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  Thread: VirtualBox and BOINC

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Re: VirtualBox and BOINC
Thanks for the replies!

Yup, that's what I've been using:

"dev" is the computer name
"date" is the date I took the value from the device statistics page
"days" is the cpu time converted into days
"pts/day" is points per day
"res/day" is results per day


arrizza@john10:~/projects/boinc$ ruby calc.rb
     dev   date     days   pts/day  res/day
thomas1   08/26   1397.04  2139.59     6.12   (old sony - win98)
thomas2   08/26   1364.45  1297.70     3.78   (even older sony - win95)
john1     08/25    294.81  2084.69    11.60   (2-core - ubu)
john3     08/26    728.28  3400.04    16.87   (4-core - ubu)
john4     08/26   2196.64  1333.61     5.14   (2-core - winxp)
john5     08/26   1576.83  1682.06     4.54   (2-core - vista)
john6     08/25   3761.89  2631.76     5.63   (4-core - winxp)
john7     08/26   2246.52  2210.42     6.15   (1-core - winxp)
john8     08/26     76.55  3767.32    15.45   (6-core - ubu)
john9     08/26    382.99   493.69     2.60   (2-core - ubu)
john10    08/26    954.59  5462.98    24.40   (6-core - ubu)
srvr      08/19     12.74  3329.37    14.99   (VM running on john10)


The "srvr" was the VM running on john10 that started this thread. (I killed the VM task a few days ago)

It looks like the windows machines are getting kicked by the ubuntu's. Might be worthwhile to convert the older machines to Ubuntu Server for a while just to see a more realistic points/day value.

So based on this, I need to replace john9, thomas2 and john4 with a new 6-core.

PS If you are interested in the ruby script, let me know and I'll post it here (50 lines long).

John
[Aug 26, 2011 8:02:50 AM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: VirtualBox and BOINC
It looks there is a way to automatically gather the Points information.

The command:

boinccmd --get_state


produces a section at the very top that looks like:

======== Projects ========
1) -----------
   name: World Community Grid
   master URL: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/
   user_name: arrizza
   team_name: famiglia-arrizza
   resource share: 100.000000
   user_total_credit: 5299493.882165
   user_expavg_credit: 10535.522824
   host_total_credit: 44291.899629
   host_expavg_credit: 2071.751927
   nrpc_failures: 0
   ... <snip> ...


Now take the host_total_credit and multiply by 7:


host_total_credit: 44291.899629 * 7 = 310,043


which is the number of points reported on the Device Statistic web page (give or take a few given that the web page is only periodically updated, while the --get_state is an instantaneous reading).

There is an average reported too:
host_expavg_credit: 2071.751927


but so far it isn't clear what it is averaged over (days? or some other unit).

John
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Bearcat
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Re: VirtualBox and BOINC
Been looking at virtual machine recently to run multiple OS's. Not for boinc though. How are your names registered, if you have multiple vm's, on one machine? Interesting idea to do but would think you would get a performance hit.
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[Sep 1, 2011 9:59:41 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: VirtualBox and BOINC
How are your names registered, if you have multiple vm's, on one machine?

I only had one VM running. When I installed the OS on it, I called it another name and registered with WCG with that name.

Interesting idea to do but would think you would get a performance hit.

Yes, there is a performance hit with VMs. When a VM runs, it runs only in the amount of time allocated to it by the OS, if any. The "if any" is the clue to why the VM would get any points at all.

In my case, the OS gave the VM running BOINC a few spare cycles. Those cycles were not available for use, obviously, by the BOINC app running on the real machine. The BOINC app running on the real machine was being nice (in a linux sort of way) to the rest of the apps running on it; the VM is just another app; and voila "magic" occurred. I've since turned off the VM and the real machine BOINC has increased in points.

Yet again, no free lunch, sucks.
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Bearcat
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Re: VirtualBox and BOINC
Was wondering, if I put this on my hex rig, allocate 3 cores and 4gb ram to a ubuntu vm, then allocate the other 3 to the host, how much of a hit would be. I know any vm will have some kind of a hit, but how much I would like to know. Never ran virtual box before but have used fusion on the Mac so am presuming you can allocate cores and ram to your liking as you can in fusion. How many cores did your machine have?
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Re: VirtualBox and BOINC
Was wondering, if I put this on my hex rig, allocate 3 cores and 4gb ram to a ubuntu vm, then allocate the other 3 to the host, how much of a hit would be. I know any vm will have some kind of a hit, but how much I would like to know. Never ran virtual box before but have used fusion on the Mac so am presuming you can allocate cores and ram to your liking as you can in fusion. How many cores did your machine have?



Have hex-core. Your assumption is correct about Oracle's VirtualBox.

Yes the actual, absolute amount of the hit of using VMS seems to be very difficult to calculate. The only satisfying answer seems to be: run boinccmd, use Credits and AvgCredits, multiply by 7 to get WCG Points.

If you are into Ruby, let me know and I'll post my script that will do this for you.
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