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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: Suggestions / Feedback
Thread: Simplify the instalation sequence for the agent |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 6
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imurphy
Cruncher Joined: Jan 30, 2007 Post Count: 7 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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If you wish to extend the take up you will need to simplify the instalation sequence. I live in spain and have been trying to get a team going - amongst mostly non-technical people.
The response has been universally that they have found it too complex - given that few, if any, speak english and that they have to go through quite a few steps, most just give up and tell me its for 'tecnicos' only. I have simplified this a little by creating a common username and posting the agent on our website (it doesn't seem to be possible to link to the latest agent download on wcg) but the installer still requires several steps - something which puts off non-tecnical users. Suggestions: - Make an installer which only asks for the user to accept the licence - nothing else - you can put the directory selection on the same screen and there's no need to ask anything else. - Add support for an xml config file which can pass username/password into the app. It should be possible to click on an xml file and have windows open the agent directly. The idea being - One click to download the latest agent - Two or three clicks to install - One click to download the xml file parameter from a teams site - One click to open the xml file - which launches wcgagent and configures it Yeah, I know you're thinking at this point 'but its already simple'. I am an IT consultant and thought it was incredibly well setup, but my experience of trying to talk various people through the process has convinced me that its still too complex for the vast majority of users with PCs at home. Someone else made a post requesting an AD installer - I'd like to second that - it would be a great idea for large rollouts. A version which could be run as a service would be great too - no need to open a session - think of all those high end servers running 24 x 7 I've been running the agent now for a couple of months and its been admirably stable and has no noticable effect on my PC performance. My complements to the dev team. Regards Ian Murphy |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
We're working on this.
However, AD installation is perfectly possible with BOINC. WCG also offer personal assistance for large rollouts - just contact the staff. Again, BOINC runs as a service. It's localized, too - you can crunch in Spanish. Many of your problems already have solutions. Just ask. :-) |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Many of your problems already have solutions. Just ask. :-) That seems a common attitude here on WCG. It sounds like you are all under 20, love computing, and have never had anything more important to do than search for software solutions. Computer scientists will search and ask and get a thrill out of it. Almost everyone else simply wants to download software and have it run. It doesn't matter if most problems have solutions. It doesn't matter if you have forums in which people are helpful and friendly. If the solutions are not immediately obvious and stated on the web site in an obvious place, most people will simply give up and wander off. Few people enjoy having to search through tens of web pages and tens of forum entries to discover a solution that could have been stated somewhere obvious. Note that it is also (as a gross generalisation) relevant which operating system the agent is for. I believe the BOINC agent for Linux is great. To install it requires almost no effort at all and it involves only a little fiddling around to configure it well. However, Windows users in particular often need their hands held. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Administrative installations have complexities WAY beyond normal installations. Anyone preparing to roll out World Community Grid over hundreds or thousands of machines should ask for advice first. Nearly everyone attempting this has done so, and I hope they have had a smooth rollout as a result.
The basic installation is supposed to be idiot-proof - but you know what they say.... Besides, most of our time here is spend hand-holding Linux installations. The Windows installer generally functions smoothly (although we are still trying to improve it). Your Linux experience will depend on what distro you are using. Some are good, some are a total nightmare. So, did you have any particular point, or were you just venting? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Your Linux experience will depend on what distro you are using. Some are good, some are a total nightmare. So, did you have any particular point, or were you just venting? FWIW, I'm using debian (with no graphics). Just running the install script and making a few chown's to run as an appropriate user is all that's needed, so large scale installations would be pretty simple. My point was that much useful information appears in these forums that doesn't appear in the most obvious, visible places on the main web site and that either directly adding some of that to the web site or at least providing links to the specific relevant area of the forums would make it much quicker and easier for new users to find the answers they are looking for. |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Hi Kremmen, we think that the 'Start Here ' forum is an obvious place for capturing info that is useful. When i look at the hits on posts on the forum where very often the reply we post back is to that forum, i cannot but escape the feeling that the 'silver platter' presentation does not get the attention it deserves either. Case in point, this week someone asked for an Active Directory roll-out. There is a post in SH discussing 'Bulk Roll Out' linking to the Lazy Slug's website discussing the very method (long as he pays his registry fees :O).
----------------------------------------Often when I search, I look for obvious words and alternate words. Take even the effort to use the Thesaurus to put more synonyms into a text writing up things, so a hit chance becomes greater oogling our fora. Becomes a problem though if there are those that persist in searching for 'Manger' when the proper spelling is 'Manager' :D
WCG
Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! |
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