Multiple Computers

Sixxdog_UK · Post by **Sixxdog_UK** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 8:47 pm

Hi Guys ,

I'm new to F@H and would like to run it on my spare PC's.

If i use my login details and passkey , will each machine get a different WU or will they all work on the same unit?

Many Thanks,

Alex

Post by **Joe_H** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 8:55 pm

Welcome to the Folding Forum.

If you use the same username and passkey, each computer should get a different WU. However do not clone an installation of Folding@home from one computer to another. Each installation is given an unique machine ID the first time the folding client connects to the folding servers, if you clone the installation you can cause duplicate systems that will download the same WU.

Sixxdog_UK · Post by **Sixxdog_UK** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:06 pm

Many thanks , I have 5 Macintosh 8 core machines sitting idle most of the time , my intention is to put a fresh f@h installation on all of them and leave them to run.

As you say installing a fresh install on each machine will create a unique machine ID , so I should be good to go.

Thanks again for your help.

Alex

Post by **bruce** » Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:43 am

Each machine will be uniquely identified, but you SHOULD use the same username and passkey on all of them so that all of the credits accumulate to the same on-line account.

Rwolf01 · Post by **Rwolf01** » Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:27 pm

Thanks for the "plain english" setup instructions for multiple PCs.

Do I have to do anything with the "slots" or is it okay to to leave the default values (0: CPU, 1:GPU) on all 4 machines?

I've figured out that the "Web Control" is unique for each machine. Is there a way to see a summary of all machines that are using my UserID online?

Thanks, in advance, for answering my stupid newbie questions.

Post by **Joe_H** » Mon Jun 01, 2020 9:07 pm

You usually don't need to do anything with the "slots" unless you run into a problem or want to use settings other than the default ones.

There are hacks out there to use Web Control over a network connection to another machine, but it is really designed to be used locally. However FAHControl by design can be set up to monitor and control multiple computers doing folding. It can even be set up on a machine not being used for folding and connect to ones that are doing F@h.

Using the official stats site and searching by the username you have selected will show a summary of all points and WUs connected to that name. If the username is not unique it will break it down into reports by which team those WUs and points were done for.

Post by **PantherX** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 4:59 am

Welcome to the F@H Forum Rwolf01,

If you have multiple systems on the same LAN network, you can configure Advanced Control (AKA FAHControl) to monitor all the client which can be easier. Alternatively, you can use HFM.NET to monitor your clients across systems (https://github.com/harlam357/hfm-net).

Commander_Shrom · Post by **Commander_Shrom** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 7:36 pm

Joe_H wrote: If you use the same username and passkey, each computer should get a different WU. However do not clone an installation of Folding@home from one computer to another. Each installation is given an unique machine ID the first time the folding client connects to the folding servers, if you clone the installation you can cause duplicate systems that will download the same WU.

ə please clarify what you mean by “cloning”. in order to transfer all the info from one machine to another, i created a zip of the directory i put all the “fah” stuff in (i called it “Folding”) which contains all the latest releases for mint as well as logs of the activities of the clients (in a subfolder called “Logs”), for which i wrote a script which resides in the subfolder. part of the reason for making the zip is that flash drives don’t usually have the ability to preserve execute permission and so nothing is executable until i go in and change it manually. zip does this for me. in addition, i use a different script to log the activity of “fahcore” and, when it gets beyond a certain size, start a new one after the current wu is finished. this script also checks each time a new wu is started and renices fahcore to -2.
when i want to start the client on a different computer, i copy the zipfile to a flash drive and move it to the target comp. there, after unzipping, i use dpkg -i --force-depends on each of the three .deb files. i do not want it to start at machine startup so i can do the logging the way i want it, so always select “no” for that option. i also have to apt-get something called freeglut3 to make the viewer work, but i rarely need that.
my chief question is, since the zip contains the config.xml file from the original machine where the old one was made, should i delete that and let the client create a new one, or is that done automatically with the install?
i currently have six machines working on folding, all running mint 19.3. most of them do nothing else, and run 24/7 with the cpu pegged at maximum frequency (and top shows cpu usage for farcore at nearly 100% across all cores each machine has). i passed 500 wus yesterday.
happy folding! ə

Rwolf01 · Post by **Rwolf01** » Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:49 pm

It sounds like each machine gets it's own ID number from the mother ship. The question is where do they keep it? If it's in the registry, you might be okay, since that doesn't get zipped. If it's in the install directory you could be duplicating work. (If you clone the whole system disk with True Image or the like, you're most likely to get into trouble)

Why not add the *.deb install files to your scripts and thumb drive, and copy that around instead? Then you will get a clean install each time w/o tempting fate or having to wait for a ~30MB download to finish?

Post by **bruce** » Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:21 pm

Yes, every time a client contacts the servers for the first time, it is assigned a unique UserID.

FAH doesn't store important information in the registry. I suspect it's in the .db. It's not something that I have a particular reason to look up.

Commander_Shrom · Post by **Commander_Shrom** » Fri Jun 05, 2020 4:53 pm

Rwolf01 wrote:It sounds like each machine gets it's own ID number from the mother ship. The question is where do they keep it? If it's in the registry, you might be okay, since that doesn't get zipped. If it's in the install directory you could be duplicating work. (If you clone the whole system disk with True Image or the like, you're most likely to get into trouble)

Why not add the *.deb install files to your scripts and thumb drive, and copy that around instead? Then you will get a clean install each time w/o tempting fate or having to wait for a ~30MB download to finish?

ə the .deb files are in the zip!
when i port to another machine, i bring the zip over on the flash drive, unzip, do the install, and then start the client manually.
my machine has no registry that i know of. ə

MeeLee · Post by **MeeLee** » Fri Jun 05, 2020 4:57 pm

When does that unique user ID get assigned?
If I clone a drive, and plug it in a second machine, would it not receive a different Machine ID?
Or what if I just clone the FAH data?

There were FAH binaries for download on the website, where one can just download all files needed for FAH CPU to work in one folder.
That folder (with config info) can easily be cloned to different computers, without any machine ID errors.

So I would presume the same is true for the installable version.

Commander_Shrom · Post by **Commander_Shrom** » Fri Jun 05, 2020 4:58 pm

bruce wrote:Yes, every time a client contacts the servers for the first time, it is assigned a unique UserID.

FAH doesn't store important information in the registry. I suspect it's in the .db. It's not something that I have a particular reason to look up.

ə where is the registry on a mint box?
i always thought that was just for winbloze computers, which fortunately none of mine are. ə

Post by **Joe_H** » Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:06 pm

MeeLee wrote:When does that unique user ID get assigned?

The first time an installed client connects to the servers, it shows up in the log as an Assignment ID request and response from server.

If I clone a drive, and plug it in a second machine, would it not receive a different Machine ID?
Or what if I just clone the FAH data?

No, and No

There were FAH binaries for download on the website, where one can just download all files needed for FAH CPU to work in one folder.
That folder (with config info) can easily be cloned to different computers, without any machine ID errors.

So I would presume the same is true for the installable version.

As stated, that ID number is assigned the first time an installation connects to the servers. As also mentioned in another post, no it is not part of config.xml.

Commander_Shrom · Post by **Commander_Shrom** » Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:23 pm

PantherX wrote:Welcome to the F@H Forum Rwolf01,

If you have multiple systems on the same LAN network, you can configure Advanced Control (AKA FAHControl) to monitor all the client which can be easier. Alternatively, you can use HFM.NET to monitor your clients across systems (https://github.com/harlam357/hfm-net).

ə how disappointing.
i clicked on the link, got the latest zip and the .msi to go with it, unzipped, and found to my annoyance that this is for winbloze machines! i then had to find all the files and directories this thing had created and delete them.
of course, my system could do nothing with the .msi so i looked up how to open it and learned that of course it was useless to my boxes.
i think there should be documentation that this zip will not work unless you are running an os from the seattle company.
anyway, my question now is, does there exist a way to monitor all of the (linux) machines running fah here? (i trust no one else is using my username since they don’t know my passkey.) i have three laptops, two desktops, and a chromebook running fah. all are running mint. four v 19.3, one each 18 and 17, not sure of subversion for the last ones.
what i’d like to see in the monitor is how many wus have been done by each machine, and current stats: % completed, %cpu, cpu time, tpf, and eta (though i’d call the last etf rather than eta).
then i wouldn’t need to go to each machine and look at its display.
thanks! ə

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