F@H for Business?

[benji]

Hi

So I was using F@H for a while at home and stopped when I got a new computer and forgot to re-install.

Anyway, now I'm a Systems Administrator for a company with over 100 computers which I am pretty sure are not going to be using all of their processing power, all of the time.
(On a side note, I reckon it's the way this place should be going, large businesses are masses of processing power sat looking at Spreadsheets!)
So, I'm looking for a way to deploy this program to my computers with our team number etc. prefilled so that we can use our unused processing power for good.

Is anyone else here in the same position as me? How have you accomplished this? Anyone else anything to add?

Cheers!

[ChristianVirtual]

A serious advise at begin: make sure to have a written approval from the owner/your manager and not risking your job with potentially unwanted activities, increased energy cost and violating the EULA.
Are the computer all identical ? Do you have a regular software management / distribution setup ?

[benji]

Sorry, should have said that this is purely an idea at present. Once I have the facts, I can then present them to management. There's no risk to my job if I'm just asking a question, right?!

No, not all of the computers are identical. Though we have software management ability yes.

[ChristianVirtual]

If your management put you at risk for a reasonable question: that would be strange. They might say: NO. But thats their call and right to do.

Just try to not say: I want to use lots of our company resources "my own team"; maybe get a company team setup; multiple donors (e.g. one each department with friendly competition); communicate well what F@H is actually try to achieve.
I would avoid teams with incentives (like coins) which might cause additional burden for the company with respect to finance, income statements and overall conflict of interests. Just be carefully.
If you have a department responsible for donation and similar social activities might get them involved; they could be helpful to.

For software distribution I would make a package of FAH client in the latest version to distribute; with a proper configuration included (team, donor) or push the config file afterwards to the clients. And perform some tests on different clients to see what is the impact (on other software; on firewall, on noise level, heat level). The easiest one would be to just configure CPU client ; no GPU client (to challenging with drivers at times).

I don't have extensive experience with Windows and Folding as I switched early to Linux for this purpose others might have more concrete suggestions for this "little project".

Also keep in mind that company Desktop PC sometimes are not that great machines. Looking at the Lenovo I have at my desk I wouldn't actually really bother installing FAH on it. Too slow and I need to CPU cycles myself for all the EXCEL and whatever stuff I run.

Though I had some chat with an infra guy whatthat it would be cool to try FAH on our big VMWare box. But again: I also don't want to get fired and know that my company with our specific level of compliance, risk management and conservative thinking would not agree. Thats why finally I strictly split the professional life and the private interest I have in Folding@Home.

Whish you all the best with your idea ! Hopefully your company will support the good cause and your social engagement. And hopefully many WU successfully delivered soon.

[Anton Thynell]

I recommend that you present the idea to the management.
Start with a pilot test with your computer, and set the settings to low.
Try it out and then install it on some of the managements computer and let them have it running on low.

Regarding how your company can visualize the engagement.

1) Write about it on the homepage and link it to F@H's homepage.

2) Make a team for your company and visualize your teams score.

Don't worry about low not being enough every new CPU helps and having F@H at work might lead to installing the software at home.

What kind of facts do you want ?

//Anton

[bruce]

For more information, see earlier discussions of the same ideas.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3852
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=309
or
http://fahwiki.net/index.php/FoldingAtWork