VM noob questions

[zero2dash]

Pardon my stupidity

1) Looks like you don't have to "login" to the VM, it runs anyway?

2) Any reason/advantage to logging in to the VM?

3) Q regarding VM PPD vs. Gromacs (Win) PPD...I pull up FahMon, get 17xx points for a WU in Gromacs SMP...the VM has 2 clients/WU's (on a dual here @ work), like 905 points per WU. Maybe I don't have one of the bookoo VM WU's yet? (A2 or something?)

I will say using notfred/VM player was not as hard as I thought. (thanks to the guide of course)

Still waiting for it to go to 1% though (E2200 @ 2.7 here at work)
VM player window will "update" to say that, won't it?

TIA

 

[APOLLO]

Pardon my stupidity

1) Looks like you don't have to "login" to the VM, it runs anyway?

2) Any reason/advantage to logging in to the VM?

Can't think of any reason besides additional security. I have never needed to log in to the VM itself, only the Linux OS running in the VM.

3) Q regarding VM PPD vs. Gromacs (Win) PPD...I pull up FahMon, get 17xx points for a WU in Gromacs SMP...the VM has 2 clients/WU's (on a dual here @ work), like 905 points per WU. Maybe I don't have one of the bookoo VM WU's yet? (A2 or something?)

You appear to be running standard single-core WUs. Add the -smp flag when you start the client in order to receive A2 SMP WUs. Your corresponding PPD should skyrocket in comparison and you will only require to run a single client with 2 cores.

VM player window will "update" to say that, won't it?

It should update but sometimes it lags a bit.

 

[zero2dash]

It's running 2 instances, I have everything set up according to the guide.
I think the issue is because it's an E2200 which has no VT, the VM player isn't running 64bit (which it warns me about), and then the F@h client isn't running 64bit either, just 32bit. (and I'm guessing the 32bit client doesn't support SMP, at least it doesn't say it does - only the fold64 command says it supports SMP).

Jinkies...guess I'll have to stick with Gromacs here @ work.

 

[APOLLO]

It's running 2 instances, I have everything set up according to the guide.
I think the issue is because it's an E2200 which has no VT, the VM player isn't running 64bit (which it warns me about), and then the F@h client isn't running 64bit either, just 32bit. (and I'm guessing the 32bit client doesn't support SMP, at least it doesn't say it does - only the fold64 command says it supports SMP).

If the processor didn't support virtualization, you would not get Linux to install at all. I know, I attempted it when I first tried VMs and VT wasn't enabled in the BIOS. The fact you have Linux installed in a VM proves virtualization is supported.

Regarding SMP and 64-bit, you need to install a 64-bit Linux distro. Check to see which version you have. Many distros come in two versions. There shouldn't be a reason from what I can tell why SMP wouldn't work, unless I overlooked something.

 

[Zero82z]

I assume you're talking about notfred's here.

1) Looks like you don't have to "login" to the VM, it runs anyway?

Yup.

2) Any reason/advantage to logging in to the VM?

If you want to run any commands through the terminal (such as top to monitor resource usage), you'll need to log in.

3) Q regarding VM PPD vs. Gromacs (Win) PPD...I pull up FahMon, get 17xx points for a WU in Gromacs SMP...the VM has 2 clients/WU's (on a dual here @ work), like 905 points per WU. Maybe I don't have one of the bookoo VM WU's yet? (A2 or something?)

905 point workunits are uniprocessor units. You either don't have 64-bit enabled, don't have hardware virtualization enabled, or for some reason the VM is going into fold mode instead of fold64.

VM player window will "update" to say that, won't it?

No, it won't. You need to use a monitoring program to check its status, or look at the log file directly either by accessing it over the network or checking it via the web interface.

Edit: I see I'm a bit late...

 

[sirmonkey1985]

1. you really dont need to login to them even though you setup a login..

2. not really

3. yeah the VM notfred WU's are A1 and A2.. i think its the A1 WU's that are the lower points (905) and the A2 are 1920 points i believe.. but its been 3 months since ive run the not fred client.. the Win smp client runs the A1 WU's which are 905 points only the VM SMP client can run both..

i believe you need VT support to run the SMP client.. which sucks about intel because i believe only the 45nm chips support VT.. but im not an intel person so im not totally sure..

 

[APOLLO]

i believe you need VT support to run the SMP client.. which sucks about intel because i believe only the 45nm chips support VT.. but im not an intel person so im not totally sure..

The 65nm processors also support SMP. I have many running in duals (Clovertown). Actually, I believe even dual S-604 Xeons (Netburst) support the SMP client albeit with very slow TPF.

 

[zero2dash]

I assume you're talking about notfred's here.

Yeah, sorry, I didn't specify that.

Yep looks like I run into the issue that this cpu doesn't support VT so it won't run the fold64 command, becase VM player reports it "cannot use a 64bit guest os because VT is not possible". So it's this cpu here @ work.

Looks like only the MPICH SMP client will work for me on this machine (if I want to run SMP)...I could use the VM notfred at home though because those machines are a q9450 and an e8400.

Thanks for your help everyone.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

The 65nm processors also support SMP. I have many running in duals (Clovertown). Actually, I believe even dual S-604 Xeons (Netburst) support the SMP client albeit with very slow TPF.

dont all xeons support VT though since thats exactly what they are designed for?

 

[APOLLO]

dont all xeons support VT though since thats exactly what they are designed for?

Good question. I have used only Clovertown and Harpertown Xeons. I believe VT was introduced with the Clovertown series.

 

[nitrobass24]

Good question. I have used only Clovertown and Harpertown Xeons. I believe VT was introduced with the Clovertown series.

Exactly Clovertown and up

 

[zero2dash]

3. yeah the VM notfred WU's are A1 and A2.. i think its the A1 WU's that are the lower points (905) and the A2 are 1920 points i believe.. but its been 3 months since ive run the not fred client.. the Win smp client runs the A1 WU's which are 905 points only the VM SMP client can run both..

Ok, another question -
after checking FahMon, the MPICH SMP client currently has a 1920 point WU which should make it an A2, right? If that's the case, MPICH SMP now also does A2 (not just A1).

I just noticed this on my e8400 after installing VM player and notfred; the WU notfred grabbed is the same size (1920 pts) as the WU MPICH SMP has.

 

[Zero82z]

Ok, another question -
after checking FahMon, the MPICH SMP client currently has a 1920 point WU which should make it an A2, right? If that's the case, MPICH SMP now also does A2 (not just A1).

sirmonkey was wrong. 905-point units are uniprocessor, not A1. A1 units have a number of different point values; the popular ones are 1753, 1760, 1920, 2165, and 3340. The Windows SMP client does not and will never support the A2 core.

I just noticed this on my e8400 after installing VM player and notfred; the WU notfred grabbed is the same size (1920 pts) as the WU MPICH SMP has.

That's normal. Look at the project number. 1920-point A1 workunits are p2665. 1920-point A2 units are p2662 and p2669-2677.

 

[zero2dash]

Gotcha.
Yeah MPICH SMP is a P2665, VM notfred is a P2669.

So in a nutshell the A2's give you the same point credit per WU but they process faster...I think?

Is there any boost going from VM notfred to a VM of a full *nix distro? (I would consider either Ubuntu or Mint probably)

 

[Zero82z]

So in a nutshell the A2's give you the same point credit per WU but they process faster...I think?

Basically, yes. The A2 core is much more efficient. I've generally seen a 50-75% boost in performance per core compared to A1.

Is there any boost going from VM notfred to a VM of a full *nix distro? (I would consider either Ubuntu or Mint probably)

A native Linux installation means that you don't have to worry about the overhead from running a VM (even with hardware virtualization, there is still some overhead compared to a native installation).

 

[zero2dash]

So a VM of notfred vs a VM of *nix would be basically the same I assume (since they're both still in a VM)?

I wish I could run a VM client on my E2200 but since it doesn't support VT I guess I'm stuck running MPICH SMP. I'm going to convert over my home systems though...just trying to figure out if I should just use notfred or install a full distro in a VM. I guess since notfred has less of a h/w requirement I'll use that (since it wouldn't eat up as much HD space as a VM+Mint or VM+Ubuntu).

Thanks for all your help, fellow zero everyone else too!

 

[Zero82z]

So a VM of notfred vs a VM of *nix would be basically the same I assume (since they're both still in a VM)?

Ah, I misread your previous post. Yes, if it's in a VM, there's really no difference between notfred's and a full Linux distro. But there is a difference compared to a native Linux installation.

I'm going to convert over my home systems though...just trying to figure out if I should just use notfred or install a full distro in a VM. I guess since notfred has less of a h/w requirement I'll use that (since it wouldn't eat up as much HD space as a VM+Mint or VM+Ubuntu).

I actually recommend doing a full install, since it gives you more control. I have a full Fedora installation in the VM I'm using right now, and it's very convenient for changing configurations, troubleshooting network issues, deleting the queue if I have to, etc.