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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: BOINC on Windows Home Server Computer? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 12
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jmcgaw
Advanced Cruncher US Joined: Feb 2, 2007 Post Count: 54 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I am unable to find anything useful using forum search -- far too many results and no way to refine the search so I will try a new thread.
----------------------------------------I am planning on building a new "server" machine for my home network. While I'm at it I figured that I could just as easily put an i7 processor motherboard into it and use it to crunch WCG work while it is idle. The problem is that I don't know if or how BOINC could be installed on such a machine. Has it been done? Is any guidance available? Proposed hardware: Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 motherboard, i7 860 processor, 64gb SSD for system files, 2ea 2tb data drives, 4gb memory, + the other needed fiddly bits. Some of these items are on hand others are to be purchased. The big question is will it crunch BOINC units or will I be better off not buying WHS and just using one of my old XP SP3 licenses? TIA [Edit 1 times, last edit by jmcgaw at Jun 4, 2010 2:35:45 PM] |
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pirogue
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Dec 8, 2008 Post Count: 685 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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It will run BOINC just fine. Here's mine:
----------------------------------------http://boincstats.com/stats/boinc_host_graph.php?pr=bo&id=6472308 You may want to do a little research on how WHS uses drives. I don't think the SSD is going to do you much good. If you haven't already purchased it, I'd suggest getting how ever many 2TB drives you can get for the same money. Also, there's a new version coming out, which will require a fresh install. It's going to be a 64-bit version. It's currently in Beta. There's a ton of information about the current and new versions here: http://www.wegotserved.com/ |
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wplachy
Senior Cruncher Joined: Sep 4, 2007 Post Count: 423 Status: Offline |
I have been running the WCG version(s) of Win BOINC on a WHS machine for 2.5 years without problem. I've used two different low end processors in that time, a single and dual core AMD. WHS provides me backup security with crunching WUs as a bonus.
----------------------------------------To install it I copied the BOINC install exe to a user folder I created in the WHS Software share. I then remote desktop'ed to the server, created WCG\Pgm and WCG\Data folders on the WHS C: drive and installed BOINC there under the Administrator account. I did not select Run as Service or Allow control by Any user. I do not use the BOINC screen saver and run it in Advanced View/Accessible View. The only minor "glitch" I found is that if the WHS machine is restared you must RDT and login in to get BOINC started which has occurred about every other month when MS sends patches that require a WHS restart. I also use EFMER Boinc Tasks. This allows me to control and monitor BOINC on all my PCs, including the WHS one, from a single PC without using RDT. Good luck if you decide to go that way! I've been very happy with the combo. BillP
Bill P
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jmcgaw
Advanced Cruncher US Joined: Feb 2, 2007 Post Count: 54 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Thanks to everyone. I already have the SSD so there is no money to be saved there. My understanding is that WHS will use the first drive it finds as the system drive so my hope is to trick or force it into using the SSD for that. I already have the memory, power supply, SSD, optical drive, flash memory reader. That means I'm in the market for a new case, 2ea 2tb drives, motherboard, and processor. I've been studying the online assets about WHS but so many of the sites and postings seem to be from the initial release timeframe. Will keep looking though.
BTW I have BOINC running as a service on all of my other machines and had hoped to do it on the new one but if I can't then I can't. I at least hope to fix it so that it starts on its own without manual intervention. I'm lazy and hate to do anything manually that can be automated. |
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pirogue
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Dec 8, 2008 Post Count: 685 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Thanks to everyone. I already have the SSD so there is no money to be saved there. My understanding is that WHS will use the first drive it finds as the system drive so my hope is to trick or force it into using the SSD for that. I already have the memory, power supply, SSD, optical drive, flash memory reader. That means I'm in the market for a new case, 2ea 2tb drives, motherboard, and processor. I've been studying the online assets about WHS but so many of the sites and postings seem to be from the initial release timeframe. Will keep looking though. It still may be better to find another use for it. Here's a thread discussing SSD+WHS.http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?/topic...rating-system-hdd-to-ssd/ BTW I have BOINC running as a service on all of my other machines and had hoped to do it on the new one but if I can't then I can't. I at least hope to fix it so that it starts on its own without manual intervention. I'm lazy and hate to do anything manually that can be automated. You'll be able to run it as a service on the current version. I don't know about the coming version. |
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wplachy
Senior Cruncher Joined: Sep 4, 2007 Post Count: 423 Status: Offline |
snip...You'll be able to run it as a service on the current version. I don't know about the coming version. I agree. It was my preference to not run it as a service, not a WHS requirement. I'm bringing up the beta of the new version next week. If you wish will let you know what I find out. As to forcing it to use the SSD as it's C: drive the easy way is to load it with only the SSD attached. It will carve out 20GB as it's C: drive and put the rest in the storage pool. After you have it up and before adding any clients add the other drives. On the reboot they will be formatted and added to the pool. FWIW I would not use the SSD on WHS either. In addition to the "limited" life of SSDs piroque is correct about the way WHS handles the pool and the SSD can impact your ability to backup some machines. Bill P
Bill P
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Hypernova
Master Cruncher Audaces Fortuna Juvat ! Vaud - Switzerland Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Post Count: 1908 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I am still a bit concerned in using SSD as system disk in a server environment if Boinc uses it. It's speed is for sure the big argument but ia very dense read/write environment I am concerned with lifetime. I know there is the TRIM feature used with W7 that seems effective in increasing LCT but still I remain cautious. So I did not install any yet. Pricewise the hard disk is still much cheaper in terms of $ per Gb.
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sk..
Master Cruncher http://s17.rimg.info/ccb5d62bd3e856cc0d1df9b0ee2f7f6a.gif Joined: Mar 22, 2007 Post Count: 2324 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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jmcgaw,
----------------------------------------You can set which hard drive to use first (boot priority) in the Bios. If you are really concerned about disk speed, use a raid stripe (Raid 0), with two normal hard drives. If you dont want to use a GPU you should be fine with any server, as long as you dont make it a domain controller! Should you want to use a GPU, check there is a driver for your server version. [Edit 1 times, last edit by skgiven at Jun 5, 2010 4:29:58 PM] |
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jmcgaw
Advanced Cruncher US Joined: Feb 2, 2007 Post Count: 54 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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FWIW I have decided to achieve my results in two steps rather than one.
By this afternoon I'll have the drives and the WHS install disks on hand and will simply rebuild the old Celeron file server with its XP operating system and six drives into a WHS machine with a small OS drive and two 2tB data drives. That should, if nothing else, make it cooler, less power hungry, and (one hopes) more convenient. The next step will be next month when I'll start on a new crunching-only i7 machine utilizing the SSD and 4gB memory and other stuff that is sitting around. That one won't require a lot of disk space and can use an old XP license since it will be single-purpose and probably as headless as the WHS server. |
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Jim1348
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 13, 2009 Post Count: 1066 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I don't know if there is anything special about WHS in terms of disk usage, but the argument against SSDs seems to be pinned mainly on the page file. I have been reading about SSDs ever since the first generation a couple of years ago, and the real experts don't see a problem. In fact, Microsoft thinks a page file is ideal for use on an SSD.
============================================ Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs? Yes. Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well. In looking at telemetry data from thousands of traces and focusing on pagefile reads and writes, we find that * Pagefile.sys reads outnumber pagefile.sys writes by about 40 to 1, * Pagefile.sys read sizes are typically quite small, with 67% less than or equal to 4 KB, and 88% less than 16 KB. * Pagefile.sys writes are relatively large, with 62% greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% being exactly 1 MB in size. In fact, given typical pagefile reference patterns and the favorable performance characteristics SSDs have on those patterns, there are few files better than the pagefile to place on an SSD. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05...lid-state-drives-and.aspx ============================================= And in general, most of the problems with testing SSDs seem to revolve around the difficulty in getting them to wear out so that they can gather statistics. Do you think that mechanical drives last forever? But my 32 GB Generation 1 SSD is working fine on a dedicated BOINC/WCG machine under WinXP (with a quad core), and I expect the SSD to outlast everything else on the PC. |
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