Windows SMP client installation guide

Wolfie said:
Memory Bandwidth the Q6600 is running slower DDR2 memory and the i3 is faster DDR3.
I found my Q6600 with 4GB DDR2 1066 memory ran faster at 3 cores SMP vs 4 cores SMP ( -smp 3 ) in the flags. (the memory Bandwidth of the Q6600 is also hampered by the CPU to chipset FSB)

Anyone know the minimum hardware specs for -bigadv flag to be effective in getting bonuses?
(want to run it on my 6600 box but do not know if it will work)
Click to expand...

I don't know what it was but after a while it sorted itself out. Now i'm up to 4000+ ppd on the Q6600. I posted this a long time ago so it's possible I was running the GPU client at the time on a 4870 which killed my SMP production. Either that or my computer was possessed.
 
So I thought I lost my passkey, and went back to the PassKey website and typed in my username and email. But then I remembered where I saved my passkey. But it turns out that folding@home sent me a new passkey. Should I use my old passkey, or the new one sent my by folding@home?
 
A passkey does not expire. Also note that you will need to qualify the new passkey by completing 10 more SMP WUs to start getting the bonus again. If you haven't done 10 yet, go back to the old one so you start getting your bonus points again now instead of later.

And, if you lose your passkey, simply type in your same fah user name and same email address as you did the first time you requested a paskey, and Stanford will resend your existing passkey. So unless your original email account is unavailable, your passkey is never lost. ;)
 
Thanks for the guide easy to follow. Just one question. Do i need to leave the command prompt open? Or if i X out of it F@H will still run?
 
Good guide, just tossed it on my x2 5630 rig.

1005630.jpg
 
Just wanted to chime in and say that the program would not use more than 12% of my CPU until I launched it in config only mode and ran the advanced options to unlock the affinity. Now it is cruising right along with my dual 2.8GHz Xeons, which turns to 8 cores, at 100% usage. (This used to be a terminal server.)

I also have a question. I told the program to install itself as a service and then looked at how it did so. It looks like it's going to launch the exe as a service but doesn't have the smp or bigadv flags in the launch command. Maybe I will just wait and see after next reboot.
 
014 said:
I also have a question. I told the program to install itself as a service and then looked at how it did so. It looks like it's going to launch the exe as a service but doesn't have the smp or bigadv flags in the launch command. Maybe I will just wait and see after next reboot.
Click to expand...
Last I checked, running as a service did not work in SMP mode. I recommend just running it normally. Add it to the Startup folder if you want it to start automatically.
 
Zero82z said:
Last I checked, running as a service did not work in SMP mode. I recommend just running it normally. Add it to the Startup folder if you want it to start automatically.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info... proves my suspicion.

I will use an alternate way to make it launch automatically. This is a Windows 2008 R2 machine on an AD domain. Auto logging in is a no-no. I'll try Task Scheduler.

I wonder if I can just find the service in the registry and modify it so it does work with SMP.
 
This is what I'm going to test to see if it works. I will do trial and error a couple times before my curiosity is satisfied.
fold2.png
 
I did CTRL+C in the command prompt to terminate the program. I then went to Services and started up the service I modified. The log looks similar to what it did when I launched the program interactively. I guess it looks like it worked. My cores at at 100% usage.


--- Opening Log file [December 28 20:09:59 UTC]


# Windows SMP Console Edition #################################################
###############################################################################

Folding@Home Client Version 6.34

http://folding.stanford.edu

###############################################################################
###############################################################################

Launch directory: C:\Folding@home SMP
Service: C:\Folding@home SMP\[email protected]
Arguments: -smp -bigadv -svcstart -d C:\Folding@home SMP

Launched as a service.
Entered C:\Folding@home SMP to do work.

[20:09:59] - Ask before connecting: No
[20:09:59] - User name: 014 (Team 33)
[20:09:59] - User ID: ***
[20:09:59] - Machine ID: 1
[20:09:59]
[20:09:59] Loaded queue successfully.
[20:09:59]
[20:09:59] + Processing work unit
[20:09:59] A4 will attempt to use 8 threads.
[20:09:59] Core required: FahCore_a4.exe
[20:09:59] Core found.
[20:09:59] Working on queue slot 01 [December 28 20:09:59 UTC]
[20:09:59] + Working ...
[20:09:59]
[20:09:59] *------------------------------*
[20:09:59] Folding@Home Gromacs GB Core
[20:09:59] Version 2.27 (Dec. 15, 2010)
[20:09:59]
[20:09:59] Preparing to commence simulation
[20:09:59] - Ensuring status. Please wait.
[20:10:09] - Looking at optimizations...
[20:10:09] - Working with standard loops on this execution.
[20:10:09] - Previous termination of core was improper.
[20:10:09] - Files status OK
[20:10:09] - Expanded 544984 -> 1305312 (decompressed 239.5 percent)
[20:10:09] Called DecompressByteArray: compressed_data_size=544984 data_size=1305312, decompressed_data_size=1305312 diff=0
[20:10:09] - Digital signature verified
[20:10:09]
[20:10:09] Project: 8004 (Run 55, Clone 45, Gen 14)
[20:10:09]
[20:10:09] Entering M.D.
[20:10:15] Using Gromacs checkpoints
[20:10:15] Mapping NT from 8 to 8
[20:10:16] Resuming from checkpoint
[20:10:16] Verified work/wudata_01.log
[20:10:16] Verified work/wudata_01.trr
[20:10:16] Verified work/wudata_01.xtc
[20:10:16] Verified work/wudata_01.edr
[20:10:16] Completed 74510 out of 250000 steps (29%)
 
That's not strictly an SMP unit, but it is capable of running on multiple cores. Keep an eye on it and see if you pick up a unit using the A3 core once you're done with this one.
 
The next unit required the a3 core and it downloaded, extracted it, etc. I think my registry edit of the service worked! :) I will post a clean screen shot of what I did (similar to what I posted earlier) so it can be placed at the beginning of this thread if desired by the OP.

[22:48:34] + News From Folding@Home: Welcome to Folding@Home
[22:48:35] Loaded queue successfully.
[22:48:51] + Closed connections
[22:48:51]
[22:48:51] + Processing work unit
[22:48:51] Core required: FahCore_a3.exe
[22:48:51] Core not found.
[22:48:51] - Core is not present or corrupted.
[22:48:51] - Attempting to download new core...
[22:48:51] + Downloading new core: FahCore_a3.exe
[22:48:52] + 10240 bytes downloaded
[deleted many "downloaded" lines here because we get the point]
[22:49:38] Verifying core Core_a3.fah...
[22:49:38] Signature is VALID
[22:49:38]
[22:49:38] Trying to unzip core FahCore_a3.exe
[22:49:40] Decompressed FahCore_a3.exe (10057216 bytes) successfully
[22:49:45] + Core successfully engaged
[22:49:50]
[22:49:50] + Processing work unit
[22:49:50] Core required: FahCore_a3.exe
[22:49:50] Core found.
[22:49:50] Working on queue slot 02 [December 28 22:49:50 UTC]
[22:49:50] + Working ...
[22:49:51]
[22:49:51] *------------------------------*
[22:49:51] Folding@Home Gromacs SMP Core
[22:49:51] Version 2.27 (Dec. 15, 2010)
[22:49:51]
[22:49:51] Preparing to commence simulation
[22:49:51] - Looking at optimizations...
[22:49:51] - Created dyn
[22:49:51] - Files status OK
[22:49:51] - Expanded 1768472 -> 1957708 (decompressed 110.7 percent)
[22:49:51] Called DecompressByteArray: compressed_data_size=1768472 data_size=1957708, decompressed_data_size=1957708 diff=0
[22:49:51] - Digital signature verified
[22:49:51]
[22:49:51] Project: 6976 (Run 0, Clone 22, Gen 186)
[22:49:51]
[22:49:51] Assembly optimizations on if available.
[22:49:51] Entering M.D.
[22:49:57] Mapping NT from 8 to 8
[22:49:58] Completed 0 out of 500000 steps (0%)
[23:01:11] Completed 5000 out of 500000 steps (1%)
[23:12:24] Completed 10000 out of 500000 steps (2%)
 
Since my registry edit seemed to work, here is a cleaned up screen shot of what I did. Unless I'm mistaken, this makes it so the service can run SMP and bigadv. This is very helpful for me because my folding is being done on servers that never have a user logged in.

I estimate one of my servers to crunch 7 million steps in 11.5 hours. :D

fold3.png
 
Last edited:
Hey if that works that would be awesome. I've been wanting to run SMP as a service on a few computers.
 
Thanks for the picture, I've added it to the guide along with some basic instructions.
 
I set this up on a xeon x3440, when I initially ran it, it had asked me what size I wanted for work assignment, I chose large. The box in question has 16gb ram.

I also have another box that has a xeon L3426 with 4gb of memory. 1/4-1/2 of the memory is used for some low power virtual machines. What would a good choice be for the WU size?

Lastly, I have another box with 2x xeons(hyper threaded quads) with 32gb ram. I would like to set this box up to give roughly 1/2 the CPU power and about 4-6gb of ram to folding.

With this SMP guide, there is mention of multiple instances, would any of these boxes benefit from this? From what I have read, none of the firs 2 would be a canidate for -bigadv, but perhaps the last box?
 
You should always choose big work units for SMP clients. I believe I stated that in the guide.

You should not use multiple instances of the client. One instance will use all the available resources.

With the third box, you could run -bigadv units, but if you only want to use half the cores, you'll only be able to do it for a few more weeks until they change the requirements to 16 threads minimum.
 
sc0tty8 said:
The last rig has e5520's.
Click to expand...
Exactly. If you fold on all 16 threads, you'll be able to run -bigadv units indefinitely. If you only use half of the CPU power as you mentioned, you won't be able to run them after the program switches to a 16-thread requirement from the current 8-thread requirement.
 
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