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Thread: Running server-side headless. |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 6
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I think that running the computer headless, like some of you, could be a good thing, since it perhaps can save energy. Is it possible to remove the graphic card when running headless? If it is possible to remove graphic card, keyboard and mouse on a server side computer that’s running 24/7, then perhaps it would be possible to lower the computer’s energy need by as much as 5-10%. I don’t know how many watts a idle graphic card radiates (I have a passively cooled Geforce 210), but regardless, any saving would be welcome. I plan to run two X5650 workstations headless via a netbook that needs less then 0,5w in sleep mode.
I’ve been reading about remote desktop software and these interest me: http://www.teamviewer.com/en/products/screenshots.aspx https://www.nomachine.com/enterprise They support both Windows and Linux and they are both free for private use, but the free version of TeamViewer has, according to Wikipedia, a limit of two computers on the server side and Nomachine does a poor job of explaining how the free private version works (does it have the same functions as the enterprise version?). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_remote_desktop_software Are you running your computers headless, and if so, how? I’ve also taken an interest in Linux versions that can run from RAM, but I’m wondering if these small operating systems - think Puppy Linux - can handle dual processor motherboards? The idea is to load the OS in RAM and then remove the CD. In this scenario the workstations would not have any HDDs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions_that_run_from_RAM Is anybody crunching CEP2 in one of these Linux versions from RAM? I’m now crunching about 12 threads CEP2 simultaneously on my computer and it writes about 15MB/s to the HDD. That’s a lot. Over a year it comes to about 475TB, which can be avoided if it runs from RAM. I’ve tried RAM-disk, but it didn’t make that much of a difference because it continued to write to the HDD, although not as much as before. As long as the OS is on the HDD, it will write to the HDD. I know that HDDs can handle much more than SSDs, but running the OS from RAM could be another way of lowering the computer’s energy cost. And let’s not forget the CO2. If some of us are going to run dedicated computers for longer periods of time, we need to set them up in such a way so that they run as efficiently as possible. It’s a onetime task. |
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Cmdrd
Advanced Cruncher Canada Joined: Mar 29, 2013 Post Count: 92 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I have a couple of servers that run Debian Linux. These servers don't have a graphics card installed and are generally managed remotely using SSH. For managing BOINC, I turn to eFMer's BoincTasks. Allows you to manage a bunch of systems with BOINC installed from one interface.
----------------------------------------What you could do, instead of running an OS from RAM is to buy a couple of USB drives and install Linux directly on those. You could then create a RAM disk on your servers to emulate a drive and use that for your BOINC projects storage. The only thing to ensure with running an OS or anything completely or mostly in RAM, you're going to want a UPS in the event of power outages or even brief surges in power. CEP2 is a beast in terms of read/writes, so using an SSD is probably not recommended, as you've pointed out. At the same time, there are people reporting that running on an SSD improves turnaround times. So RAM is definitely the way to go here. And for that, a RAM disk would be the way to go.  AMD Ryzen R7 1700 (8 cores/16 threads)@3.85 GHz, 32 GB RAM 7x Dual Intel Xeon E5-2640 (2 x 6 cores/12 threads)@2.5 GHz, 256 GB RAM |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7846 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I run several servers using Linux and have installed Teamviewer on several so I have not run into the limit of two. It works well on a wired network, but my wireless is shaky anyway so I have had less luck there although it does work.
----------------------------------------I also have Linux running on a USB stick - No HD- and it works. I have run almost a 1000 MCM1 units through it and it is still working. It is a good idea if you do this to also have a UPS to deal with power fluctuations. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Both of you, and many others, recommend USB memories, but I view them merely as a slow version of SSD.
I’ve tried BOINC on RAM-disk with Windows on a HDD, but it continued to write to the HDD. I believe the entire OS must be on RAM, without any means of storage in the computer apart from the RAM, to avoid the constant I/O traffic, but I’ve never done this before. I will try, but first I have to decide which small Linux is best on a dual processor motherboard. Has anyone done this before on a dual CPU motherboard? Maybe small distributions like Puppy Linux can’t handle dual processors? If that’s not possible, then is it possible to load a standard distribution, like Ubuntu, from a DVD onto RAM and then remove the DVD from the drive? @Cmdrd Do you know who has written eFMer's BoincTasks? It could be an alternative as long as both the client and the servers remain behind the router firewall, but over the internet I would have to encrypt. SSH seems to be command-line and that’s too complicated for me. @ Sgt.Joe According to Wikipedia only the free version has a 2 computer limit. How old is your free version? Maybe they only have a limit on new releases. Have you removed the graphic cards in the servers that are run with Teamviewer from client side? Is it possible to run servers with Teamviewer and have no graphics on server-side (no graphic in CPU, motherboard or discrete graphic card)? My server-side goal, if possible, is to remove mouse, keyboard, graphic card and all means of storage, apart from RAM. |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7846 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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According to Wikipedia only the free version has a 2 computer limit. How old is your free version? Maybe they only have a limit on new releases. I have Teamviewer Version 9.0.32494. Installed Sept 12, 2014. The full version is free for non-commercial use. Only one of my servers came with a video card, the others all are using on board video. I make use of 2 KVM switches with 5 servers on one and 3 desktops in another location on the other one. I have experimented with running them completely remotely, but this was not a particularly good solution for me, so I am sticking with the KVM setups. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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Cmdrd
Advanced Cruncher Canada Joined: Mar 29, 2013 Post Count: 92 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Both of you, and many others, recommend USB memories, but I view them merely as a slow version of SSD. Iâve tried BOINC on RAM-disk with Windows on a HDD, but it continued to write to the HDD. I believe the entire OS must be on RAM, without any means of storage in the computer apart from the RAM, to avoid the constant I/O traffic, but Iâve never done this before. I will try, but first I have to decide which small Linux is best on a dual processor motherboard. Has anyone done this before on a dual CPU motherboard? Maybe small distributions like Puppy Linux canât handle dual processors? If thatâs not possible, then is it possible to load a standard distribution, like Ubuntu, from a DVD onto RAM and then remove the DVD from the drive? @Cmdrd Do you know who has written eFMer's BoincTasks? It could be an alternative as long as both the client and the servers remain behind the router firewall, but over the internet I would have to encrypt. SSH seems to be command-line and thatâs too complicated for me. Alright, I'll get through this one point at a time. :P The reason I suggest a USB is purely from the fact that I can pick one up for a third or lower the price of an SSD. Pretty cheap and affordable if you want a quick solution. A DVD would be too slow and you wouldn't be able to have persistence, the OS bring able to save any data to the disk. In terms of the RAM disk, when you installed BOINC, did you change the location of the data directory? That's where the work units are stored, if I'm not mistaken. If you did change that location to the RAM disk, that would be an issue. A distribution like Puppy probably wouldn't be able to handle dual processors as they more likely compiled the kernel without the SMP flags, meaning that it won't support dual processors. If you have some experience, you could compile a new kernel yourself, but later on you mentioned the command line being too complicated, probably not something I would recommend doing then. Not sure about being able to able to load up the OS into RAM and pull the disc, never tried that before to be honest. Using Bointasks locally is all I use it for. I don't have any systems that I would be connecting to over the Internet. But in order to manage remote systems with Bt, you'd have to probably have a VPN set up. But, again, that's a bit of work and may be mixed results. I think that was everything. AMD Ryzen R7 1700 (8 cores/16 threads)@3.85 GHz, 32 GB RAM 7x Dual Intel Xeon E5-2640 (2 x 6 cores/12 threads)@2.5 GHz, 256 GB RAM |
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