please.
2. I think so. The Linux client runs faster and doesn't cost you for a license.
3. Stock?? What's that.:p
 
magoo said:
Ok, here comes the dumbshit questions.......
1) the SMP is for multi core cpus right?????
2) since my folding boxes dont do anything else, it would be best to install a clean linux OS and then the SMP, correct?
3) how fast is this SMP???? assuming a C2D e4300 at stock speed.
Click to expand...


to the best of my knowledge (I only own AMD's right now) the e4300 doesn't support the virtualiztion need for the windows smp client. someone correct me if i'm wrong.
 
Mage I had the same thing happen to me yeserday. I ended up deleting all the work and installed again and it works now. In the task manager, it shows FAH a1.exe like 6 times though... Not sure if that is right or not

 
Ronbo said:
to the best of my knowledge (I only own AMD's right now) the e4300 doesn't support the virtualiztion need for the windows smp client. someone correct me if i'm wrong.
Click to expand...

You are indeed wrong. The VT tech is only needed when you want to run Linux 64 bits on Windows XP/Vista. Mine is a E4300 and I was able to run the windows SMP client fine. I ditched this in favor of Ubuntu 64 native with XP in VMWare for more stability and faster crunching time.
 
Xilikon said:
You are indeed wrong. The VT tech is only needed when you want to run Linux 64 bits on Windows XP/Vista. Mine is a E4300 and I was able to run the windows SMP client fine. I ditched this in favor of Ubuntu 64 native with XP in VMWare for more stability and faster crunching time.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected! thank you sir! and what a way to reach my 512th post :D
 
fenderltd said:
Mage I had the same thing happen to me yeserday. I ended up deleting all the work and installed again and it works now. In the task manager, it shows FAH a1.exe like 6 times though... Not sure if that is right or not
Click to expand...

Thanks for the hint - I had deleted the client and reinstalled, but left the work/ folder alone. When I get home I'll nuke it and see what happens.
 
I am not sure how well or stable this Windows SMP is.

Question: What really is the difference that makes SMP better than the regular console? What makes it have more power to crunch WU's faster?
 
fenderltd said:
I am not sure how well or stable this Windows SMP is.

Question: What really is the difference that makes SMP better than the regular console? What makes it have more power to crunch WU's faster?
Click to expand...

The main benefit of SMP is the large WU points bonus. You can get around 1000 PpD with a SMP client compared to 200-300 PpP with 2 regular clients, 1 for each core. However, with the large bonus come a big price : very short deadlines, 3-4 days for the WU.
 
instead of two instances of F@H running... SMP (symmetric, get it?) runs one F@H program but crunches big big big WU's. So your entire computer (all CPUs) are running at 100% on these new WU's.... one WU at a time.

Stanford gives big bonuses during betas...

hope this helps.
 
The SMP client also allows computation of some new kinds of problems that the older clients cannot do. I don't know exactly what the differences are, but one of the reasons given by Pande for the big bonus is that they have some new projects that can only be worked on by the SMP client.
 
ICE_9 said:
1. Yes. Multi-core. No HT processors please.
2. I think so. The Linux client runs faster and doesn't cost you for a license.
3. Stock?? What's that.:p
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm waiting for the price drops on C2D at the end of the month. Right now I have three boxes running. They are old P4s and if I'm lucky I get 8 thousand points a month.
I could smoke that with one C2D and the SMP plus save on electricity.

I cant OC the CPU because the only board I have that is 775 capable is an ASUS mATX that just wont do it.
 
Thanks for the help on the matter of SMP. I have converted a few boxes over and so far my C2D 6600 @ stock is eating through the WU. I guess this SMP is the future of folding right now :)
 
Be careful with Windows automatic update, SMP and running it as a service, it borked some of my boxes when it rebooted them two nights ago. They booted up, but some how they ended up running the SMP client twice. I remedied it by going into the boxes and correctly setting up the service to run under the account name I used for the batch fill (should have done that from the beginning but I was being lazy).
 
ND40oz said:
Be careful with Windows automatic update, SMP and running it as a service, it borked some of my boxes when it rebooted them two nights ago. They booted up, but some how they ended up running the SMP client twice. I remedied it by going into the boxes and correctly setting up the service to run under the account name I used for the batch fill (should have done that from the beginning but I was being lazy).
Click to expand...
Can you explain this a little better for me? Thanks for the update!
 
fenderltd said:
Can you explain this a little better for me? Thanks for the update!
Click to expand...

When I installed them, I picked it to run as a service. Once you do that, you actually have to go into the services, go to properties, click on the log on tab and chose this account. Use the user and password you used when you originally ran the batch file during the install. When you click ok or apply it will grant that account rights to login as a service and it will run as a service. I didn't bother doing that and just logged in and started the client up, somehow it also tried to run as a service and it fubar'd everything with it trying to run twice once manually and once with the service which was not running correctly because it didn't have the proper credentials.
 
ok, I will do the same on my boxes, thanks for the info.
 
ND40oz said:
When I installed them, I picked it to run as a service. Once you do that, you actually have to go into the services, go to properties, click on the log on tab and chose this account. Use the user and password you used when you originally ran the batch file during the install. When you click ok or apply it will grant that account rights to login as a service and it will run as a service. I didn't bother doing that and just logged in and started the client up, somehow it also tried to run as a service and it fubar'd everything with it trying to run twice once manually and once with the service which was not running correctly because it didn't have the proper credentials.
Click to expand...


I'm confused.

I read the "help file" from Stanford, and it says that the Windows SMP cannot be installed as a service. So I said "NO" to installing it as a service.

I would like to know the following:

how do I turn it off safely so I can reboot? Is control-C the only way?

Should I re-install this and have it install as a service this time?

Right now I created a .batch file to start the SMP .exe. Seems to be okay, but there are error message about the program not being turned off properly.

any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
I told my boxes to not run as a service.
Ctrl +C seems to be the only way. Someone claimed that they have never lost a WU by hitting X or Ctrl+C... I lost 2 WU's via hitting the X in the SMP. In the console, I never lost any
It seems if you run it as a service, you need to edit the properties on the service to log in.
 
Pocatello said:
I'm confused.

I read the "help file" from Stanford, and it says that the Windows SMP cannot be installed as a service. So I said "NO" to installing it as a service.

I would like to know the following:

how do I turn it off safely so I can reboot? Is control-C the only way?

Should I re-install this and have it install as a service this time?

Right now I created a .batch file to start the SMP .exe. Seems to be okay, but there are error message about the program not being turned off properly.

any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi Pocatello !! How are you doing ? This reply doesn't contain much advice, but my experiences may prove helpful to someone.
My experience in starting, stopping, and restarting Windows SMP has been very mixed...even though I only have only one boxen running it. My stock speed (I apologize profusely !) P4D 945 is Nautilus500 cooled and has always been rock solid stable, so I feel I can safely discount any system instability.
My winSMP client will run for 3-4 days with no problem, then just stops updating. At first I thought it was Windows Update disrupting so I turned it off, then I thought it was my antivirus update disrupting so I turned it off, then I thought it was my spyware program disrupting so I turned IT off ! Bottom line is that I turned off all programs that run on a timer to update, and my winSMP client will still "halt" occasionally and unpredictably.
As far as recovering from those incidents OR a deliberately caused folding stop (using Control-C , then waiting for mpiexec.exe to stop by itself, then using taskmanager to stop it manually) , my luck is only about 50/50 on getting a clean restart from a checkpoint vs. losing everything the WU has done so far... Consequently, I now only restart when forced by a stalled WU, or when there is less than 10% progress on the the WU.
..... Yep, I just checked the boxen & I've got a WU that's been stalled for 3 hours... Wish me luck !!! BTW I am NOT running it as a service.

OK 3 minutes later--- I went & restarted WU which was at 43% just like I described above & it did work this time !

 
Arrow, your problem is your user name. edit your user name to:p fenderltd and it should work a lot better ;) All in All, we just need to remember that this is a beta version but it's hard when you lose these huge WU's we've all been working on for days...:(
 
fenderltd said:
Arrow, your problem is your user name. edit your user name to:p fenderltd and it should work a lot better ;) All in All, we just need to remember that this is a beta version but it's hard when you lose these huge WU's we've all been working on for days...:(
Click to expand...

There must be a virus in my computer... When I type fenderltd, it comes up marty9876 ! :eek: Yeah, I understand the implications of running beta client on SMP, but I've got to have that WinXP gaming box do SOMETHING while I'm at work :p I figure that running the beta SMP still gets me more points, even spending time messing with it, than plain vanilla CPU WU.....

 
Hey guys

I am out of town today

trying to check my stats from a foreing computer. I miss my favorite saved web pages.

I had a 2,152 point dump today with 2 work units... so I conclude that my SMP must have turned in some SMP points... I'm guessing a 1760 plus a 392 from another box.

The machine is running while I am away. Hope all is well with my SMP. Nothing I can do about it for now. Glad I got it installed... but the thing is a bit screwy.

Later.
 
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