Crunching on a VServer?
23 Sep 2006 9:19:13 UTC
Topic 191862
(moderation:
Hi guys,
I have a VServer (short for virtual server, so, a number of customer servers on one physical root) on which IRC and teamspeak servers are running, which means that it is kinda "full" in terms of memory load and bandwith but the CPU hardly gets more than 5% load. Now I'm wondering if I could run BOINC on it. The OS is Debian Linux, so there would be no problem with the client (there is a command-line based version of the BOINC client, I believe) and I know more than one person who uses BOINC on a server.
The thing I'm not sure about is how best to ensure that BOINC doesn't take too much CPU. The thing with VServers is that if you need more than your minimal power, you get an additional amount which is of course lacking for the other VServers on the same root at that moment. So, to act socially and not get trouble with my hoster I would have to make sure that BOINC only uses the minimal amount of CPU, that is, not more than I get as my share anyway even when the server is idle.
I would be really grateful about suggestions or maybe people sharing their experiences. Hope I explained this okay in English. Thanks in advance
Annika
Crunching on a VServer?
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Hello Annika,
First, there is also a gui for debian (actually for linux in general). On the debian site there is more info on installing a client using for example apt-get. Might easen things a bit up when you're still learning the command line way.
Boinc throttles down when other processes require more CPU. You can change that behavior by changing the process priority by using the command renice (see here for an example).
I ran also into a script limiting the amount of CPU boinc is allowed to use. That way you should be able to set an upper limit on the percentage CPU that Boinc is allowed to use. But I don't know if it's a working script. But you can try it, it's called CPU Limiter. There is no further explanation, and this site is Dutch. But there are probably more scripts like this one.
HTH,
Bert
EDIT: you can also download the source from the Boinc homepage. Download the linux version and run "sh boincBLABLA.sh" in the download folder. This is the latest version, but you will have to update it yourself. Debian is capable of letting you know that a newer version is available. But it's never the latest version you can download yourself...
Somnio ergo sum
Hi Bert, thanks a lot for
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Hi Bert, thanks a lot for your advice.
The GUI client won't be of much use for me since I don't have a GUI on my server ^^ but I get along with command line allright.
I will have a look at the CPU limiter script and see if it looks useful- finally a sensible use for my bit of Dutch ;-)
By the way, I did know that BOINC runs at a very low process priority; it has never caused problems for me on my home PCs even if I had it running in the background during very demanding games or apps. I'm just not sure if this low priority would be enough to trigger the allocation of more CPU resources to my VServer. So, I guess I'd rather be safe and use the CPU limiter script or sth similar.
RE: Hi Bert, thanks a lot
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'GUI' in this case isn't KDE or GNOME, but X. So if a X-server is running on your Debian, you can use the GUI via Putty.
I use Boincstudio to controle and also throtle BOINC-projects. Have loot at it, I like it very much.
I am Homer of Borg. Prepare to be ...ooooh donuts!
No, just plain command
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No, just plain command line... but I like it that way, it's the thing I know best since I made practically all of my Linux experiences with command line. But as I said, installing the BOINC client is not the thing I'm worried about ;-)
Thanks a lot for your tipp concerning BOINC studio, I'm going to check that one out and see if it's suitable to run on my server ;-)