Folding Forum

#edit 22 sept 09 -> maxFAH is no longer on my server, I'm rewriting the installer for mono/c# for compatibility issues, and will incorperate a much leaner control ( windows clients only ) and monitor interface. Since mono runs on linux and maxOSX I could maybe eventually install clients for all environments but I'll start with refering to finstall/Increase for their respective platforms.

#edit 21 dec 09 -> just to clarify, maxFah has still not been ported, and is no longer available for download. Any questions regarding the code used are welcome and will be answerd when time allows.

( not always in order and subject to change )



















While everything should be fairly easy, there are a few notes to make.

• First and foremost, this is not to install additional clients, but to install clients on a clean system ( no existing clients! ).
• Do not install in program files or mydocuments with vista even with uac off, you can, but it's not ensured to work ( I didn't make this mandetory but people should really avoid those places )! It's adviced to use a short path like c:\fah.
• Do not edit any files in the data folder, and use the gui for configuring client. While it *should* never cause serieus problems, it does read certain values from stored info when using the gui and if you configure the client manually those will not correspond with the real settings. I could have choosen to read all settings at program startup but it would mean a 30s delay per client ( give or take, I'm on the very high side here ) and I found that to be not acceptable.
• Using the gui for editing the clients is slower then using the console, the only added advantage is having a gui. I could increase speed but it would go at a cost I don't think is reasonable. I never had a failure in setting the correct values, but checking afterwards is always a good thing imo and configuring a client does not have to be done when the client is stopped so there is no reall loss.
• The EOC xml feed is used for displaying some of the data in the main form, and to keep track of uploaded wu's ( which isn't working fully atm so, the column which says 'Points in update' will always display 0. The same goes for Number of EUE's. ) Thank Jason for this feature, and don't forget to visit the EOC forums once in a while
• On startup of the monitoring/managemt application, if you're not connected to the internet, or have a firewall blocking the program, it can take up to 20 seconds before the main form will show. This is because before creation of the form two checks are done, one for acces to fah-web.stanford.edu the other to extremeoverclocking.com ( it treis to ping the two sites, and the timeout is set to 10s each on default). If the ping succeeds the startup is allot quicker
• It will autoupdate the xml feed and signature image from the eoc servers with the least possible overhead ( eg, the updates are downloaded once per 3 hours, starting after the latest available update, and on a net failure it will wait 15 minutes before retrying ).
• Right now, the application does store the frames in the statistics folder, but since the format of the file is changing every day I will not be able to read data files from older version and there is no option to not store them as they will be dynamicly used for frame times and reference times by the monitor. However, the next update I hope will include a fully functional page for display the statistical data and therefore will likely be unable to read any of the files stored by this beta.
• While during initial setup the preferred settings which I've flagged as 'locked' can not be changed, this is not true for subsequent configurations. So, if you want to run Deino as a service for instance, right now I don't change the service account and dependancies automaticly so you still have to do this.
• When configuring a running client to either be installed as a service, or a running service to run in console mode, the client will be restarted after the configuration changes have been made regardless of when the last checkpoint was written. Stop a client after a frame/checkpoint, then change the configuration.

Allot of things still to add, but it's already pretty convenient I think for most, as I been using it exclusively to control and monitor my clients ( ok I admit, I did use fahMon to compare correct ppd calculations ).

*For installation of smp clients, you already need to run as admin, but to run the monitor you also have to run it as an admin as it needs the 'allow debugging' acces token. Edit: even running as admin doesn't properly allow acces to that information, I need to set the acces token tomorrow but for now if you encounter maxFah not starting in monitoring mode add "-nowmi" to the shortcut created by the installer and it will bypass the functions. They were only used to be able to ignore clients running with -config/configonly or -send x/all arguments and not count them as running.

Download link - > link removed due to project being suspended. -> download,unzip,run the exe, after install, copy dll's to where you installed ( to be safe ).

*15-4-2009 I will make a temporary install solution tomorrow to fix the issues with dll's not being registerd. I planned on finishing the wix class after the statistics where all done but that will take longer then making a seperate binary which can regsvr all the dependancies ( edit will be the 17th )

I scan every file I upload with Avira and Comodo, and then submit it to virustotal for assurance but I can never 100% guarantee a file being virus free, and my site can also be hacked into so I would advice anyone who downloads anything to be prudent and scan for virusses as well.

Drop in replacement ( only for those who have an existing install ) - > link removed due to project being suspended.

The assembly is not obfuscated or in any way made to be hard to dissasemble, though I think it would be nicer to ask for the source or wait till I'm finished as it will be gpl'd at that time. Untill then, every piece of code is copyrighted by me with the small exception of the .net queue.dat parsing class which can be downloaded here http://www.mtm78.nl/binaries/Queue.dat.txt and which contains some credit given to various people and a notice on how to implement the class. Note that this class is 99% done, the queueevent subroutine is critical in handling/generating statistics data and is still subject to change.

The google code page is located at -> link removed due to project being suspended.

This looks awesome

I'm finishing up the tracking class, need to implement the saving of frametimes for each client. Not much time today so probably won't be finished. And it will depend on the reactions I get if I need allot of time to properly obfuscate the build before release, currently obfuscating breaks allot of functions so I need to look at which parts to exclude and that can be timeconsuming and tedious

Main point of intrest, post anything you would like added/changed/information about

There are some more features then what you can see there, but not everything is finished

Well done MtM!
I noticed that it reduces each console client to the system tray (correct me if I'm mistaken here, since I'm only guessing each feature from a few screenshots ). That is a very good addition for a monitoring client since some of us want to conserve desktop and taskbar space (without installing the clients as services). For those of us who prefer to have many console clients (e.g. uniprocessor, GPU), will there be a feature to consolidate all the console icons into one icon so there won't be a lot of system tray clutter?

I look forward to seeing this. Nice work.

Yes you can choose to show all icons or just the main one from the monitor

Wow, clean stuff. Waiting forward to try it. Please align PPD numbers right with fixed number of decimals, currently hard to get quick overview, having many clients.

cheers

Jaak

Good suggestion, thanks will make it so

And one feature request. I'd like to see one more column with EUE counter. # of EUE-s in last 24 hours.

Jaak

You will get that one, the tracking/stats class is still not completed so it wasn't there yet but it was planned from the beginning. I'm doubting about the offset, wether 24h, or per update period ( 3h ) or gross total, so I think it will be all user choiche

The eue tracking is a major component with custom notifications and user defineable actions ( restoring checkpoint!, notify per mail, search FF problems with a specific wu sections for same PRCG if I get permission to crawl the forum for that ).

I'm finishing up tracking, and want to add the network functions before I let a select few people test alpha version. Jaak, without network functions it has less use since you can only control/view one node, but if the network function is done you can view and controll all nodes on the local network and that's the idea. Tracking 3rd party clients ( eg not installed with maxFah is last feature also important but the added bonus of maxFah is the configuration and control options, as well as the more extended tracking features ).

Another update ( and with it a bug I thought I fixed but looking at the image I realised I obviously didn't )



Bug - -autosend completed count as reference to completed frame, so the ppd for that client is abit off.

I did finish most of the oustanding issues, without the network functions. Why the gui doesn't display the all frames/frames per update/EUE count succesfully is because I'm stuck at contemplating which external stats to use, and therefore which timeframe.

It's against the rules to crawl individual donor stats, but I'm going to ask for a further definition of crawling. Maybe I read it wrong, I hope so, and the rule is in place to prevent crawling multiple accounts for extended stats info to be used as supplement for the 3rd party flat files. I hope so because it will mean I can crawl one user account for the specific user of the client in focus. It will enable me to compare the last submitted information with what my monitor tracked for uploaded wu's ( and show any problems relating to statistics ). It will make the time interval easy to set as they are updated hourly, and I can 'store' the wu's submitted in the last utc update and compare those. If not, I'll use the EOC external xml feed, and will have to use a 3h update interval. The shorter the update, the easier it is to get usable results since I have fewer uploads to compare with actual accrediting of stats so it makes it abit easier to determin which clients uploaded wu's have been succesfully added. It would be incredibly usefull if the donor specific stats had a flat file option as well, and a field for each submitted wu with the clientid so I can match them with 100% certainty.

I added options to uninstall/add clients according to available hardware, so hardware changes will not cause having to reinstall everything.

I added code to check the serverstatus html when a wu is not uploading ( and will add a function to check for AS servers when it's not able to get work ). I considerd adding an option to automaticly look on this forum is a subject with the server at hand is already posted, but I need to talk with the admins if this is allowed and if so in what form/interval ). I also have the same idea for wu's which eue, search the folding forum for other reports and if found display a link to the subject, if not found display a link to the 'problems with a specific wu' section of the forum.

I added Run Clone Gen to the project column as I saw it in FAHmon and found it a very good feature. Am considering adding the core column as well, not sure but it does have some added value. On the other hand, my listview has non rearangable columns, and are not sortable, and adding more and more columns will only make it harder to get a proper quick overview. For extended info, the statistics option is to be used anyway, and that will tell all the information about the client and hw I can gather.

As always, really curieus to any comments/remarks.

New columns, it's crowdy isn't it



I finished the class I plan to use with EOC's external feed, it's not implemented yet though. Tomorrow or thursday morning I'll will make a limited version available to a few people for initial testing.

ur a bloody genius! this is EXACTLY what everyone needs!

Actually if I where I'm sure I would be filthy rich, and I'm not so I'm not a genius Also, it might not be for everybody but I hope atleast some people will like it

Tomorrow I'll be adding the external stats bar below the clients panel, it will display data from EOC's external stats feed, with a big thank you to the owner for making those available ( I am considering making a small banner which leads to his site instead of a linklabel, anyone with a graphic talent who wants to help )

Yeah! Good stuff! Hope you can get it working soon, I'm sure this will become a very popular application for multi client donors.
kiore.

It is working just not finished

I use it all day every day, it helps me identify issues

Every screenshot posted is from an actual in action program. All those menu's work ( except, pause when done / exit when done and the statistics menu ) you can monitor and control your clients with this. Tomorrow as I said EOC stats feed in a panel below the clients, then the storing of my own statistics data and some optimizations to the tracking class and a real beta is ready for testing ( without network functions, and some others small things not completely worked out ).